• Preserving Kinescopes: The Pioneering Days of Early Educational Television

    Author(s):
    Matthew Wilcox (see profile)
    Date:
    2023
    Subject(s):
    Television film recording, Kinescope films, Television in education, Educational television programs, Television film--Preservation, Motion picture film--Preservation
    Item Type:
    Presentation
    Meeting Title:
    A Century of 16mm
    Meeting Org.:
    Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive
    Meeting Loc.:
    Indiana University, Bloomington
    Meeting Date:
    September 13-16
    Permanent URL:
    https://doi.org/10.17613/xd5w-zp05
    Abstract:
    Michigan State University (MSU) is home to WKAR-TV, the second oldest still-operating public television station in the country, and the oldest east of the Mississippi River. MSU Archives & Historical Collections has approximately 287 kinescope reels (many titles exclusive to WKAR-TV) in their collections. Prior to the advent of videotape in the late 1950s, many early educational television programs were captured on kinescope - a process in which moving images were recorded onto 16mm film through a camera positioned directly in front of a television station's broadcast monitor. Though the sound and picture quality were usually poor, and the process of creating kinescopes was expensive, the recordings captured instances of television broadcasts in their infancy. While some kinescope recordings contain programs produced by national networks such as National Educational Television (NET, now PBS), many unique educational shows were created by early educational television stations and distributed to other stations within the viewing area. This presentation reviews data collected from institutions with educational television kinescope titles in their holdings and will include a discussion on preservation methods that are (and could be) taken to provide greater accessibility to this rare content.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    2 months ago
    License:
    Attribution
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