The Motion Picture Patents Company/General Film Company collection spans the years 1908-1918 and encompasses 1.75 linear feet. This collection was created by gathering material on both companies from the William Selig papers (with donations from William N. Selig and Charles G. Clarke), together with additional material, also from Clarke, that may have belonged to Selig. The collection generally reflects the work of the two organizations as applicable to the Selig Polyscope Company.

The Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC) was formed in 1908, as a patents pool to oversee the patents claimed by Edison, American Mutoscope and Biograph, Vitagraph, and Armat, and to license various companies as producers and distributors. The General Film Company was established in 1910, by the licensed producers as a distribution company for their films. Both organizations were eventually recognized as monopolistic by the U.S. government and disbanded in 1918 (although they had ceased to be effective many years earlier).