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April 1996
From the Executive Director, Jerry George
"Walter Cronkitus Reporting from the Coliseum . . . ."
What wouldn't we give to have moving images from earlier times? How stirred we would be if archaeologists in ancient Rome, say, turned up a canister of filmed reports by Walter Cronkitus or Daniel Ratheronius on debates in the Roman Forum, spectacles in the Coliseum, Hannibal's crossing the Alps, Caesar's campaigns in Gaul, and the daily concerns of the ordinary "classical" family? No effort would seem too great to preserve such an unexpected glimpse of ancient history as it actually was. So why be careless with the recorded images we are making of our own history?
The NHPRC is doing something about the need for preserving newsfilm and other documentary moving images. We have made 13 grants. Put that way, our effort doesn't sound like much. But consider these grants' collective impact.
First, we made two of the grants to the American Film Institute's National Center for Film and Video Preservation (NCFVP) for projects to advance moving-image preservation nationwide. With one grant the center brought together representatives of some 40 institutions with newsfilm collections to compare notes, assess the state of newsfilm preservation, and see what might be done about it. Published proceedings from that conference have helped bring the issues to the attention of others. Then we gave NCFVP a grant to provide guidance in meeting the needs through publication of a curatorial manual, which covers acquiring, organizing, preserving, cataloging, and providing access to moving-image materials. In short, with grants totaling less than $100,000 we helped NCFVP assess the need, call attention to it, and provide a tool of wide usefulness for dealing with it.
Second, we have invested nearly a half-million dollars in 11 projects to preserve collections of video and newsfilm in individual repositories. Those collections contain hardly a fraction of the thousands of feet of newsfilm produced by American television stations
every night. But they do cover a range of Americana, from New York to California, from North Dakota to Mississippi, from Florida to Wisconsin. From the work of NHPRC grant recipients in all those places, future scholars and the public are going to be able to get at least some moving-image glimpses of what life was like in 20th-century America and what our history looked like as it happened. And something more. These projects will add to what we know about how most safely to preserve video material and how best to make newsfilm collections readily accessible. Moreover, some of these projects are developing and testing guidelines for appraisal of such collections, which may help us figure out how to select wisely what we can keep out of all the nation's news productions.
An engrossing question. But then, deciding what documentation will be most valuable is the problem that the NHPRC faces in all its efforts to carry out its Congressional mandate — to promote the preservation and publication of materials that "may be important for an understanding and appreciation of the history of the United States."
Comments, including contrary opinions, are invited. Please send them to Annotation, NHPRC, National Archives Building (Archives I), Room 607, Washington, DC 20408; or e-mail to jerry.george@nara.gov.
(Photo by Philip B. George)
