#archivesmonth2014

In celebration of October’s Archives Month and Home Movie Day!  Part 2:  Archaeological Excavations, Starved Rock, Illinois, ca. 1949

What is a home movie? Content? Location? Film gauge? Camera? Camera person? Intended audience? In this silent b&w film footage shot by archaeologist Kenneth Orr, the location is Starved Rock State Park in Illinois which was inhabited for hundreds of years by American Indians, the site of the 17th century French Fort St. Louis and a ca. 1949 temporary camp for University of Chicago students. The content is an archaeological excavation conducted by a joint Illinois State Museum and University of Chicago team showing the dig and camp life. When the film was acquired, it was so deteriorated that it could not be wound off the film reel. Only through the valiant efforts of Cinema Arts (Pennsylvania) and Restoration House (Canada—now defunct) was the film rescued and preserved. Imagine our surprise when we viewed the film thinking the content would be Orr’s archaeological work in Burma! The intended audience is unknown but we hope that YOU the current audience enjoys this film!

Part 1: Archaeological Excavations, Starved Rock, Illinois, ca. 1949

In celebration of October’s Archives Month and Home Movie Day! 

What is a home movie? Content? Location? Film gauge? Camera? Camera person? Intended audience? In this silent b&w film footage shot by archaeologist Kenneth Orr, the location is Starved Rock State Park in Illinois which was inhabited for hundreds of years by American Indians, the site of the 16th century French Fort St. Louis and a ca. 1949 temporary camp for University of Chicago students. The content is an archaeological excavation conducted by a joint Illinois State Museum and University of Chicago team showing the dig and camp life. When the film was acquired, it was so deteriorated that it could not be wound off the film reel. Only through the valiant efforts of Cinema Arts (Pennsylvania) and Restoration House (Canada—now defunct) was the film rescued and preserved. Imagine our surprise and delight when we viewed the film thinking the content would be Orr’s archaeoloigcal work in Burma! The intended audience is unknown but we hope that YOU the current audience enjoys this film!

The Truffle Hound of American Poetry 

Jonathan Williams reads his 1958 poem "O, For A Muse of Fire!"

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I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by      madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at      dawn looking for an angry fix. . .                 —Excerpt from “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg 

  Jonathan Williams (1929-2008), a poet most strongly identified with the Black Mountain College group and founder of Jargon Press, turned down the opportunity to publish Allen Ginsberg’s celebrated poem “Howl” with no regrets. He later rationalized, “If Jargon had published it . . . it would have sold 300 copies.”[1]

Williams was a generous publisher, known for rooting out obscure but gifted poets, hence the lofty title “truffle hound of American poetry,” bestowed on him by literary critic Hugh Kenner. A gentleman — some would say gadfly — from Highlands, North Carolina, where he lived most of his adult life, Williams was incredibly active until his death at age 79. Today, the Jargon Society at Black Mountain College is a continuation of his efforts.

Williams’s own poetry, and that of the Black Mountain College poets of the 1950s, was “visual.” The poetry, much like his personality, entailed the use of wit and was heavily influenced by painting and music.[2] 

We know that “Howl” was later published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s City Lights.  In fact, the Beat poets were a tight group of associates spanning all of North America. Ginsberg, Williams, and Ferlinghetti, as well as Gregory Corso, Robert Creeley, Kenneth Koch, Kenward Elmslie, and Michael McClure came together at the National Portrait Gallery in April 1996 for a symposium and marathon poetry reading held in conjunction with the exhibition “Rebels: Painters and Poets of the 1950s.”

This video of Williams reading his 1958 poem "O, For A Muse of Fire!" is an excerpt from that event. It’s evident that Williams lived up to his self-declaration,

“If my eyes stay open and my ears stay open, very little bores me.”[3]

The video of the entire poetry reading is held in the National Portrait Gallery’s audio-visual archive.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/books/30williams.html?_r=0

http://www.nclhof.org/inductees/1998-2/jonathan-williams/