Reading Pennsylvania-1938: Hotel Berkshire Sign on Reading Street

$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
LocationReading, Pennsylvania, United States
Duration5s
Price$149 USD
Collection1938 Reading Pennsylvania

$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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Hotel Berkshire Sign on Reading Street — Clip Details

Shot on 8mm film in 1938, this vintage home movie captures a bustling street scene in Reading, Pennsylvania. The footage shows pedestrians walking along a sidewalk beside a row of classic automobiles parked near the Hotel Berkshire. A prominent white sign for the hotel is visible above the entrance, with people in period attire strolling by. The grainy black-and-white image, framed by the natural vignette of 8mm film, evokes a strong sense of mid-20th century Americana and daily life in a small city. The camera remains mostly stationary, offering a candid glimpse of a clear day in the late 1930s.

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: 127399475

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: Reading, Pennsylvania, 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: Useful for documentary or museum requests needing 1930s Reading, Pennsylvania street life with hotel signage, pedestrians, and parked automobiles in original 8mm home-movie footage.
Period detail: The clip shows late-1930s visual cues including long coats, hats, streamlined parked cars, sidewalk signage, and the visible Hotel Berkshire entrance sign.
Home-movie behavior: The value is an unstaged sidewalk view, with passersby moving through the frame while the camera observes from a casual street-level position.
What appears in frame: Visible elements include the Hotel Berkshire sign, stone building facade, sidewalk pedestrians, parked automobiles, a street pole, sandwich-board signs, trees, and curbside shadows.
Film character: The footage has a black-and-white 8mm look with soft focus, visible grain, rounded edge vignetting, exposure shifts, and slight handheld instability.
Edit role: An editor could use this as a brief establishing insert, urban transition, hotel exterior cutaway, or memory beat for Depression-era Pennsylvania city life.
Historical context: The scene documents everyday public space around a downtown hotel, showing how pedestrians, storefront architecture, and automobiles shared a compact city sidewalk.
Research note: People and hotel branding are visible, so users should review likeness, trademark, and location-context issues separately from any copyright assessment.
Research search match: Matches searches for 1938 Reading Pennsylvania street scene, Hotel Berkshire sign, 1930s sidewalk pedestrians, parked cars, and 8mm home movie city footage.
Archive pairing path: Pair first with other shots from the same reel, then with Reading or Pennsylvania material from 1938, then with 1930s hotel, street, sign, and automobile scenes.

Still Frames From This Clip

1938 Reading, Pennsylvania sidewalk view outside Hotel Berkshire, with pedestrians walking past parked cars beneath the visible hotel sign. — Pedestrians pass parked cars under the Hotel Berkshire sign in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Soft 8mm view of a Reading sidewalk near Hotel Berkshire, with parked automobiles, building steps, and a passerby near the right edge. — A blurred street-level view catches parked cars and sidewalk architecture near the hotel.

1938 Reading sidewalk scene near the Hotel Berkshire entrance, showing pedestrians beneath an awning beside a line of parked cars. — Pedestrians move along the shaded sidewalk beside parked automobiles.

People in period clothing walk past the Hotel Berkshire entrance in Reading, Pennsylvania, with parked cars lining the curb. — Several pedestrians pass the hotel entrance while cars remain parked along the sidewalk.

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