This collection features vintage educational films from a variety of sources. Films intended for educational purposes are an enormous, often neglected part of the twentieth century media landscape. Archived here are corporate and government sponsored films; classroom academic films instructing students in science and the humanities, and classroom guidance films on sex education, manners, and morality; military training films; medical films aimed at the public or at health practitioners; religious conversion films; and a host of others, too many to fully enumerate.

The majority of these films were produced for K-12 and college-aged students from the 1940s to the 1970s. They include films from significant collections and repositories on psychology (e.g. the Psychological Cinema Registry), science (Encyclopedia Cinematographica) and art They will be of interest to educations and researchers, but equally to filmmakers and artists or groups documenting local history.

Educational films were shown to audiences of all ages, though they were typically produced with a specific age group and instructional purpose in mind. Many were accompanied by study or discussion guides used to facilitate post-screening discussions. They were viewed in an array of contexts, most often in schools and universities, churches, libraries, museums, social clubs, and the military. Taken collectively, these materials played a key role in shaping the citizenry of a generation.