Lion's wig from The Wizard of Oz

The Academy first became involved in collecting motion picture artifacts in 1948. After receiving a special Oscar that year at the 20th Awards ceremony, William Selig donated his pioneer camera and projector to the Academy. A little later, producer Sol Lesser purchased a large collection of artifacts from France to donate to the Academy. Included in his gift was a Lumière Cinématographe—the machine that recorded and projected the first motion pictures exhibited on a screen to a paying audience.

Another Oscar winner, Kemp Niver, did much to acquire and curate early motion pictures and apparatus for the Academy's collection. By the early 1960's the Academy had collected some of its most important items, including an Edison Vitascope and an original 3-strip Technicolor camera.

In recent years, individuals have made numerous donations of praxinoscopes, phenakistoscopes, magic lanterns, antique projectors and cameras to the Academy. One gift, from the estate of collector Jack Pill, included a beautiful rare 35mm Akeley camera. Another important donation was a 35mm silent Pathe camera, identical to the ones used by such directors as Cecil B. DeMille and D. W. Griffith to photograph the first feature films.

The artifacts collected by the Academy have not been limited to motion picture apparatus. Items donated from the estate of makeup artist John Truwe included life masks of Grace Kelly and Clark Gable. Mr. and Mrs. Buddy Rogers donated a fencing mask that belonged to Douglas Fairbanks Sr. From the estate of cinematographer Elmer Dyer came miniature airplane models used in the Academy's first best picture winner Wings. A very popular donation was Bert Lahr's lion wig from The Wizard of Oz by makeup artist and Academy member Charles Schram.

The Academy also houses items from the Hollywood Museum collection. Included in this collection is the brooch worn by Vivien Leigh in the final scenes of Gone With the Wind. This brooch is perhaps one of the Academy's most important and valuable artifacts.

Currently, there are more than 1,000 items catalogued in the Academy's artifact collection.