An intern sorting old film cans in New York found a 1915 movie about Abraham Lincoln; it was the only known surviving copy of a film historians believed was lost

While sorting through forgotten film cans at a New York archive, intern Dan Martin noticed something unusual. In 2024, Dan Martin noticed something unusual while sorting through the archive’s film cans. He discovered five sealed reels in the Historic Films Archive located in the tiny village of Greenport, New York, which contained a silent movie that historians thought had been lost forever. The film was called The Heart of Lincoln, a 1915 film that chronicled the life of Abraham Lincoln. The Smithsonian Magazine reported that the discovery was the only known surviving copy of the film, turning an intern’s archival work into a major recovery for early American cinema.

The accidental discovery inside a film archive

When Martin started to study film preservation, he stumbled upon the reels while working at the archive. Cans had been placed with educational and donated films, although many were not completely identified. What caught his attention, however, was the name given to the the name listed in the credits: Francis Ford, a filmmaker and actor who featured in The Heart of Lincoln as Abraham Lincoln. The film’s discovery was not only important due to its subject matter, but also because of its association with one of Hollywood's most influential families, the Ford family, as Ford was the older brother of celebrated director John Ford. The reels contained a complete version of the 1915 silent film, which ran for approximately 65 minutes.


Why historians thought the Lincoln film was gone

The disappearance of The Heart of Lincoln was part of a much larger problem in early cinema. Many silent films from the 1910s and 1920s were also lost because studios did not always preserve their prints. Some of these were destroyed, and some of them became damaged due to unstable film stock. The Library of Congress has estimated that a large majority of American silent films are missing, including thousands of titles that no longer exist in complete form. This made the survival of an entire copy of The Heart of Lincoln especially unusual. The film also had a historical significance for portraying Lincoln just a few decades after his assassination. It was released in 1915, and it depicted Lincoln’s life in a dramatic manner during a period when filmmakers were beginning to explore historical figures through feature-length films.

Seeing Lincoln through the eyes of early filmmakers

What was recovered was a new set of film materials for historians to study as they investigated the image of Lincoln on the screen prior to the advent of modern Hollywood filmmaking. Of particular interest was the way that the character of Lincoln was portrayed by Francis Ford, who had already appeared as Lincoln in other stage and film works. His connection to the character, in turn, added to the surviving print. The discovery also allowed researchers to study filmmaking techniques from 1915, including acting styles, camera work, set design, and storytelling methods from the silent-film era.

Restoring a film that survived by chance

Before the film could be viewed by modern audiences, the damaged and aging material needed careful preservation. Film preservationist Eliot Kissileff worked on cleaning and digitizing the surviving reels, allowing the footage to be transferred into a modern format while protecting the original material. The restoration involved a plan to develop a new musical score, since the early silent films were accompanied by live music. The surviving reels underwent preservation work, including cleaning and digitization, while plans continued for their long-term archival placement and possible donation to the Library of Congress.

A century-old film that reopened a chapter of cinema history

The discovery has given historians access to material they could not study before. After digitization, The Heart of Lincoln became available for researchers studying silent-era filmmaking. The recovered print also provides researchers with more information about Francis Ford’s work and the early filmmaking environment in which the Ford family was involved. The recovered print provides researchers with further insight into the early history of American cinema, a period documented in relatively few surviving films. The reels are not just missing pieces of film history; they have become a new source of research for historians studying early American cinema.