Inventing Entertainment
Inventing Entertainment: The Early Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies features 341 motion pictures, 81 disc sound recordings, and other related materials, such as photographs and original magazine articles.
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Rights & access
The works in this collection have been identified to be in the public domain and are free to use and reuse without restriction. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the works, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Attribution is recommended but not required.
Why is this free to use?
All recordings made by the companies of Thomas A. Edison between 1890 and 1929 are in the public domain because the assets of Edison Records were transferred to the National Park Service, a federal agency, in the 1950s.
Suggested credit line
Citizen DJ Project, Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division.
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'Till the boys come home
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12th Street rag
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A police court scene
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A visit to Reilly's
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Allah's holiday
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Are you from Dixie? ('cause I'm from Dixie, too)
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At the ball that's all
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Backyard conversation between Mrs. Reilly and Mrs. Finnegan
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Beautiful Ohio
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Caprice Espagnol
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Carnival of Venice--variations
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Carolina rolling stone
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Cohen on his honeymoon
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Crazy blues
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Die Witwe und ihre sieben Maenner
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Dinnie Donohue, on Prohibition
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Don't bite the hand that's feeding you
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Elegie
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Fun in a bakery shop
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Gasoline Gus and his jitney bus
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Give a man a horse he can ride
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Happy tho' married
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Hungarian rag
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I'm forever blowing bubbles
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I've been floating down the old green river
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In a monastery garden
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In my heart, on my mind all day long<Ïh[sound recording] ; I wonder if you still care for me
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In the little red school house
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Indiana
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Introduction and tarentelle
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Kashmiri song (Indian love lyrics)
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Kitten on the keys
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La mamma morta--Andrea Chénier
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La sonnambula. Ah! non credia mirarti
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Lorraine (My beautiful Alsace-Lorraine)
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Love, here is my heart
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Madelon (I'll be true to the whole regiment)
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Medley of Southern airs
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Mister Gallagher and Mister Shean
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My mother's rosary
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Myona-Hawaiian waltz
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Night time in Little Italy
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O patria mia Aïda
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Oi ya nestchastay (malo Russkaya piesnia)
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Old pal (Why don't you answer me?)
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Omar Rabbi Elozor
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Onward, Christian soldiers!
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Palace of Electricity
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Polka Warszawska "wiszniaczka" Warsaw polka
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Polski taniec
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Poor butterfly
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Prelude in C sharp minor op. 3
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Quand' ero paggio
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Santa Claus hides in your phonograph
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Save a little dram for me
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Second Hungarian rhapsodie, part I
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Spanish rhapsody
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Tancuj, tancuj
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That tumble-down shack in Athlone
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The U.S. Field Artillery march
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The aba daba honeymoon
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The band festival at Plum Center
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The bells of St. Mary's
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The church in the wildwood
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The enchanted drawing
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The preacher and the bear
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The raggedy man
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The shop girl
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The stars and stripes forever march
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The three bears
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The trumpet shall sound--Messiah
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The twenty-third Psalm
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There's a long, long trail
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True to the flag march
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Umbrellas to mend
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Uncle Josh buys an automobile
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Vesti la giubba I pagliacci
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When the roll is called up yonder
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