Preserving the films of Activist Allard Lowenstein
June 1, 2009 -- A grant of $5,690 from the National Film Preservation Foundation will allow the Library's Southern Historical Collection to preserve three films from the Allard K. Lowenstein Collection. Lowenstein, a liberal political activist and one-term Democratic congressman (1969-1971) from New York, graduated from UNC in 1949. Lowenstein was murdered in his New York office in 1980.
The films to be preserved include, most famously, footage of Lowenstein and friends crashing the royal wedding of Grace Kelly in Monaco in 1956. Also to be preserved are 1958 films of Lowenstein's travels in North Carolina and abroad in Russia, Brussels, and South Africa. Prominent individuals featured include Eleanor Roosevelt, South African author and activist Alan Paton and his wife, and former UNC president and United States Senator Frank Porter Graham.
The grant will fund preservation of the 8 mm films, including creation of both new film prints and public viewing copies. The viewing copies will be available for use at the Wilson Special Collections Library.
Related Links
