Yale Bulletin and Calendar

November 8-15, 1999

Volume 28, Number 12

Library gets grant to preserve
rare films from Yale's past

Memorable or important moments in Yale's history -- recorded on films that have since become too fragile to use -- will now be documented for posterity, thanks to recent grants awarded to the manuscripts and archives department of the Sterling Memorial Library.

A selection of reunion films from the period 1896 to 1936 and films of the activities of alumni participants in various Yale-China Association programs from 1928 to 1947 are being preserved with grants from the National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) Laboratory-Archive Partnership Grant program.

The program seeks to preserve culturally important "orphan" films not protected by commercial interests by linking nonprofit and public archives with commercial laboratories donating preservation services. The grants target films made outside the commercial mainstream and fund the creation of both preservation masters and access copies, which can be used by researchers.

One of the grants, which was awarded to the manuscripts and archives department last year, enabled the preservation of a selection of early Yale College and Sheffield Scientific School class reunion films made by alumni during the annual reunion weekends each June.

These films represent some of the earliest visual documentation of activities related to the Association of Yale Alumni, the oldest and most active university alumni organization in the United States. Made by the Yale College Classes of 1909, 1912 and 1917, and by the Sheffield Scientific School Classes of 1896, 1907, 1908 and 1911, the films "illustrate the interaction of lifelong friends with their classmates, families and University officials in a context which was extremely important to many of them and which is not adequately represented in other documentation sources," says Kirsten M. Jensen, an archivist at the University Library.

In addition, these reunion films provide a record of Yale alumni traditions -- such as a parade to Yale Field while wearing distinctive costumes -- that are no longer practiced, Jensen notes.

A second preservation grant, awarded in April, is currently preserving films from the records of the Yale-China Association. During its 100-year history, the association has helped to found the Hsiang-Ya Hospital, Medical College and Nursing School in China, as well as the Yali Middle School and Huachung University in Wuhan. Forty-one reels (approximately 30 films) of silent, black-and-white footage made by the Yale alumni participants in the Yale-China Association program between 1928 and 1947 are being preserved.

These films, Jensen says, "provide an excellent primary source for the study of the practice of public health and the state of medical care facilities in pre-war China and the education of young Chinese students by Americans." They are also a source of historic travel footage covering various towns and cities as well as major sites such as the Yangtze River and the Great Wall. One film covers military activity in Shanghai, circa 1943, during the city's occupation by the Japanese.

The Yale-China Association films also document the close relationships that developed between the Chinese and their American visitors, Jensen adds. The Yale-China Association provided matching funds for this preservation project grant.

Jensen, who is an archivist for media, architecture and publications, developed the film preservation projects as part of the manuscript and archive department's "Archives 300 Project," one of the library's contributions to Yale's tercentennial celebration in 2001. The grants have assisted the department in its aim of preserving a range of formats and media on which Yale history is recorded.

All of the films preserved by the NFPF grants have been previously unavailable to researchers due to their poor condition. By the fall of 2000, the manuscripts and archives department intends to have VHS research copies of all of the preserved films available for use in its Reading Room.

For further information about the film projects, or for information about other films and videos in Yale's archives, call (203) 432-1735 or send questions via e-mail to archives@yale.edu.

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