MEP is pursuing new research opportunities regarding two considerable collections of historic international WWI films at The National Archives (NARA).
The collection of footage produced by the U.S. Signal Corps represents the first major motion picture endeavors by the U.S. military. Inaugurated during preparations to enter WWI, productions continued until the mid-1930s (1914-1936). This collection was is augmented by substantial provenance metadata, often very precise and consistently formatted, which makes it a potential resource for additional regimens of new digital humanities study regarding both footage and metadata, re-conceived as data sets for what is referred to as analysis at scale. Prof Williams has been working with Dr. Bret Vukoder (Carnegie Mellon University) to develop this pilot.