About the Project

From its beginning in spring of 2009, the University of South Carolina's course in Film and Media History (then FILM 300, after fall 2016 FAMS 300) included a research exercise asking students to use a relatively small number of primary sources of the sorts collected on this site to describe what changed about moviegoing in Columbia from 1904 to 1920. Primary sources clustered around 1904, 1910, and 1919 simply because Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps were available for those years. In the beginning, students worked with PDFs. Soon, however, digital resources became available online. Based on these sources students have found it easy to rediscover in Columbia a national and even global pattern discussed in class. In 1904, "moving pictures" had no permanent venue in Columbia, but rather were annexed to other types of entertainments. By 1910, Columbia residents could experience the Nickelodeon exhibition format--a continuously playing program of short films for which a single, low admission price was collected--although it is unclear when or whether any particular theater gave itself over to this format completely. By 1919, moviegoing had clearly become its own kind of activity, with numerous theaters showing films exclusively and promoting those films in ways that seem familiar to twenty-first century audiences. Changes in the length and types of films shown occurred in tandem with these changes in exhibition, as did changes to Columbia itself. The city grew dramatically.

If the general outline of change seems clear enough, students have found plenty of room to develop distinct interepretations of what it all meant. Some students have examined how moviegoing fit into patterns of daily life that included shopping, other leisure activities, and developing transportation networks. Some have looked for continuities and dfferences in the kinds of films that seem to have appealed to Columbia's audiences. Others have attended to patterns of racial segregtion dividing those audiences. Still others have been compelled by the business of exhibition, asking who managed it and how they went about it. These are but a few of the more common directions students have explored.

With the launch of the Columbia Screens site in fall 2015, Film and Media History students have a way to share their most interesting findings, accumulate additional resources, and launch new explorations. The research exercise asignment has shifted accordingly. Watch this space for future developments.