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Going to the Show: Lesson Plans

Exploring the early North Carolina moving picture theater experience in the early 1900s through the Bijou Theatre, Wilmington, North Carolina's first moving picture theater


Introduction  |   Day 1  |   Day 2  |   Day 3  |   Day 4  |   Final Project  |   Learn More


Learn More about early movies:

The Great Train Robbery - a tremendously popular and widely-shown early narrative film, made in 1903. Available via the Library of Congress American Memory project web site

The Little Train Robbery, made in 1905, was a parody on the Great Train Robbery which employed a cast of child actors. Available via the Library of Congress American Memory project web site

The American Memory Collection - Library of Congress Picture & Television Reading Room

Provides links to early motion pictures in:

Audio-Visual Conservation at the Library of Congress
The Library is home to more than 1.1 million film, television, and video items. With a collection ranging from motion pictures made in the 1890s to today's TV programs, the Library's holdings are an unparalleled record of American and international creativity in moving images.

Moving Images Collection website:

Field Trip
Visit the Audio-Visual Conservation Packard Campus theater, in Culpeper, Virginia, to view a film.

For additional background information on the Going to the Show digital collection:
Carolina Arts & Sciences, Fall 2008
http://college.unc.edu/magazine/pastissues/Fall-2008-medium.pdf
see pages 18-20: Going to The Show: Historian Chronicles N.C. movie-going through new digital archive, by Kim Weaver Spurr

For additional background information on Wilmington, North Carolina in the early 1900s and its business and government offices, you may consult the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce publications:

1902 Wilmington Chamber of Commerce "Up To Date":

1907 Wilmington Chamber of Commerce City Directory

1911/1912 Wilmington Chamber of Commerce City Directory

Related Pages:
The North Carolina mountains in the early 1900s through the writing and photography of Horace Kephart
In this lesson for grade 8, students will analyze photographs and writings of Horace Kephart to gain a better understanding of life in the North Carolina mountains in the early 1900s.

Alice P. Evitt oral history excerpt (cotton mills)
Provides context for wages for children working in the mills in the early 1900s Alice P. Evitt was born in 1898 and began working at the cotton mills near Charlotte, North Carolina in 1910 when she was 12 years old. She worked 12 hours a day, every day except Sunday, and earned 25 cents a day for her work.

Related Topics:
American history, North Carolina, North Carolina history, freewriting, history, photography analysis

Introduction  |   Day 1  |   Day 2  |   Day 3  |   Day 4  |   Final Project  |   Learn More