The Filson Historical Society Blog

Community members screen their home movies at The Filson. Photo by H. Fox.

Home Movie Day was a huge success!

On October 17th, The Filson Historical Society along with the Louisville Film Society hosted the area’s first observance of Home Movie Day.  This annual international event celebrates amateur film making and aims to educate the public about film preservation.  The event presented a unique, and mutually beneficial, opportunity to view and preserve our local culture & history.  Filson and LFS invited the community to bring in their home movies, in any format, and provided preservation expertise and the media for projection while the public provided films from their personal collection.  The Filson wants to give a big “thank you” to Heather Fox, Ryan Daly, Tracy Heightchew, and Caroline Rubens for all their help!

Appalshop's Caroline Rubens volunteered inspecting and cleaning the films before the screening. Photo by H. Fox.

Home Movie Day is really interesting!

Film archivist Ryan Daly (Louisville Film Society) and Caroline Rubens (Appalshop) inspected, repaired, and cleaned the films.  Following this preservation phase, Daly projected the films for the public to screen.  He came equipped with projectors and devices to play multiple formats of moving images, including the 8mm, 16mm, and Super8s contributed by attendees.  Over half a dozen people bought films to The Filson, and a half dozen more stopped by just to catch the screening.  Some of the footage included gorgeous black & white 1920s family scenes, an epic 1940s schoolyard snow ball fight, and 1960s aerial footage of Vietnam shot by a U.S. military helicopter pilot.

Home Movie Day is a call to action!
While this year’s Home Movie Day has passed, it’s never too late to consider the long term preservation and deposition of your home movies.  The fleeting formats of moving images and the technology used in viewing them create many challenges in caring for and enjoying your amateur film.  With proper care and storage home movie can last decades longer than new media formats and provide indefinable clues about 20th & 21st century cultural history.   Did you know that home movies have been named to the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry, alongside popular and esteemed classics such as Citizen Kane, Star Wars, and King Kong?  The Filson Historical Society is interested in collecting the home movies of regular people, not just of famous people or major events, which in turn documents our local culture and history.

Ryan Daly, film expert extraordinaire, prepares film for porjection. Photo by H. Fox.

For more information on how to care for your home movies and/or how to donate your original films (and retain a digital copy) please contact Sarah-Jane M. Poindexter.

IMLS Connecting to Collections Bookshelf

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) recently awarded The Filson Historical Society the Connecting to Collections Bookshelf.  This grant includes a set of preservation resources (mainly texts) which is intended to assist museums, libraries, and archives in caring for their unique collections.

The retail value for the ‘bookshelf’ of materials is over $800, and some publications are not available elsewhere.

The informational resources cover many topics, including but not limited to:
-    caring for prints and drawings
-    saving damaged objects in the aftermath of an emergency
-    long-term, preservation-quality storage for digital media
-    caring for and exhibiting culturally sensitive materials
-    balancing display & care of historic materials while providing public access

The Filson is thrilled to receive this wonderful grant!  Not only will this resource help safeguard The Filson collection, but also, it will be a great reference to share with patrons interested in learning to care for their family treasures.  Please feel free to stop by the Special Collections department and browse the bookshelf.  Together we can extend the impact of this generous grant by preserving our heritage for generations to come.

On August 4, the greater Louisville area experienced massive rainfall and flooding. Many institutions, such as the Louisville Free Public Library and the Kentucky Derby Museum, suffered extensive damage. (Fortunately, the Filson made it through the flood with no damage to its collections.) Undoubtedly, personal papers and photographs still in the hands of individuals and families were harmed as well. The flood and its aftermath raise many questions about the emergency response and salvage of flood-damaged materials. Below are tips for the care of personal papers, books, and photographs that have been water damaged. Conduct salvage response within 48 hours for greater success.

Scene from the 1937 flood in Louisville, Kentucky.

The following tips are drawn from publications of the Heritage Emergency National Task Force. For more information you can visit the task force’s recovery website or call a local conservation or preservation specialist.

Books:

• If the book is partially wet or damp, stand it on its top or bottom edge with covers opened to 90-degree angles and air dry. A fan will speed drying.
• If the book is very wet, lay it flat on a clean surface; interleave less than 20% of the book with absorbent material. Replace interleaving when damp.
• If rinsing the book is necessary, hold book closed.
• If you have too many books to air dry in 48 hours:  wrap in freezer or waxed paper, pack spine down in a sturdy container, and freeze.*

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