In 1923 the Yale University Press commissioned films based on the fifty volumes in their “Chronicles of America” book series. Ultimately, only fifteen episodes were produced. This film from 1924 is entitled “The Puritans”. According to the book “Hollywood on the Hudson”, Yale spent $1.25 million dollars making the films and then found it could not easily recoup the investment, because the films were not theatrically viable and most schools in that era did not have appropriate infrastructure or the experience using films to teach. However, Chronicles of America persisted for many years and was the first documentary series shown on television in 1941 when it aired on pioneering station WBNT