This week we have added 149,524 pages to The Archive. We have updated seven of our existing titles, with updates to Lloyd’s List, late twentieth century pages from the Perthshire Advertiser, as well as further additions to the New Ross Standard and the Liverpool Echo.

We also have exciting updates this week to our special cinema publication, The Bioscope. This week’s updated pages cover the years 1911 to 1913, spanning the early days of commercial cinema.

Consequently, by delving into these newly added pages of The Bioscope, one is able to discover many cinematographic firsts. For instance, Italian film L’Inferno (1911), widely considered to be the world’s first horror film, is reviewed in The Bioscope. Screened at the Electric Pavilion on Clapham High Street, the reviewer appreciates manager Mr Gordon Porter’s decoration of the entrance with palms and ferns, making a trip to the cinema a real occasion. First gangster film, Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912), is also referenced in the pages of The Bioscope, as a ‘film of unusual interest.’

1912’s Cleopatra, starring Helen Gardner, is widely considered to be one of the first American feature films. The Bioscope’s review of the production unpicks the ideas of both historical realism and realism itself. It laments the ‘air of artificiality,’ especially regarding Cleopatra’s barge.

We should have liked to see Cleopatra’s famous barge floating on real water instead of being drawn across the stage by the obvious device of pulleys & rollers.

The Bioscope | 20 February 1913

Whilst The Bioscope criticizes some of the more mechanical aspects of the film, it seems happy to let slip historical inaccuracies. It reports how ‘the producers frankly admit that they have not considered it necessary to adhere strictly to historical accuracy,’ and instead how Helen Gardner’s performance is perhaps more effective, both dramatically and educationally, than any other medium.

There can be no doubt that Miss Gardner’s rendering of the part is infinitely more effective, for cinematographic purposes, than can be presented by a faithful reproduction from the records of the historian.

The Bioscope | 8 May 1913

UPDATED TITLES

This week we have updated one of our recently added titles.

You can learn more about each of the titles we add to every week by clicking on their names. On each paper’s title page, you can read a FREE sample issue, learn more about our current holdings, and our plans for digitisation.

Register now and explore the Archive

You can keep up to date with all the latest additions by visiting the recently added page.  You can even look ahead to see what we’re going to add tomorrow.