Video Details      

Spirit of '76

Dramatic recreation of the ca. 1875 painting "The spirit of '76" by Archibald M. Willard. Film opens on a stage with a painted backdrop of a battlefield and stage props of dirt, stones, and a broken wagon wheel. From stage left marches a trio of Revolutionary soldiers in a fife and drum corps. As in the painting, the center drummer is a tall, older, white-haired man in a white shirt and dark vest. On his left, the other drummer is a young boy dressed in a uniform with a tricorner hat and boots to the knee. On the right marches a dark-haired fife player with a bandaged head, dressed in an unbuttoned uniform. When they reach center stage, the three march in place and play a tune as smoke from the battlefield drifts behind them. The soldiers then turn around, march towards the backdrop, and off stage right. A flash of smoke on stage simulates canon fire, after which the drummers and fife player march back onstage, still playing. After they have performed briefly, a man in a uniform and tricorner hat enters behind them, waving a large American flag. The corps continues to march in place and play as the flag waves.                                               
Download:
 

Video Information
Year: 1904
Genre: Historical
Keywords: Willard; Archibald M; ;--1836-1918; --"The spirit of '76"--Drama; United States--History--Revolution; 1775-1783--Battlefields--Drama; Fife and drum corps--United States--Drama; Revolutionaries--United States--Drama; Patriotism--United States--Drama; Tableaux; Silent films; Historical re-creations; Vaudeville; Shorts;
Duration: 00:00:57
Color: No
Sound: No
Amount of Motion: Medium
Language: English
Sponsor: Thomas Edison
Contributing Organization: Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division
Transcript Available: No

Digitization Information
Digitization Date:
Digitizing Organization: Library of Congress

Search for video box
Box bottom
Related Videos box
Box bottom

The Open Video Project is managed at the Interaction Design Laboratory,
at the School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill