Prelinger Archives
Thousands of American industrial, educational and advertising films, all public domain and all quietly extraordinary.
Opens in a new tab. We do not control this site and it may have changed since we catalogued it.
How to get the most from it
Prelinger Archives sits in Lost Media under Retro, filed as rabbit hole.
- Open it when the evening is free. It has no natural stopping point.
- It works on a phone or a desktop, so open it on whatever is nearest.
- Turn the sound up or put headphones on — it needs audio.
- No account needed — you can start without signing up.
- Go in expecting something nostalgic and weird.
About this category: Lost media wikis, obsolete format museums and archives of things that were never meant to outlive their broadcast.
Good for
- A long evening with nothing planned
- A trip back to the older internet
- Seeing the internet at its least explicable
- Killing time on your phone
- Trying it with zero commitment
Prelinger Archives: quick answers
Is Prelinger Archives free?
Yes. Prelinger Archives is free to use and needs no account.
Do I need an account to use Prelinger Archives?
No. You can use Prelinger Archives without signing up for anything.
Does Prelinger Archives work on a phone?
Yes. Prelinger Archives works on phones as well as desktop browsers.
Is Prelinger Archives safe for work?
Yes, we file it as safe for work. It does need sound, so bring headphones.
How long does Prelinger Archives take?
We file it as "Rabbit hole": Clear your evening. We warned you.
More in Lost Media
All 12 in Lost MediaA catalogue of films, broadcasts and recordings that are known to have existed and cannot now be found. Some entries get solved.
- 1 hr+
Searchable captions across millions of hours of broadcast news, which makes it possible to find the exact moment something was said.
- 1 hr+
- Sound on
Well over a hundred thousand scanned advertisements sorted by decade and subject. A very direct record of what people were told to want.
- 1 hr+
Decades of adverts preserved exactly as broadcast, including the jingles you will regret having remembered.
- 10 min
- Sound on
Same mood: nostalgic
All nostalgic sitesSeventy thousand public domain books, plain and free, from the oldest digital library on the internet.
- 10 min
Pick a country and a decade on a world map and hear what people there were actually listening to, curated by humans since 1900.
- 2 min
- Sound on
Pixel American football hiding a full franchise manager behind six-second passing plays. Has ruined more workdays than it should have.
- 10 min
Eight and sixteen-bit console libraries running in the browser, organised by system, with save states that actually work.
- 10 min
- Sound on
- Desktop
Keep exploring
Category
Time and mood
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