Abstract
Since before the turn of the century film has been used in all areas of medicine as a tool for research, record, teaching and propaganda. For the past 30 years videotape has been used in the same way. Pockets of this production have survived in archives and collections and are consequently documented and cared for. It is likely that the bulk of the surviving material is lying in long forgotten corners and cupboards. Much of it may have gathered, since its production, a historical interest or significance never originally conceived and not fully realized even now. Historians of medicine, medical science and public health are increasingly turning to film for evidence and recognizing the patchy survival of medical films in archives.