Cleveland Ohio-1938: Grey Tugboat on River with Clock Tower

$149 · Editorial onlyDirect license: editorial use only. $149 flat from Stockfilm for documentary, news and educational use, plus internal and organic social use. Not permitted in advertising, sponsored or branded content, broadcast promotion or any paid commercial placement.

Year1938
Decade1930s
LocationCleveland, Ohio, United States
Duration5s
Price$149 USD
Collection1939 Cleveland Ohio

$149 · Editorial onlyDirect license: editorial use only

$149 USD flat · royalty-free worldwide · 4K restored master (MP4)

Before you add to cart: Editorial use only: documentary, news, educational, internal and organic social use. Not permitted in advertising, sponsored or branded content, broadcast promotion or any paid commercial placement. Checkout will only offer editorial, educational, internal and social/web scopes.

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Stockfilm licenses the rights identified in the applicable agreement. Additional use-specific review may be required. See the Licensing Guide and Archive Integrity.

Grey Tugboat on River with Clock Tower — Clip Details

Shot on 8mm film in 1938, this vintage home movie captures a grey tugboat moving slowly along a river in Cleveland, Ohio. The black-and-white footage shows the vessel emitting smoke from its stack as it navigates past a waterfront with a tall clock tower visible in the background. A leafy tree frames the right side of the view, while a railing in the foreground suggests the clip was filmed from a dock or pier. The grainy texture and soft focus are characteristic of 8mm home movie footage from the era, evoking a nostalgic, documentary-style glimpse into mid-20th century urban life.

Licensing & Technical Details

Original Format: 8mm / Super 8 Home Movie
Shot details: ExteriorBlack & white
Resolution: 4K restored master (MP4)
License: Direct license: editorial use only Editorial use only: documentary, news, educational, internal and organic social use. Not permitted in advertising, sponsored or branded content, broadcast promotion or any paid commercial placement.
Delivery: Instant Digital Download
Duration: 5s
Price: $149 USD
Clip ID: 125780370

Rights & Clearance

$149 · Editorial only Direct license: editorial use only. Editorial use only: documentary, news, educational, internal and organic social use. Not permitted in advertising, sponsored or branded content, broadcast promotion or any paid commercial placement.

No recognizable people, logos, or music are flagged. Editorial use only; commercial use is not offered for this clip.

People visible: No
Logos / trademarks: No
Audible music: No

Flags come from automated catalog metadata, not a legal opinion. The source is an original 8mm / Super 8 Home Movie reel. For high-stakes commercial use, request a full rights review.

Source & Documentation

Source reel: Reel 1001 · 8mm · 5″ reel
Reel-level year note: 1937-1938-1939
Reel-level location note: Cleveland
Date: 1938 Estimated (Catalog estimate from the footage and file metadata; not independently confirmed.)
Date evidence: Catalog estimate. A reel-level note shows the same year, but the clip-to-reel link is itself a catalog match, so this is not counted as independent confirmation.
Location: Cleveland, Ohio, United States Estimated (Catalog estimate from the footage and file metadata; not independently confirmed.)
Location evidence: Catalog estimate. A reel-level location note is linked, but the clip-to-reel link is itself a catalog match, so this is not counted as independent confirmation.
Licensing route: Direct license available from Stockfilm

Confidence labels are defined on Archive Integrity. Fields without a recorded value are shown as not recorded rather than assumed.

View source reel context Open Clip Documentation Record Request source information

Topics & Keywords

Archive Intelligence

Archive brief fit: 1930s Cleveland waterfront footage suited for documentary inserts on urban rivers, industrial waterways, harbor work, or Depression-era city atmosphere.
Period detail: The tugboat, smoke stack, riverfront railing, and distant tower support a late-1930s urban waterfront setting, with the exact structures left for researcher verification.
Home-movie behavior: The clip has a visitor-shot dockside perspective, observing a working tugboat pass through the frame without staged action or direct interaction.
What appears in frame: Visible elements include a small tugboat, smokestack exhaust, river water, foreground railing, leafy branches, a curved dockside form, and a distant tower.
Film character: The 8mm black-and-white scan shows soft focus, visible grain, mild exposure haze, and contact-sheet frame edges that add physical-film archival texture.
Edit role: An editor could use this as a short establishing cutaway, transition, or memory beat for Cleveland, river transport, harbor work, or 1930s urban life.
Historical context: The scene documents a working waterfront view where water transport, smoke, railings, and city architecture share the frame in everyday home-movie observation.
Research note: No people, faces, logos, or audible music are indicated, but copyright status, location identification, and any property concerns should be reviewed before use.
Research search match: Useful search matches include 1938 Cleveland 8mm tugboat footage, 1930s Ohio riverfront home movie, and black-and-white urban harbor cutaway.
Archive pairing path: Pair first with adjacent shots from the same reel, then other Cleveland 1938 waterfront material, then broader 1930s tugboat, river, and industrial city scenes.

Still Frames From This Clip

1938 Cleveland waterfront view with a tugboat moving across the river, smoke from its stack, railing in front, trees at right, and a tower in the distance. — A tugboat passes along the Cleveland waterfront with smoke visible from its stack.

The tugboat continues along the Cleveland riverfront in 1938, framed by a railing below, tree canopy above right, and a faint tower in the background. — The tugboat moves through the middle of the frame under overhanging branches.

The Cleveland tugboat has moved toward the left edge, leaving more open river and dockside railing visible beneath a hazy 1938 waterfront background. — The tugboat begins to pass out of view along the riverfront.

At the end of the 1938 Cleveland view, the tugboat is mostly off left while the river, railing, tree canopy, and distant tower remain visible. — The vessel exits the frame, leaving the riverfront and distant tower in view.

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