Film Inventory
At Johns Hopkins University Institutions
Film & Video Preservation Committee
January 2005

Recorded Image and Sound Preservation Committee Page | Collections Preserved to Date

1.  Digital Video Services (formerly part of Instructional Television)
Approximately 320 videotape titles (3/4", hi-8, DVCam) in the videotape library.  This collection spans 1984 through today.  Some of the most notable are the Boris Yeltsin press conference, Abel Wolman interview, and Presidential installations--most of the collection is engineering oriented.  The collection is currently in a searchable database, accessible through the ITV web page - http://webapps.jhu.edu/itv1/search.asp

Mike Field, pmf@jhu.edu
Deirdre Hammer, deidre@jhu.edu
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2.  Hopkins Medical Video 
Film and Video Collections
Johns Hopkins Medical Video & Multimedia Services
Operated by Accelera, A licensee of the Johns Hopkins University

Approximately 1000 films in the Medical Film Collection. Most are 16mm color safety film, original ECO. Within that group there A/B rolls, magnetic track, optical track, out takes, answer prints and release prints of our in-house productions.  Films date back to the early 1930’s and are in varying degrees of acetic deterioration.  The collection contains medical greats of the past century, including early “talkies” of Dr. William Welch (1932) namesake of the Welch Medical Library and Dr. John J. Abel (1930) developer of insulin. A 1932 B&W silent film documenting a “day in the life” of the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

The Medical Video Collection consists of over 5200 tapes of various sizes and formats: 1” and ½” reel to reel tapes, ¾”, Beta Max, VHS, Beta Cam, Mini DV, Full Load DV and a few DV Cam, 8mm and Hi8 cassettes.  The production dates range from the early to mid 1960’s to the present.  We are fortunate to house the videos in a climate-controlled room in the Hospital within a compact shelving unit.  The video collection is a moving image history of Johns Hopkins Medicine. We have the first heart-lung transplant to take place at Hopkins, the separation of three sets of Siamese twins, laparoscopic kidney transplants, and countless cutting edge medical procedures.  The collections are cataloged using a database created with File Maker Pro 6.0, but are only available to Accelera employees at this time.

Dale Levitz, Accelera, dlevitz@accelera.com
Nancy McCall, The Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives, nmcall@jhmi.edu
Phoebe Letocha, The Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives, pletocha@jhmi.edu
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3. Special Collections, Sheridan Libraries
The archives has approximately 115 videotapes, in a variety of formats (VHS, U-matic, Beta) covering 1967-2001.  The subjects include MSE Symposium, commencement, faculty interviews, news coverage, and major speeches.  The U-matic videotapes are the more pressing preservation concern.  Topics include a symposium on 100 years of optical physics (a field in which JHU has been a leader), various symposia on higher education, and other symposia featuring internationally known speakers like Fernand Braudel, Noam Chomsky, James Watson, Linus Paulling, Italo Calvino and Robert Penn Warren.

Margaret Burri, Special Collections, Sheridan Libraries, mburri@jhu.edu
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4.  SAIS public affairs
SAIS collection include videotapes and digital tapes of major events of the last 5 years.  A deeper inventory is required.

Felisa Neuringer Klubes, fklubes@jhu.edu
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5.  Applied Physics Lab
Created in 1942, from its beginnings APL documented its research in images both motion picture and still photographs.  A wide variety of APL programs and history, including program reports, documentation, meetings and symposia have been captured in film or video over the years.  While some materials are classified, others are not, and this inventory takes stock of the declassified collections.  A continuing issue for this collection is getting classified historic films and other formats downgraded so they can be transferred and saved instead of destroyed.  Historic films and videos (both classified and unclassified) are a surplus to current operating needs of the technical groups.  Most recent efforts are to review historic or programmatic tapes for transfer to a more stable format.  Current holdings, approximately 18,950 items, span the various formats: 16 mm film, 35 mm slides, ¼” audio tape, audio cassette and several video formats.  The bulk of the video holdings are in ¾ U-Matic, MII, Beta SP and several digital formats, plus some obsolete ½”, 1” and 2” formats. 

The Historical Film Archive collection encompasses major program accomplishments at APL for US Navy and Department of Defense programs that contributed to US success in World War II, and in developing technology during the Cold War.  This collection includes 15 films that represent APL's response to the critical challenges of the 1940's, 50's, and 60's.  The collection is comprised of 15 films on reversal stock, each about a specific accomplishment or program area. 

The Space Film Archive collection consists of 15 films on reversal stock that provide a sampling of APL's contributions to early space exploration. Highlights include the Transit Navigation System, the first satellite based all weather global navigation, and projects that helped characterize the upper atmosphere and space environment for manned exploration.

John O’Brien, Applied Physics Lab, john.e.obrien@jhuapl.edu
240-228-6795
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6.  Sports
The sports information office has custody of hundreds of old films and videos, dating to the 1940s. Most are stored under the stadium in unheated and un-air conditioned conditions. Ernie Larossa is the contact person for this collection.

The formats range from 16mm black and white, and 16mm color, film to a variety of video formats.  This collection is the “old stuff” and since the 1980s or 1990s, the “new stuff” has been maintained in a different manner than these old films and videos. Ernie would know more.  Mostly the films appear to be coach’s film and game film.

Ernie Larossa, Athletic Center, elarossa@jhu.edu
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7. Peabody Collections
There is no information on whether the Peabody Music Collection has any film.

Elizabeth Schaff