This is the first of six blog posts recounting my experiences with the film collection at the Teenie Harris Archive at the Carnegie Museum of Art. Charles “Teenie” Harris was born in 1908 in Pittsburgh, PA. He is best known as a photographer for the Pittsburgh Courier, which was America’s most widely circulated Black newspaper at its peak. In addition to his photography work, Harris also documented Pittsburgh in 16mm film.
The Teenie Harris Archive has some of this footage and is planning to begin conservation treatment in autumn, 2009. The collection includes roughly 3,250 feet of original footage divided between 10 reels. The content of these films includes recordings of people, community events and businesses in Pittsburgh’s vibrant Hill District, including depictions of Wylie Avenue. In addition to these films there are 2,500 feet of commercial footage of sporting events from Pittsburgh and elsewhere, as well as some cartoons.
Until now, I had worked with the Teenie Harris Archive’s still photo archive. For this project, though I will be attempting to draft a preservation plan that the Archive can use to maintain the collection after the conservation efforts have been completed. As a first step this week, I decided that an assessment of the collection was in order. Therefore, I gathered all documentation that the Archive had on their film holdings. Also I began to fill out the assessment form that was provided in the course documents. Furthermore, I did some research on preservation planning.
Next week, I hope to finish a draft of the assessment, and begin to look into more specific literature on film preservation.
