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June 30, 2009
Lost and found films: Can you help UW Libraries learn more about these vintage screen gems?
By Peter Kelley
University Week

You can almost hear the old-style projectors rattle along as you view these vintage films. You see horn-rimmed glasses, haircuts and fashions from decades past as the old-style black and white and color images move along.

But -- what the heck's going on in these clips? Maybe you can help UW Libraries Special Collections learn exactly that. Watch the films at Uweek.org and see.

The UW Audio Visual Services Materials Library has more than 1,200 reels of film from the late 1940s through the early 1970s, documenting life at the University through telecourses, commercial films and original productions, according to a press release from the library. Some of the short films are easily identifiable, but many more remain mysteries. Who shot these films and why?

Hannah Palin, film archives specialist with UW Special Collections, is on a yearlong contract to help identify old films shot on or for the UW campus. She said the division is now trying to learn as much as they can about these old films so that clips from the films can be put up on the UW Libraries Digital Collections site. (Visit online at http://content.lib.washington.edu/filmarchweb/index.html).

"The sesquicentennial of the UW is coming up, and we wanted to get these images up so that people could use them, enjoy them and research them if they want to," Palin said. "We have run into an awful lot of material that would be called 'orphan film,' meaning films that are outside of the commercial mainstream, have been neglected, or that lack documentation."

UWeek will be helping with this. So check the Uweek home page -- we'll offer another vintage film with every issue, and readers/viewers can use the new comments field to provide what information they can. It's like a Wiki approach to film archiving.

This week's film features penguins swimming along, clearly under UW study. Dee Boersma, the UW's international expert in penguins, has seen this week's film (and she promises that no penguins were harmed in the making of this film), but questions remain. Why was the film taken? How was it used?

In coming weeks you'll see more such "orphan" footage -- scientists with bubbling beakers, fish biologists casting nets in the Sound, people building a house, and more.

Watch next time for the one UW Libraries has titled "Mission Impractical." In it, a man lights -- and very nearly smokes -- a sparkler and shuffles through photographs in the style of the opening scene of the old Mission Impossible TV series.

So keep watching. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to help figure out what these old films are all about.



Log in to UW News+Community to add a comment.

kenfine@ (Ken Fine)
UW News and Information

I have no idea what this film is about, but I enjoyed discovering that there seems to be a long and distinguished tradition of putting penguins on treadmills in the name of Science™:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RtHOvc64L0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHG8c_Gmj9I&feature=channel 
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11522

The last link explains that putting the birds on treadmills helps scientists guesstimate the energy output required for various penguin endeavors.

     Thursday, June 25, 2009 3:04 AM
portzer@ (Karen Portzer)
HMC
If I was trying to identify the film, I would look closely for identification on the vessel. What type of vessel is it, who built it, how many were built and does it have an identifying markers, such as a number or name?  If you can figure out who owned it maybe you can track it. You might be able to do the same with the equipment in the lab, as well as figure out what he's trying to measure.   The clothing in the lab scene seemed late 60's early 70's, as well as the hair style and glasses.  Can anyone identify the topography?  It certainly looks like Antartica or southern South American from what I have seen in pictures......okay, so I've watched too many episodes of History Detective.
     Thursday, June 25, 2009 8:43 AM
kenfine@ (Ken Fine)
UW News and Information
Some good strategic thinking, Karen! OK, well there's another tack we can take along the same lines you suggest in terms of narrowing down the "when" and "where" of this one:

1) Can one of our friendly ornithologists from the University of a Thousand Years identify which penguin species we're looking at? It appears like there is a lot to choose from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin
Maybe we'll get a clearer idea of geographic scope if we know what kind of bird it is -- unlikely that these scientists would keep the bird on the treadmill day after day as part of an far-ranging luxury cruise.

2) An engineer may be able to fix this in time, or at least suggest a "not earlier than" date based on looking at the technologies in play here. These machines remind me of the gigantic steam vents and coal-fired server computers that I'm told marked the early days of the Internet in the 19th century (pre-Gore. :)  
     Thursday, June 25, 2009 9:19 AM
filmarc@ (Hannah Palin)
Special Collections
I am able to add a bit to the discussion of what era the penguin film is from. Most film stock has a code imprinted on the edge that will indicate the date it was manufactured. According to the Film Condition Report taken in 2004 this film, simply titled "Penguins"  is dated ca. 1971-1972.

By the way, there's something oddly comforting in knowing that our penguin film exists within a larger body of penguin films! Thanks for those links, Ken.
     Thursday, June 25, 2009 1:22 PM
kipaylor@ (Kristie Paylor)
Harborview
I'm guessing the penguin on the treadmill is having its cardiovascular system and/or metabolism monitored under stress (exercise).  I think the 60's/70's were a time when medical science was looking at the effect of lowering the body's temperature (I think sometimes done now to decrease stress on the body during surgery).   The penguins are released into the cold water and have to pull something - I'm wondering if this is to try to replicate the level of stress placed on the cardiovascular system or metabolism during the treadmill test, to see how the variable of the cold water impacts the results (the penguin's vital signs, etc).  They also could be looking at the effects of cold on the body in terms of drowning or near-drowning victims.  Does anyone recognize that metal stairway?  Perhaps the treadmill test was done on one of the UW's scientific expedition ships.
     Thursday, June 25, 2009 2:47 PM