Archival Moving Image Film Storage

FAIN: PG-271348-20

Nebraska Historical Society (Lincoln, NE 68508-1651)
Paul J. Eisloeffel (Project Director: December 2019 to April 2023)

The purchase of preservation supplies to rehouse 2,300 moving image reels documenting the history and culture of Nebraska from 1923 to 1980. Film highlights include a 39-part series produced in 1954, documenting the history, pre-history, and natural history of the Great Plains states; a documentary about the racial integration of two Lutheran churches in Omaha in the early 1960s; a training film on hunting ethics produced in 1976; early home movies of the St. Augustine Mission School for Native Americans, dating from the late 1920s and early 1930s; amateur footage of Nebraska’s 134th Infantry Regiment in action in Europe during World War II; and a biography of Nebraskan U.S. Poet Laureate John G. Neihardt.

Studies have shown that archival motion picture films can benefit from proper storage in vented cans made of inert plastic. This project is designed to provide such storage to approximately 2300 archival 16mm moving image reels now stored in substandard containers.