5.26.09

I sat down with David Grinnell today to discuss the details of my Moving Image field placement project.  He explained that I will be working with films that came to the Heinz Center from the George Westinghouse Museum Archive.  The Westinghouse museum (originally located in Wilmerding, PA but now closed) merged with the Heinz History Center in 2007.   The Heinz center acquired archival materials and artifacts as a result of this merger; among these, is a rather substantial film collection. 

The content of the individual films is as yet unknown in some cases.  Some of the cans include title information but it certainly appears as though these films had been sitting in the Westinghouse museum archive gathering dust.  It is David’s general sense that this collection includes some of the memorable Westinghouse educational films.  I have very fond memories of those films having seen my share of them in science classes.  They are no doubt chalk full of guys in white lab coats, carrying clipboards and sporting those familiar black, thick-rimmed (à la Elvis Costello) glasses that were associated with the “scientific” crowd back in the 50s & 60s…but I digress.

My job will be to inventory and prepare a condition report for the films in this collection.  I will use a modified version of the condition report form from the Film Preservation Guide.  In addition to footage measurements, age determination and placing films in archival quality containers, I will test for film deterioration.  Of course, it will be quite obvious as to what is going in inside the containers if I am brought to tears by the vinegar aroma wafting from their contents.  Beyond that telltale olfactory delight, I will use IPI A-D Strips to determine the severity of the acetate deterioration. 

I am not yet certain whether I will encounter any nitrate at this point.  I would imagine that had there been nitrate in the collection the Westinghouse folks would have informed us so that the Heinz could take the proper action for the safe a appropriate storage of this material.