Historic Home Movies at Wilson Library

Monday, October 20, 2008
Reception at 5 p.m.
Program at 6 p.m.
Pleasants Family Assembly Room, Wilson Library
Free and open to the public
Program Information: Liza Terll (919-962-4207)

Celebrate home movies with an evening dedicated to the genre Oct. 20 in Wilson Library.

filmstrip graphic

The program will feature historic home movies in the Southern Folklife Collection and the Southern Historical Collection of the Wilson Special Collections Library. The footage will include:

Mississippi Delta in the 1960s - from the William R. Ferris Collection. Ferris is Joel Williamson Eminent Professor of History, senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South, and adjunct professor in the Curriculum in Folklore at UNC. Ferris will be on hand to introduce his films.
Men in South Carolina identified as former slaves (1928-29) - from the Harry Lee Harllee Films. Harllee, a naturalist, ornithologist, and taxidermist founded the Harllee Natural History Museum, in Florence. He also established Harllee Quattlebaum Construction, now Quattlebaum Development Company of Charleston, S.C.
Travels abroad in the 1950s - from the Allard K. Lowenstein Papers. Lowenstein, a political activist, served as a lawyer, teacher, speaker, author, congressman from New York, U.S. representative to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, and founder and leader of several organizations. He graduated from UNC in 1949.
"Friday Night at Tommy Thompson's" (1970s) - from the Tommy Thompson Collection. Thompson was a founding member of both the Hollow Rock String Band and the Red Clay Ramblers, as well as a playwright, composer, and actor. The film features an old-time music jam session.
An African American baptism near Enfield, N.C., in the 1930s - from the Harrison and Smith Family Papers.

The program coincides with both Home Movie Day (officially Oct. 18 this year) and North Carolina Archives Week (Oct. 20-26).

Home Movie Day began in 2002 when a group of archivists grew concerned about the fate of home movies shot during the twentieth century. Most Home Movie Day celebrations—including festivities scheduled this year at Duke and North Carolina State universities—feature screenings where participants can bring and share their home movies.

North Carolina Archives Week is an annual, week-long observance of the agencies and people responsible for maintaining and making available the archival and historical records of our nation, state, communities, and people.

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