More than 1000 clips of archive film footage, showing the previously unseen history of Scotland, are to be put online for public use.

The Scottish Screen Archive has finally finished the considerable task of saving more than 400 hours of film archives for future use, in a process which has seen more than one million feet of film transferred to high-quality digital videotape.

The three-year lottery-funded project has seen the restoration of film footage - from amateur, home-made, professional and commercial sources - covering a wide range of topics from life in Scotland in the 20th century, including art, culture, domestic life, the home front during world wars, industry, sport and politics.

The films include a remarkable silent, black-and-white private film of the wedding of the 4th Marquis of Bute in 1905, a Clyde ship launch in 1903, footage of the 1912 Bo'ness Fair, highlights of Scotland's win over England at Wembley in 1967, and even a film from the 19th century - shot from a steam locomotive as it pulls away from Wormit station in Fife and crosses the Tay rail bridge in 1897.

The footage also includes more modern images - the Strathclyde Police Band warming up for the World Pipe Band Championships in 1976, the construction of the stands at Celtic Park in 1972, and film of poll tax activists from 1988.

There are well-known faces in the archive, too. A young Joanna Lumley can be seen in an early television advert for Scottish cashmere and there is also footage of a young, long-haired Gordon Brown, in his days as rector of Edinburgh University in the mid-1970s, talking about his dealings with the university administration.

In the same clip, now slightly prophetic, a spokesman for the university at the time is seen complaining that "the problem with students becoming rectors is that they suddenly think they are Prime Minister".

The film archive project, which is now part of the National Library of Scotland, will now allow schools, museums and libraries to use footage for private and educational research projects.

Individuals can also buy some of the footage, although copyright law still applies to a lot of the commercial or professionally shot films.

Parts of the archive have already toured to different areas of the country, including Aberdeen, Portree, Kirkwall, Newton Stewart and Falkirk, and an exhibition focusing on the films of the Glasgow Corporation, called Sadness and Gladness, has been held at the Lighthouse in Glasgow.

Janet McBain, the curator of the archive, which in total contains 32,000 items of film and footage, said: "This is a real milestone for us.

"It is wonderful to know first that this material, much of it rare or unique, is now safely preserved for future generations and even more pleasing for us to be able to show it to the people of Scotland."

She added: "The entire project has cost around three-quarters of a million pounds and if it wasn't for the Heritage Lottery Fund this could not have been done.

"There is such a naivete to the very earliest of the films that really appeals. There is so much material you cannot pick a favourite but some of the most important and poignant film is that shot on St Kilda, just prior to its final evacuation.

"The footage was shot by a steamship company for business purposes, but it is very important historically and, of course, also very poignant."

Colin McLean, manager of the HLF in Scotland, said: "Historical footage allows us to glimpse our ancestors going about their daily lives, to learn about what was important to them and the influences that shaped Scotland into what it is today.

"We are delighted to have been able to support the preservation of this unique archive which is now available for us all to marvel at and learn from."

National Library of Scotland readers can now view the material in DVD format from the collection in the Reading Rooms at its site on George IV Bridge in Edinburgh.