About This Collection
The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction was established under the Constitution of 1874. It replaced the Office of Superintendent of Common Schools, which had been created in 1857 to assume the duties relating to the administration of public schools originally lodged with the Secretary of the Commonwealth by the Free School Act of 1834. By 1876, the officials working under the Superintendent were commonly known as the Department of Public Instruction. The powers and duties of this Department were greatly increased in 1923 when the State Library and Museum, the State Board of Censors, the Public School Employees' Retirement Board, the Pennsylvania Historical Commission, and the various State professional examining boards were made administrative units of Public Instruction. In keeping with its responsibility for administering the State's educational policies, the Department of Public Instruction supervised the public school system, distributed State subsidies to school districts, administered teachers' colleges and vocational-education programs, issued licenses for certain professions, and operated the State Library. Several administrative units were eventually separated from the Department. In 1945 the Historical Commission, the Museum and the State Archives were merged to form an independent agency, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. The State Board of Censors was abolished in 1956 when the act creating it was declared unconstitutional by the State Supreme Court, and in 1963 the professional examining boards were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Department of State. In 1969 the name of the Department of Public Instruction was changed to the Department of Education. The Bureau of Statistics became the Bureau of Information Systems. This collection, arranged chronologically, contains the applications submitted by motion picture film companies requesting the Board of Censors to review their films. The application gives the title of the film; the name of the manufacturer; the names of the leading actors and actresses; the number and length of reels; the style of film and indicates whether the film was approved without changes, approved with eliminations, or condemned outright. If the film was approved with eliminations, an Eliminations Form is attached and lists the specific changes that needed to be made. There is often also present a Memorandum of Changes form that reveals when requested eliminations or changes were made and when the Board approved the film. Some applications have copies of the script attached.
