The Wayback Machine, a time machine for the web

David Samuel plays viola in the San Francisco-based Alexander Quartet. But he almost didn't make it into this country. "I'm a Canadian citizen," he said, "and I therefore needed a work visa if I was coming to the United States."

That artist's visa required special documentation: "I was tasked with finding old programs, articles, interviews, anything that could demonstrate that I had contributed significantly to the field," he said. Unfortunately, most of that stuff had disappeared from the internet over the years. 

Then, someone suggested he check out the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Samuel wound up finding every concert program, interview and article he needed for his visa.