Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Smithsonian Cinema Collection

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Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 08-17-2014, 10:19 AM:

I heard thru the grapevine that the Smithsonian has a very rare ,significant and irreplaceable collection of 35mm projection equipment in Dayton, Ohio.

I heard that their storage facility fell into a major state of dis-repair (including a collapsed roof) and that this collection has been completely ruined due to weather exposure.

Does anyone know about this? The collection was supposed to include pre-20th century pieces, various Simplex prototypes, Cinerama equipment, etc, etc, etc....

I had asked a fellow collector about museum arrangements for our collections after we depart Earth. I was told that the Smithsonian is the last place to consider due to their reputation for incompetence.

(Moderator: please transfer this thread to Film-Handler's Forum).

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-18-2014, 04:36 PM:

As a matter of habit I always offer equipment I believe to be very rare to George Eastman House first, then to other smaller museums. I think Smithsonian has so much stuff they probably can't keep track of it all.

Ya have to figure that if Eastman House or a museum doesn't want it then scraping it out is the right thing do do. The world does need a continuous supply of new beer cans after all.

Mark

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 08-18-2014, 06:35 PM:

It this definitely the Smithsonian we're talking about? The Library of Congress's nitrate store and conservation facility used to be at Wright-Patterson AFB near Dayton, before their state-of-the-art conservation center opened in Culpeper, VA, about ten years ago (when that happened, I am told that the relocation of all the films was probably the biggest single shipment of motion picture film ever to have taken place).

Maybe the Smithsonian took over that facility after the LoC left? I do know that by the late 90s it was in a poor state of repair and that the LoC and the Air Force were arguing over who should pay to stop the roof from leaking, hence the reason the LoC folks were so relieved when Culpeper opened.

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 08-18-2014, 09:02 PM:

The Smithsonian is like the BUFFALO BILL MUSEUM in CODY,WYOMING. They have more stored under the Facility than whats on Display for the Public to View(and that's a Ton of Stuff)They have one of the largest FIREARMS Collections in the World(largest Winchester) We went there when the Doors opened in the Morning;Stayed all Day and still hadn't seen the whole Contents on Display by 5PM.I commented to an Employee that they sure had a
Ton of Stuff,He responded by saying This is nothing you should see what we have in storage... [Eek!]

It comes down to the same old scenario"STORAGE SPACE" If you haven't got the Room then something is going to get thrown away.Because even your Small theater owners are taking their 35mm Equipment to the Dump;can you imagine how many things The SMITHSONIAN or LIBRARY OF CONGRESS have tucked away somewhere.There have probably been things Destroyed or Dumped that would make your head Spin and I doubt Older Projection Equipment is anywhere near the top of the List for Conservation.

Before People got Sue Crazy,I remember K-MART donating returned Merchandise that might have a minor defect,etc., to GOODWILL,SALVATION ARMY,ST.VINCENT DEPAUL,etc) That quickly ended when some bottom feeder lawyer sued KMART because an Individual that got one of these donated Items got injured in some way and so it has to be KMART's fault. That's why these Institutions will rarely if ever give something to an individual verses Destroying or Junking it out somewhere; strictly because they don't want to assume any Liability.Because the US has become SUE CRAZY for everything; Responsible People that would have taken care of these Artifacts probably better than the Institutions they were in; are now deprieved of having a piece of history in their possession... [thumbsdown]

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 08-18-2014, 09:23 PM:

When I was in archiving school, we were told that how good an archivist is was judged not by what (s)he decides to keep, but what (s)he decides to toss. Of course, we were all a class full of obsessive hoarders (or else we wouldn't have wanted to be in that classroom in the first place), and so hearing that gave us quite a shock!

The professor's point was that museums and archives don't have unlimited space. Acquiring something means making a commitment to preserving it, and that costs money. Furthermore, not everything you collect can be on permanent public view or even easily accessible. The Smithsonian can't just gobble up another city block next to the National Mall to accommodate its expanding collection! Many museums and archives come under a lot of criticism for not having all their stuff immediately available, or for allowing stuff to deteriorate in their care. Admittedly the latter shouldn't happen, but preservation is not just putting something into storage and forgetting about it. At the very least, it's raising the money to maintain that storage space (rent, utilities, security, disaster contingency planning, etc.) as well.

When I emigrated last year, I ended up giving around two thirds of my books away, because I couldn't afford to ship the rest and had didn't have the space to store them in our new home anyway. Deciding what to keep and why was a very interesting experience (though not one I'd want to repeat), and brought home to me what a difficult job museum and archive curators have to do at times. I eventually decided on a test: have I looked at this in the last year, or am I realistically likely to within the next year? Actually, based on the answers to that, I could have disposed of more than I actually did.

I'm not trying to defend what may or may not have happened to this Smithsonian collection; merely pointing out that looking after collections of museum artifacts is not as easy as it sounds, even if you're one of the best-resourced museums in the world.