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  • Let's Go to the Movies
  • Early Movies
  • Silent Era
  • Golden Age

The Movies

Silent Era

The National Museum of American History is known for cinematic treasures such as Dorothy's Ruby Slippers from The Wizard of Oz (1939), but it also holds a remarkable collection of silent film artifacts. Made from the 1890s to the late 1920s, silent films lacked synchronized sound; live music and shots of printed text conveyed emotion and dialogue. These selected artifacts offer a glimpse into the early days of cinema as a global art and entertainment form.


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Lon Chaney

Lon Chaney

Djaevlestenen

Lon Chaney

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

44c Cowboys of the Silver Screen: William S. Hart single

William Surrey Hart

Colleen Moore

Fritz Lang

The General/Buster Keaton 1926 [Pacific Film Archive Poster]

Velocipede used by Buster Keaton in the film Our Hospitality


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