Special Collections & Archives holds about 5,000 films and videocassettes in its collections. The bulk of this material documents the history and activities of the Naval Academy. There is also audiovisual material contained in the department's manuscript collections. As resources permit, the A/V material is being digitized and made available publicly in Trireme.
Among the A/V holdings are two notable film series:
Men of Annapolis is a television drama filmed at the Naval Academy about the lives and experiences of midshipmen that originally aired in 1957-1958. With the permission of MGM Studios, the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Wisconsin Center for Film and Theatre Archives provided film copies of all 39 episodes. DVD copies are available on the library's ground deck, but, due to copyright restrictions, the discs must remain on the Yard and cannot be copied.
Silent Service is an episodic television drama from 1957-1958 based on real events involving submarines during World War II. Rear Admiral Thomas M. Dykers (USNA 1927) created and hosted the program and donated the films to the library. The USNA class of 1956 generously supported the cleaning and repair of the films and their transfer to discs, which are available on the library's ground deck. However, due to copyright restrictions, the discs must remain on the Yard and cannot be copied.
Over the years, numerous major motion pictures and television series have featured or focused on the Naval Academy. This guide lists those titles. Note: most, but not all, are held by the library. For those that are found in the collection, a link to their catalog record is provided.