Iona College to house digital film archive
Iona College will house an archive of motion pictures produced in the early 20th century by the Thanhouser Company of New Rochelle.
The Thanhouser Film Archive will include digital archives of Thanhouser Company Film Preservation Inc.”™s cinematic and documentary holdings. The original Thanhouser Company, founded by Edwin Thanhouser, produced more than 1,000 films, making New Rochelle an early center of American filmmaking.
“The Thanhouser Film Archive will greatly benefit our community by honoring Thanhouser”™s pioneering contribution to our nation”™s cultural heritage,” said Michael Marsden, interim provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the college.
Thanhouser Company Film Preservation”™s archives include numerous surviving Thanhouser films, photographs, postcards, glass slides, posters and other items of ephemera.
“Thanhouser digital files will be directly accessible to the public,” said Dean Defino, director of film studies at Iona. “The archive will provide opportunities for Iona”™s faculty and outside scholars to conduct primary source research and adopt materials into course curricula, and for students to gain archival experience in this foundational area of mass media.”
Documents and artifacts in the Thanhouser Company Film Preservation collection will be archived and digitized by Iona librarians and student interns. Original Thanhouser Company films in the Thanhouser Company Film Preservation collection will be preserved by the Margaret Herrick Library at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, Calif.