Inside an American Factory: Films of the Westinghouse Works, 1904, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/papr/west/westhome.html. Created and maintained by the Library of Congress National Digital Library Program, Washington, D.C. Reviewed Aug. 24, 2007

Abstract

This collection of twenty-one films of the Westinghouse Works, shot in 1904, provides a fascinating glimpse into factory work and new technology at the turn of the century. Archivists believe that the films were created to celebrate the role of the Westinghouse Company in delivering electricity, and thereby progress and modern living, to America. The films were shown daily to packed houses at the Westinghouse Auditorium at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair (the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition), where American industrial progress was a major theme of many exhibits. Audiences would have marveled at the moving images (it would be several years before commercial movie theaters became commonplace) and also at the production of the generators, turbines, and motors that made electrical power possible. The films should be of interest to scholars of industrialization as well as scholars of film technology. Although the films were part of an early attempt at...