Cumberland Maryland-1938: Farmer Operates Caterpillar Tractor Moving Dirt

$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
LocationCumberland, Maryland, United States
Duration6s
Price$149 USD
Collection1938 Cumberland Maryland

$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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Farmer Operates Caterpillar Tractor Moving Dirt — Clip Details

A vintage 8mm home movie from 1938 captures an old farmer operating a Caterpillar diesel tractor at a construction site in Cumberland, Maryland. The black-and-white footage shows the tracked vehicle pushing dirt and debris, with tree roots and disturbed earth visible in the foreground. The operator, wearing period-appropriate work clothes, maneuvers the machine through a wooded area, likely preparing land for development. The grainy, high-contrast image and film edge artifacts confirm its origin as an archival Super 8 home movie, offering a rare glimpse into mid-20th century rural labor and early construction practices.

Licensing & Technical Details

Original Format: 8mm / Super 8 Home Movie
Shot details: Black & 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: 6s
Price: $149 USD
Clip ID: 127265839

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.

Editorial use only; commercial use is not offered for this clip. Review the flags below for your editorial context.

People visible: Yes
Minors visible: No
Logos / trademarks: Yes
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 record not linked for this clip
Date: 1938 Estimated (Catalog estimate from the footage and file metadata; not independently confirmed.)
Date evidence: Catalog estimate based on source metadata and visual or technical evidence; no reel-level note is linked.
Location: Cumberland, Maryland, United States Estimated (Catalog estimate from the footage and file metadata; not independently confirmed.)
Location evidence: Catalog estimate based on source metadata and visual evidence such as signage, landmarks, or terrain; no reel-level note is linked.
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.

Open Clip Documentation Record Request source information

Topics & Keywords

Archive Intelligence

Archive brief fit: 1930s archival footage for productions needing rural labor, small construction, or tracked tractor work in Cumberland, Maryland.
Period detail: The clip shows a black-and-white 8mm view of an open-cab tracked tractor, work clothes, disturbed earth, roots, and wooded surroundings consistent with late-1930s home-movie documentation.
Home-movie behavior: The camera observes practical work from a nearby ground-level position, giving the action an unstaged home-movie view of a man operating machinery.
What appears in frame: Visible elements include a tracked tractor, seated operator, blade or front implement, dirt mound, exposed roots, wooded background, and rough construction ground.
Film character: The footage has pronounced 8mm grain, high contrast, soft focus, gate edges, and slight frame instability that mark it as physical home-movie film.
Edit role: Editors could use it as a brief insert, labor cutaway, transition, or visual memory beat for land clearing and prewar rural mechanization.
Historical context: The scene documents mechanized earthmoving in a wooded rural setting without proving the purpose of the site or any larger development project.
Research note: A person and possible tractor branding are visible, so copyright, likeness, and trademark or property context should be reviewed separately before use.
Research search match: Useful for searches such as 1930s 8mm tractor footage, Cumberland Maryland home movie, farmer operating tracked tractor, and black-and-white dirt moving scene.
Archive pairing path: Pair first with the same reel, then other Cumberland or 1938 material, then related rural labor, construction, tractor, and land-clearing footage.

Still Frames From This Clip

1938 Cumberland, Maryland 8mm frame showing a tracked tractor at a dirt mound with roots and rough ground nearby. — Tracked tractor works against a dirt mound in a wooded construction area.

The tractor appears behind churned soil and roots, with its front implement crossing the frame in black-and-white 8mm footage. — Earth and roots obscure part of the tracked tractor as it moves through the work site.

A close view shows the tractor's front implement near loose soil, with the tracked body cropped at the right edge. — The tractor's blade or front implement passes beside loose earth and roots.

A man operates the tracked tractor in a wooded Cumberland work area, with the machine's tracks, front implement, and churned earth visible. — Operator seated on the tracked tractor as it moves across disturbed ground.

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