James R | On 27, Jul 2015

Over 1 million minutes of archive newsreel footage are being added to YouTube. The Associated Press and British Movietone, one of the world’s most comprehensive newsreel archives, is being digitised and uploaded to the site in what is the largest ever upload of historical news content on YouTube.

The two channels belonging to each organisation will act as what the AP is dubbing a “view-on-demand visual encyclopedia”, offering a unique perspective on the most significant moments of modern history.

The YouTube channels will include more than 550,000 video stories dating from 1895 to the present day. Videos include such events as the San Francisco earthquake in 1906, exclusive footage of the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, Marilyn Monroe captured on film in London in the 1950s and Twiggy modeling the fashions of the 1960s.

“The AP archive footage, combined with the British Movietone collection, creates an incredible visual journey of the people and events that have shaped our history,” says Alwyn Lindsey, AP’s director of international archive.

“At AP we are always astonished at the sheer breadth of footage that we have access to, and the upload to YouTube means that, for the first time, the public can enjoy some of the oldest and most remarkable moments in history.”

Stephen Nuttall, the director of YouTube in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, comments: “Making this content available on YouTube is a wonderful initiative from AP and British Movietone that will breathe new life into their footage and no doubt delight our global community – from students researching history projects to curious culture-vultures and the billions in between. It’s an historical treasure trove that will give YouTube users around the world a moving window into the past and I can’t wait to explore it.”

Content on the channels will also include videos from different regions across the UK, fashion through the ages, sporting coups, entertainment, extreme weather, technological innovations, the evolution of eating and drinking habits, political milestones and historical moments. They will be continually refreshed with up-to-date contemporary footage.

The news archive follows a similar project by the BFI, which unveiled its own collection of digitised historical footage from across the UK for free on BFI Player.

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