Best Documentary Movies of 1903

It's a very windy day, and the pedestrians passing by the Flatiron Building are having considerable difficulty in keeping their hats from flying off.

Film taken from a boat heading down the Hudson is shown at varying speeds, often giving a sense of rapid transit.

A beautiful panoramic view of lower New York from Barclay Street to Battery Park, showing a beautiful stereoscopic effect of the sky-scrapers in the business section of the city.

A gentleman is here shown partaking of a little lunch of bread and cheese, and occasionally is seen to glance at his morning paper through a reading glass. He suddenly notices that the cheese is a little out of the ordinary, and examines it with his glass. To his horror, he finds it to be alive with mites, and, in disgust, leaves the table. Hundreds of mites resembling crabs are seen scurrying in all directions. A wonderful picture and a subject hitherto unthought of in animated photography. Notable for being the first science film made for the general public.(IMDB)

Seeing New York by Yacht.

In certain sections of New York City large numbers of Jewish and Italian push-cart vendors congregate so closely along the sidewalks that they interfere with traffic. Policemen keep them moving. The picture shows how the frightened peddlers hurry away when a bluecoat appears. Some of the carts are piled high with fruits of all kinds, and it is interesting and amusing to see the expressions of combined fear and anxiety on the faces of the men as they hurry away; the fear of being arrested if they stand, and of losing some of their wares if the carts strike an obstruction in the street. Very fine photographically. (Edison film company catalog)

Special effects film with a train double exposed on the negative, creating a ghostly image.

Panoramic view of the Forbidden City (Imperial Palace), Peking, China.

This picture gives a good idea of how soon one of the New York fireboats can be gotten under way after they receive an alarm of fire...

This is a film taken of the execution of Topsy, an elephant employed to help build Luna Park on Coney Island.

Filmmaker WKL Dickson, one-time right hand man to Thomas Edison, the 'Wizard of Menlo Park', here captures an even greater eminence, Pope Leo XIII. This was one of a series of films that exploited Dickson's unique, hard-won access to the Pontiff. Here the Pope arrives in a carriage and bestows a blessing. Whether this blessing was intended for the camera or for the audience beyond it, capturing it on film was a great prize for Dickson.

A number of boys are engaged in a tub race. They are lined up in a row, and the fun begins from the start. Some of the tubs upset and give the boys a good ducking each time an attempt is made to get in them.

Kathryn Osterman was a legitimate actress who worked occasionally in the movies during the first decade and a half of the 20th century. This looks like a Mutoscope cut-down of an actuality released in 1900, "The Art of "Making Up"". In it, we see her from the rear, sitting in front of a dressing mirror, putting up her hair and powdering her face.

A very interesting and unusual view showing the progress of the deep excavation at 42nd St. and Broadway. The camera is tilted up and down instead of across the field as in most panoramas.

London street scenes, showing varieties of horse-drawn traffic. Views of Parliament Square, Charing Cross, Pall Mall, the Royal Exchange and others.

The USS Indiana stages a rescue operation of a crewman that's fallen overboard.

This film was part of a lecture series conducted by Burton Holmes showing a mix of lantern slides and motion pictures of Yosemite entitled, “The Yosemite Valley, Nature’s Scenic Masterpiece.” It was just one tiny piece of a long lecture that illustrated the journey to Yosemite and a visit to all of its wonders.

Here, on Grand Trunk's main line between Canada and the US, one of Biograph's early production crews rode the pilot of a locomotive from Sarnia, Ontario to Port Huron, MI. The film features a view of the illuminated interior of Sarnia's St. Clair Tunnel and a lap dissolve which fades into the exit of the tunnel-- An impressive technique still in its infancy.

Male letter carriers of the U.S. Post Office are the subject of this series on the Postal Department. The camera was placed to show a large number of uniformed mail carriers as they leave the main post office to deliver letters. They can be seen walking down the steps of the building toward the camera position. Some mount bicycles and ride away, while others just walk. There are also some women in the film.

Boys play a rough game of leap frog.

Showing the entire catastrophe resulting from the attempt of Mr. Gorham to ride around the loop the loop on a bicycle. While the enormous crowd watches him he comes down the slide with the speed of the wind, circles the loop, but as he nears the bottom his wheel swerves from the path and the rider crashes into the framework of the structure. Attendants rush up and carry away the injured man. (Biograph Catalog)