THE RIHS FILM ARCHIVES

See also:
Researching the RIHS Film Archives
Rights and Reproduction Services: Film
Rights and Reproduction Services: Policies and Fee Schedules

The film archives at the Rhode Island Historical Society Library Graphics Department was started in 1969 with the donation of newsfilm from station WPRI.  It blossomed into one of the first regional film archives in the country. Its mission is to collect film made in, or concerning, Rhode Island.  The Rhode Island Historical Society now has one of the largest collections of regional film in New England, well over 5 million feet. The material is on many film formats: 8mm and Super 8, 16mm, 28mm and 35mm film. 

The film archives not only contain TV newsfilm, but also silent film, newsreels, home movies, industrial film, promotional films made to encourage business and tourism in the state, documentary film, amateur theatricals and educational films.  Subjects documented in the collection include the Americas Cup races, the building of the Mt. Hope Bridge, the textile strikes, polio inoculation and countless weather disasters and civic events.  Some favorites include an amateur film documenting the Novelty Park Club Marathon of 1929 (Pawtucket Public Library Collection), a promotional film about Columbia bicycles from the 1950's (Petri Collection) and “A-Bomb Test,” a Fox-Movietonews newsreel story about a 1951 civil defense test conducted in Providence (Fox-Movietonews Collection).

SILENT FILM IN RHODE ISLAND         

Before filmmakers moved west to sunny Hollywood, Rhode Island supported a film industry of its own.  Feature films were made in Rhode Island by companies such as Coronet, Eastern, Essanay, Lubin, Tri-Star and Vitagraph during the 1910's.  The Rhode Island Historical Society has several of these early moving pictures in its film archives and we are working on preservation designed to make the films accessible.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE RIHS FILM ARCHIVES COLLECTION

The Gordon Collection:, a large collection of original 35mm nitrate negatives (stored off-site) of features and short films made in Rhode Island during the early part of the 20^th century. 

Library of Congress Paper Print Collection:  A series of the early motion pictures taken by Thomas A. Edison documenting the Newport community with a particular focus on the Newport Naval training school.  The original paper roll prints are owned by the Library of Congress.  The paper rolls are frame-by-frame paper copies of films, made for copyright proofs, and have outlived the original films.  They were re-discovered at the Library of Congress in the 1950's and transferred back to 35mm safety film.  The Rhode Island Historical Society film archives has 16mm film copies of those films that were made in Rhode Island; the originals remain at the Library of Congress.

The Searles Collection: represents a collection of early Rhode Island motion pictures, movie trailers, home movies, television and commercials. Russell S. Searles was an amateur historian and film collector from the city of Cranston.  He collected motion pictures of all kinds and wrote numerous articles on the subject.  He worked closely with the Library’s founding film archivists and wrote up an interesting history of filmmaking in Rhode Island. 

THE WJAR PROJECT

The WJAR newsfilm collection (nearly 50,000 stories) chronicles 20th Century Rhode Island history from 1952 (when the station opened) through 1981 when the station changed over to video.

The WJAR material is silent and sound, black and white and full color.  Each story was shot on 16mm reversal film, then processed and edited.  Often times it was broadcast silently with live voice-over by the anchors in the studio.  Because the entire broadcast was not pre-recorded, the newsfilm that remains does not represent entire news programs, only the stories which were committed to film.  The stories can last anywhere from 20 seconds to 30 minutes; the majority of them are 30 seconds to a minute in length. 

The WJAR collection is an extremely rich resource for local historians and researchers.  Our patrons now have access to a daily visual history of three decades of Rhode Island. This kind of resource is of immeasurable value. It is the moving image equivalent of the local newspaper, long a staple of research libraries. Moving images provide us with richly detailed portraits of people, their mannerisms, physical presence and voices recorded for posterity. Blanket access of this kind to historical moving images is both rare and vital. 

PRESERVATION

Most of the nitrate-based films in the collection are currently inaccessible.  They need to be copied to safety film for projection and because they are nearly a century old and decaying.  The Rhode Island Historical Society Film Archives is pursuing film preservation grants which will provide funding to copy the nitrate to safety film and video for access.  The grants are provided on a title by title basis.  Most of the nitrate in the collection is negative material.  Those nitrate negatives are the best possible material to use for preservation (as opposed to old projection prints, which can be scratched and worn), but the nitrate base in many cases has begun to decay and this results in image loss.  By copying the negatives to 35mm safety film (polyester base), the film can be preserved and shown to new generations of fans.

The film archives first film preservation project was My Lady of the Lilacs, a short silent film made in Rhode Island in 1916.  It was copied from an original nitrate negative through a grant from the NY Women in Film and Television and a grant from Donald Perry.  New 35mm film elements were produced, as well as video copies for in-Library use.  The film is one of four in the Rhode Island Historical Society Film Archives written by Ms. Beta Breuil, a prominent screenwriter in the 1910's.  In 1913 alone she was responsible for nearly 200 scripts.  My Lady of the Lilacs, a short melodrama concerning two struggling artists and their search for love, was shown in August 2005 at the closing night of the Rhode Island International Film Festival at the historic Columbus Theatre in Providence with live piano accompaniment by Peter Freisinger.  Despite some missing scenes lost to deterioration of the original negative, the crowd found it to be a charming film.  The film archives is working to preserve and show Breuil’s remaining three flower-themed films in the collection: Daisies (ca. 1915), Violets (ca. 1917) and Wisteria  (ca. 1917).   All of these films concern women and their metaphoric relationship to flowers and all were made in Rhode Island.  The films are part of the Gordon Collection, a group of nitrate negatives of early Rhode Island feature films from the 1910's and 1920's.

WHAT IS FILM PRESERVATION?

We are presently waging a campaign to preserve as many of the Society’s films as possible.  We have a number of films for which we have no viewable copies.  We do not project original material, but do aim to make copies which may be projected. 

Preserving a film means two things.  It means keeping it cool and dry to prevent or slow the natural decay of the film’s organic elements and it means copying the original material to new filmstock.  Although film does not last forever, it will outlive video and digital media, which are frequently rendered unwatchable due to obsolete playback equipment.  The equipment associated with motion picture film has not changed dramatically in over 75 years and as an analog format, it can be viewed over light instead of though specialized electronic machines. 

Having new film copies ensures survival of the film.  Whatever the original element is, a new negative will be struck from which new positive projection prints will be created.

At the Rhode Island Historical Society Film Archives, we are engaging in another step in making the film accessible by video copying.  A video master is created from which VHS or DVD dubs may be made so the film may easily be viewed by patrons on a TV monitor in the Library. 

ADOPT A FILM!

Our adopt-a-film program makes it possible for individuals to help forward our film preservation campaign.  Projects range from nitrate preservation to simple copying of 16mm prints to VHS or DVD for in-house access (this can be done for as little as $100).  A list of films in need of funding is available.  Descriptions are included and interested donors may choose a specific film to preserve.  Some preservation projects are more expensive than others.  A variety of options are available for prospective donors.  In the case of new film prints, donors may have their names attached to the film’s newly created credits, if desired.  Joint projects are also available. 

Click here to see a list of adoptable films, with cost estimates.

DONATE YOUR FILM!

Rhode Island Historical Society relies on donations to improve and expand our collections.  We are continuing our mission of collecting film made in the state and hope you will consider donating your original film to us.  If you have home movies you have copied to video, consider letting us care for your originals.  We actively collecting all kinds of films including home movies, art school film, industrials and documentaries.

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