Rare Footage Inside The Met During the 1920s

Sumptuously shot in richly contrasting black and white, this lyrical series of vignettes provides a window into the hidden workings of the Museum. Employees punch time clocks; janitors dust the galleries; conservators handle textiles and armor; curators puzzle over fragments of ancient statuary. It begins and ends with footage of workers entering and leaving the Museum, a moving homage to the first film ever made, Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (1895).