William Selig

The photograph series of the William Selig papers, which pertains to the Selig Polyscope Company, spans the years 1904–1921 and encompasses 6 linear feet. The series consists of vintage black-and-white prints, copy negatives, frame enlargements, and frame enlargement negatives. The material is grouped into motion picture production photographs, biography photographs, and subject photographs.

The motion picture production photographs span the years 1904–1921 and consist of frame enlargements, scenes, off-camera, publicity, location, and research photographs from approximately 525 short and feature-length film titles. (The exact number of productions represented is not known because there are undocumented titles and unidentified photographs included in the collection.) The material is arranged alphabetically by film title. Titles include episodes of the serial The Adventures of Kathlyn (1913–1914), Damon and Pythias (1908), Heart of a Race Tout (1909), claimed to be the first film made completely in Los Angeles, and The Spoilers (1914).

The biography photographs span the 1910s and consist primarily of portraits. The material is arranged alphabetically by name. Persons depicted include Francis Boggs, Hobart Bosworth, Herbert Rawlinson, William T. Santschi (a.k.a. Tom Santschi), William N. Selig, and Kathlyn Williams.

The subject photographs span primarily the 1910s and are arranged alphabetically by subject. The majority of these are of the Selig Zoo, Selig’s Chicago studio, and Selig’s Los Angeles studio.

Gift of William N. Selig, 1947. Gift of Charles G. Clarke, 1946–1947,1969–1979. Gift of Bryce Mack, 1983.