The Motion Picture Division: the State Bureaucracy that Controlled New York State’s Movie Screens for More Than Four Decades

As soon as films entered the entertainment market, many people became concerned with the content of motion pictures. Responding to pressure for regulation, the New York State Legislature passed a bill in 1921 establishing an independent commission to review and license films. During the State's 4 decades of censorship, over 73,000 motion pictures were reviewed. During that time, the consensus on media censorship in the United States slowly shifted from widespread approval for censorship to a growing regard for the filmmaker's artistic freedom. 

Professor Laura Wittern-Keller will be offering a presentation on the history of film censorship, drawing from her research with the Records of the NY State Censorship Board, part of the New York State Archives, and will be available to answer your questions. 

Wittern-Keller is a history professor who has taught at the University at Albany, Castleton State College in Vermont, and at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Her research has focused on the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech and film censorship. She has made use of the New York State Archives, in order to research her first two books, Freedom of the Screen: Legal Challenges to State Film Censorship, and The Miracle Case: Film Censorship and the Supreme Court (co-authored with Ray Haberski).