Press Release: 27 April 2006
Imagine being able to watch Darwin, Shakespeare, or Michelangelo on the web, talking in detail about their life and work, their collaborations and struggles. Peoples Archive makes it possible to do so for the existing generation of great people, who are leaders of their field, preserving their life stories for present and future generations.
In order to share the wealth of its content with as wide an audience as possible, Peoples Archive is launching Free Access to its website, providing everyone who is interested [whether amateurs or professionals, pupils, students or teachers] with complete access to the video archive celebrating the life and work of some of the world?s greatest thinkers, creators and achievers.
Following its launch in May 2004, the Archive has been growing steadily and currently contains 28 life stories, totalling about 200 hours of video divided into 3607 segments. The Archive is grouped into five sections: Science, Film, Literature, Masters and Medicine. Each life story is now freely accessible to everyone.
The life stories are accompanied by word accurate transcripts and additional resources, including: complete bibliographies or filmographies, external links to relevant websites, illustrations as well as internal links to other stories within the Archive relating to similar themes.
Subscriptions, providing a premium service and access to higher quality video and audio formats, are also available. Life stories can be purchased on DVD-ROMs. Downloads for iPods and other mobile devices will soon be offered on the Peoples Archive site, through the Google Video store and other sources.
Among the many life stories presented on the Archive are those of 16 scientists including the biologist, Francis Crick, and the physicist, Freeman Dyson. The Film section currently has 7 filmmakers and cinematographers, including the filmmaker, Andrzej Wajda, and the documentary maker, Albert Maysles. The Literature section includes 3 of the greatest living American poets, among them Donald Hall. The Archive also presents the life stories of the British medical doctor Harold Lambert and of the great watchmaker George Daniels.
Coming soon to the Archive are the biochemist, Christian de Duve, the computer scientist, Donald Knuth, the sculptor, Sir Anthony Caro, the theatre director Sir Peter Hall and many others.
For further information please contact:
Geraldine Belloir, Marketing Assistant (tel +44(0)20 7631 9922)