The Harry and Roy Aitken gallery showcases photographic stills from silent films produced by the Aitken brothers between 1913 and the early 1920s. The Wisconsin-born brothers were pioneers of the American movie industry. While there are few remaining intact films from the Aitken portfolio, the Wisconsin Historical Society gallery contains a variety of information from about 150 Aitken films. Besides film and publicity stills, there is a selection of scripts, scenarios (stories), synopses, production notes, continuity scripts, title cards, budget information sheets, script location lists, state film board licenses, copyright documents and similar papers relating to movie production. Now 61 film stills are available online and constitute another in a series of photographic galleries within the Wisconsin Historical Society's Wisconsin Historical Images collection.

Harry and Roy Aitken joined the wave of film production and distribution that grew with the advent of silent, one-reel, black-and-white films shown in small storefront spaces, the "nickelodeons." The brothers' developing interest in motion pictures and creating a movie business for themselves was probably an unlikely choice of career given their early life and upbringing on a farm in Waukesha, Wisconsin, but their entrepreneurial spirit moved them off the farm and on to other adventures. They went through all the stages of the business except acting for the camera or directing films: nickelodeon operators, film salesmen, projectionists, exchange owners, financiers and movie producers. From 1905 to 1915 they rose from operating nickelodeons to producing "The Birth of a Nation," the first American feature film, which was distributed in 1915 through Triangle Film, the principal Aitken company. They also expanded their business to London to serve European markets.