Schenectady Museum awarded $64K grant to digitize GE films
The Schenectady Museum has more than 1,000 original General Electric 16 mm films holding historical value not only for the Capital District, but for the county’s technological progression as well. Now, the hope of having these films preserved forever is becoming a reality.
The federal Institute of Museum and Library Services award the Schenectady Museum a Museums for America grant totaling $64,437 to support purchasing high-definition film-transfer equipment and new archival film canisters. It also will cover the cost of hiring a temporary part-time film technician to transfer the film, which is done on a special computer.
We are really excited to get the grant, because it helps us preserve one of our most important collections, said Chris Hunter, director of archives and collections at the museum. `We will be able to make our entire film collection accessible to anyone who has Internet access.`
The GE films cover the decades from 1915 to 1985 and help tell the story of electricity’s growth in the country. More than 30 films from the collection are silent and are dated prior to 1927. About 90 percent of the films from that era are estimated to no longer exist, according to the museum.
Footage of early advertising films, educational science films and films documenting the engineering and manufacturing process is within the GE collection. There is even footage of science greats such as Thomas Edison, Charles Steinmetz and Irving Langmuir.
The museum gets about 2,000 requests for archive information a year. There are even well-known production companies, such as the History Channel and PBS, which frequently request information. Sometimes the museum is unable to fill a request because they have to send the film out to be transferred for the applicant.
`We were losing opportunities to get films out to the public and also losing revenue,` said Hunter. `While the films are used by some of the major production companies, we also get a lot of students. We really see the whole spectrum of users for the collection and when we digitize that collection, it will only grow.
Hunter said the museum is in the process of ordering the film transfer equipment, which costs more than $10,000, and should be arriving by the end of October. Films will be made available over the Internet, but the video sharing website, such as YouTube, Vimeo and Hulu, hasn’t been determined yet.
Making sure the original copies survive as long as possible is also important to the museum, said Hunter.
Many GE films are still in their original canisters, some of which are rusting, but the lack of ventilation also presents a problem. If the film canister doesn’t have air vents, then the gas from the degrading film builds up in the canister and degrades the film at an accelerated rate. When new canisters are purchased, they will be resistant to acid and will allow for ventilation.
The long-term plan, said Hunter, is to build a cold storage vault for the films to provide the best preservation.
`They might last a hundred years in room temperature, but they might last thousands of years in 40 degrees,` said Hunter.
Fourteen of the films from 1915 to 1961 are already available on Time Warner Cable’s Local On Demand on Channel 1009.
Some highlights from these films include Edison’s visit to Schenectady in 1922, which also includes the only known footage of Steinmetz, a film tour of the GE Schenectady Works in 1939, Nobel Prize winning scientist Langmuir giving a demonstration and a 1961 promotional film for Schenectady County.“
