Saving and Sharing the USMC Film Collection

Saving and Sharing the

United States Marine Corps Films

University of South Carolina Libraries Moving Image ­Research Collections

Moving images shape our ­collective m­­­­emory as a nation.

The raising of the flag at Iwo Jima, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and September 11th all remain vividly imprinted in our memories because those events were captured on film and shared with us.

Whether we saw the events on live television, or many decades later on the internet, the emotions that video conveys stay with us, and become part of our individual life experience. Those videos shape our understanding of events, and inform our beliefs, attitudes and opinions.

The power of the moving image.

Preserving and protecting moving images from our past – films, documentaries, news footage and amateur videos – are critical to future generations’ understanding of these events, the context in which they took place, and our history as a nation and world.

Without the work and expertise of film conservators, catalogers and ­curators, we wouldn’t have access to the wealth of restored and historical films that are so easily found and watched online today.

Saving a film takes

University of South Carolina Libraries’ Moving Image Research Collections (MIRC) in Columbia, South Carolina does exactly this type of co­­mplex film work.

MIRC is one of the largest and most respected academic film and video repositories in the country. Its staff conserve and preserve films and videos produced outside the American feature film industry, making them accessible worldwide.

MIRC’s collection is large and growing. Its holdings total more than 6,000 hours of archival footage used by documentary filmmakers, historians and scholars. MIRC’s films have been screened at recognized film festivals around the world.

MIRC was established in 1980 when Twentieth

a lot of know how.

Century Fox Film Corporation donated the Fox Movietone News Collection to USC. Holdings have since grown to encompass materials in these primary areas: • Newsfilm Collections – including rare footage from the Civil Rights era, the Vietnam War and the first lunar landing • Science and Nature Films – including Roman Vishniac films • Chinese Film Collection – donated by the People’s Republic of China • Regional Film Collections – consisting of amateur and professional films made throughout the Southeast

United States Marine Corps Films

100 years of U.S. Marine Corps history chronicled

$2 million needed to save, catalog and share the films

Create an education tool for students in K-12 through college.

10,000 unique films

Show future generations the faces and actions of those who fought for their freedom.

at a glance Provide an opportunity for former Marines and their families to reconnect with their history.

$400,000 donation secured for a storage vault

Build a research archive for historians to better understand past conflicts and military operations.

1,800 hours of 16 and 35 mm film

Saving the

Marine Corps films

In 2016, MIRC began receiving shipments of film that comprise its newest project — the United States Marine Corps films.

The Marine Corps University History Division and MIRC recently formed a partnership to p­r­eserve and make accessible a large, historic collection of U.S. Marine Corps films that were housed in Quantico, Virginia. The collection includes nearly 10,000 reels of 16 and 35 mm film documenting the operational history of the Corps throughout the 20th century, with footage of World War II, the Korean War and the Vi­etnam War. Also included are peacetime films of training, testing and public relations activities.

Quantico reached out to MIRC to permanently store, digitize and make the collection accessible online because of MIRC’s expertise and experience with archival film. The stewardship of this collection and the responsibilities its conservation entail clearly demonstrate MIRC’s excellent management of not only rare archives, but also national treasures.

MIRC received a generous $400,000 gift from Richard and Novelle Smith, in honor of Marine Capt. James H. Davis of Columbia, South Carolina, to construct a large, cold storage vault in which the Marine Corps films will survive without deterioration for approximately 300 years.

Our Mission

To take this extraordinary film collection from one that is simply preserved in a vault to one that is digitized and available online to everyone – veterans, military buffs, historians, researchers, filmmakers, students and families worldwide – we need your support now.

MIRC is actively seeking $2 million for its United States Marine Corps Film Repository Fund to inventory, inspect, digitize, review, catalog and make all 10,000 reels of film searchable and accessible online.

To accomplish this, MIRC must purchase specialized scanning equipment, computers and web servers; fund the staff to review, describe and catalog the vast

collection; and then provide the technology to support ongoing access to the online archive.

Timing is critical. The Marines who served their country in the 20th century are aging. Their memories – a vital source of context for these films – will soon be lost.

MIRC invites you to join this effort to not only save a national treasure, but to become an active participant in shaping the collective memory of future generations.

Give now.

To discuss gift options or naming opportunities, contact Beth Well University of South Carolina L­ibraries Development Director 803-777-1909 wellbeth@mailbox.sc.edu Visit the MIRC website at library.sc.edu/marinecorps