Transgender public identity and Christine Jorgensen press photo archive depicting the first widely publicized trans woman in American mass media, from staged publicity and television retrospectives to dramatized scenes from The Christine Jorgensen Story. Jorgensen became internationally known after the New York Daily News reported her transition on December 1.....
Welles, Orson. Citizen Kane (1940) became one of the most influential films in twentieth century cinema through its narrative structure, visual style, and critique of media power in American society. Welles wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the film, an unusual concentration of creative control for a first time feature.....
[LGBTQ] [Drag] [Film & Entertainment] Simon, Frank. The Queen. New York: Grove Press. 1968. The Queen is a raw portrayal of the life of drag queens partaking in competitive drag shows in New York during the 1960s. Archive of 8 silver gelatin photographs containing stills from the film. The documentary.....
Fellini, Federico (director). La Dolce Vita, 1960, examines postwar Italian society through the perspective of a journalist navigating Rome’s elite social world, offering a critique of celebrity culture, media, and moral dislocation during Italy’s economic boom. The film follows Marcello Mastroianni’s character across a sequence of episodic encounters that expose.....
Kramer, Stanley (director). The Defiant Ones, 1958, situates Sidney Poitier within a pivotal Civil Rights-era narrative that foregrounds interracial cooperation under coercive conditions, advancing one of the earliest Hollywood treatments of racial prejudice and mutual dependence between Black and white protagonists. The film follows two escaped prisoners, one Black and.....
United Artists Corporation. In the Heat of the Night and They Call Me Mister Tibbs promotional materials, 1967 and 1970, document a shift in American film toward central Black protagonists in roles of authority during the Civil Rights era. Sidney Poitier’s portrayal of Virgil Tibbs, a Black detective operating within.....
Columbia Pictures Corporation, To Sir, With Love, 1967, documents the emergence of Sidney Poitier as a central figure in global Black cinema and the articulation of race, authority, and education within a transatlantic context during the Civil Rights era. The film places a Black teacher in a working-class London classroom.....
Selznick Releasing Organization, The Third Man, 1949, documents a landmark work in film noir and postwar cinema, directed by Carol Reed and based on a story by Graham Greene. Set in occupied Vienna, the film follows an American writer investigating the apparent death of his associate, uncovering black market corruption.....
Universal International, To Kill a Mockingbird, 1962, documents a central work in Civil Rights-era American cinema addressing racial injustice within the legal system of the Jim Crow South. Based on the 1960 novel by Harper Lee, the film presents the defense of a Black man falsely accused of a crime.....
Columbia Pictures Corporation, To Sir, With Love, 1967, documents the international emergence of Sidney Poitier as a defining figure in African American film history, presenting a Black educator navigating race, class, and authority within a working-class London school. The film situates Poitier’s character within an interracial classroom, addressing discipline, respect.....
Jorgensen, Christine. The Christine Jorgensen Story, 1970, occupies a central position in the history of transgender visibility in American popular culture, documenting the transition of one of the first widely recognized trans women in the United States and her emergence as a public figure following gender-affirming surgery in the early.....
Lawrence of Arabia press release photo archive, 1962, recording the publicity and production record of Columbia Pictures’ large scale film adaptation of T. E. Lawrence’s wartime role in the Arab Revolt. Released in 1962 and directed by David Lean, the film became one of the defining historical epics of postwar.....
Miramax Films, Pulp Fiction, 1994, documents a defining work in late 20th-century American cinema that reshaped crime film through nonlinear narrative structure, stylized violence, and intertextual reference. Directed by Quentin Tarantino, the film interweaves multiple storylines involving criminal figures, contributing to the study of postmodern film, independent cinema, and the.....
United Artists Corporation. The Defiant Ones promotional materials, 1958, document a landmark moment in American film history in which a Black lead actor was positioned at the center of a major studio narrative addressing race and cooperation. Starring Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis, the film presents two escaped prisoners, one.....
Paramount Pictures, Once Upon a Time in the West, 1968, documents a pivotal work in the development of the revisionist Western, directed by Sergio Leone and featuring performances by Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson. The film reconfigured the conventions of the American Western through its emphasis on violence, moral ambiguity.....
Kubrick, Stanley. Lolita (1962) brought Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial novel into American cinema under the constraints of mid-century censorship, addressing themes of sexuality, obsession, and moral regulation within the framework of the Motion Picture Production Code. The film follows a middle-aged academic’s fixation on an adolescent girl, a subject widely considered.....
Varda, Agnès. Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962) established a central work in feminist cinema through its sustained focus on female subjectivity, embodiment, and the experience of time within urban modernity. Structured in near real-time, the film follows a young singer awaiting medical results, using this interval to examine how.....
Kurosawa, Akira. Yojimbo (1961) advanced postwar Japanese cinema through its reinterpretation of samurai narratives, presenting a lone rōnin navigating competing criminal factions within a provincial town. Produced during a period of expanding international visibility for Japanese film, the work centers on strategic manipulation and violence within fractured local power structures.....
Coppola, Francis Ford. The Godfather (1972) redefined American cinema through its portrayal of Italian American family structures, organized crime networks, and the consolidation of power across generations. Adapted from Mario Puzo’s novel, the film follows the Corleone family and situates criminal enterprise within domestic, cultural, and economic frameworks, contributing to.....
Fellini, Federico. 8½ (1963) advanced Italian art cinema through its direct treatment of creative paralysis, authorship, and the role of memory and fantasy in film production. Emerging within postwar European cinema, the film centers on a director figure navigating personal and professional impasse, drawing from autobiographical elements associated with Fellini’s.....
Cassavetes, John. Shadows (1959) introduced a foundational work of American independent cinema through its direct engagement with racial identity, interracial social dynamics, and urban life in Beat Generation-era New York. Centered on three Black siblings navigating differing social perceptions of race based on skin tone, the film departs from studio.....
Unidentified studio producers, Le secret du Chevalier d’Éon, 1959, documenting early cinematic representation of gender nonconformity through the historical figure of Chevalier d'Éon. The material reflects mid-twentieth-century European film culture engaging with complex questions of gender identity, offering insight into how transgender or gender-nonconforming narratives were interpreted and presented to.....
[Black Panthers][African American][Prison] Large original movie poster for Brothers (1977). Measuring 40" x 60". Brothers is based on the friendship between Angela Davis and prison inmate George Jackson. Political activist Angela Davis took up Jackson's cause and became romantically involved with him. The relationship resulted in a courtroom shootout that.....
Kubrick, Stanley. A Clockwork Orange (1971) examined state authority, behavioral conditioning, and youth violence within a near-future Britain shaped by social instability and cultural anxiety. Adapted from Anthony Burgess’s novel, the film follows a juvenile offender subjected to experimental psychological treatment, presenting explicit depictions of violence alongside institutional attempts at.....
[Film] Alain Delon in Le Samourai (aka The Godson in the US), directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. Archive of 7 original vintage lobby cards. Artists International, 1967 and 1972. All are about 8" x 11". Three are silver gelatin photogaphs in black and white, four are in color. Le Samourai is.....
