May 6, 2010
In the dark about the tunnel: Can you provide information on this week’s film?
Editor’s Note: The UW Audio Visual Services Materials Library has more than 1,200 reels of film from the late 1940s through the early 1970s, documenting life at the University through telecourses, commercial films and original productions. Some of the short films are easily identifiable, but many more remain mysteries. Who shot these films and why? Can you help answer those questions? Faculty and staff can use the comments field at the end of the story to send ideas. Those outside the University can e-mail filmarc@u.washington.edu.
This week’s film is clearly labeled, but it still isn’t obvious to the layperson exactly what is going on. It opens with a title shot that reads as follows: Blue Glacier Project, 1967, Ice Fall Tunnel, and it’s identified as a project of the Atmospheric Sciences Department. After that, we see a man struggling in the snow with what looks like a wheelbarrow, which he takes inside an opening that is presumably the tunnel. Other shots show a man feeding cable over a pulley, someone touching the walls of the tunnel and ice coming off the wall in chunks.
What Film Archive Specialist Hannah Palin is looking for is Information about the Blue Glacier Project — its history, personnel and location — and what experiment is being conducted in the film.
Palin got a couple of clues about last week’s film, Crew Practices. One reader said the race depicted looked like the 1948 national championship on Lake Washington near Seward Park. Another suggested a source for more information. If you can help, be sure to post your information.
