August 1, 2013
Lost and Found Film: ‘History and Industry, 1965’
The title of the latest Lost and Found Film — “History and Industry, 1965” gives away the “where” and the “when” of the mystery footage —it’s the “what” and “why” parts that film archivist Hannah Palin is interested in.
Lost and Found Films is an occasional UW Today series in which readers help identify and explain historic bits of film from the 1930s through the 1970s unearthed by Palin from the UW Audio Visual Materials Library. The films range from shadowy black-and-white snippets such as this one to thoughtfully produced color productions.
This latest offering is among the most rudimentary of them all — a silent, black and white film just over two minutes in length with flickering footage of various antique items, presumably taken at Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry.
We see lamps, a stove, a section of pipe, an old-time telephone, a Victrola, a typewriter, even a World War I-era Liberty Bonds poster. But what’s the machine at the 1:52 mark?
Palin wants to confirm that this was indeed footage from the museum and find out what that machine was. She’d also like to know for what purpose this footage was taken and what it was meant to document.
Know anything more about this footage? If so, have your say in the comments field below, where your words will be preserved, museumlike, for our descendants to ponder.
Tag(s): Hannah Palin • Lost and Found Films
