Archives West Finding Aid
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Helen Louise Ford film collection, circa 1933-1945
Overview of the Collection
- Custodian
- Ford, Helen Louise
- Title
- Helen Louise Ford film collection
- Dates
- circa 1933-1945 (inclusive)19331945
circa 1933 (bulk)19331933 - Quantity
- 19 reels (6,896 feet) : silent, black and white and color ; 16mm
- Collection Number
- PH1042
- Summary
- 19 reels of 16mm film of a world cruise taken by Helen Louise Ford on the cruise ship, Resolute, in 1933, and some related color travel film from other trips.
- Repository
-
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu - Access Restrictions
-
Access to the original films is restricted due to preservation concerns. Arrangements can be made to view the films by contacting the Visual Materials Curator. Contact Special Collections for more information.
Many reels are in very poor condition.
- Additional Reference Guides
- Languages
- English
Biographical NoteReturn to Top
Helen Louise Ford (1877?-1957) was a wealthy San Francisco socialite married to George Kidwell Ford. Mrs. Ford traveled the world during the late 1920s and 1930s.
Content DescriptionReturn to Top
The bulk of the films were made while Helen Louise Ford was on Theodore Rothman's 1933 world tour aboard the cruise ship, Resolute . The collection includes footage of pre-WWII Europe, colonial India and North Africa, pre-statehood Hawaii, Siam, the Egyptian Pyramids, Monte Carlo, and the Taj Mahal. There are also many scenes of traditional life, daily activities, and cultural practices common in streets, markets, and other public places. There is footage of Jerusalem, Egypt, Djibouti (then, Somaliland), Bombay, Dehli, Benares, Darjeeling, the Himalayas, and Colombo. Other footage documents the far East: Bangkok, Angkor Wat, Singapore. The tour continues with visits to, Japan, Korea, Bali, China, Panama, and Havana. The films were probably made by a shipboard cameraman. Additional color films from subsequent trips to Mexico and Hawaii are also included in the collection.
Other Descriptive InformationReturn to Top
Individual film titles have been derived from film intertitles and labels present at the time of donation. Donor provided DVD viewing copies that were made from VHS transfers of the original films.
Use of the CollectionReturn to Top
Restrictions on Use
Restrictions may exist on reproduction, quotation, or publication. Contact the Special Collections division of the University of Washington Libraries for details.
Administrative InformationReturn to Top
Custodial History
The films and a collection of Japanese magic lantern slides were given to the donor's nephew by Helen Ford's niece.
Acquisition Information
Donor: Donald Root, June 30, 1999.
Processing Note
Processed by Alden Lee, 2012; Andrew Weaver, 2014; Kelly Burton, 2016.
Preservation Note
Many reels are in very poor condition.
Related Materials
Special Collections also has a collection of slides collected by Helen Ford. The visual materials that form part of this collection are described and indexed in the guide to the Helen Ford Collection of T. Enami Photographs .
Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top
International and Domestic TripsReturn to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
viewcopy | item | ||
VC179 | 1 |
New York; Madeira; Gibraltar;
Monaco; Nice
Ship leaving New York, Jan. 7, 1933. Captain Fritz Kruse on deck
with sextant, binoculars. Madeira. Terreiro da Lucta. Reid's Palace Hotel.
Funchal. Gibraltar. Alameda Gardens. Spanish street vendors with vegetables and
milk. Townspeople and donkey laden with baskets on steps in town. Monaco and
the French Riviera. The Grand Corniche. Nice. Monte Carlo.
Original
1 reel (460 feet) : silent, black and white ; 16mm
|
circa 1933 |
VC179 | 2 |
Naples; Pompeii; Greece; Holy
Land
Naples: views of busy streets, view of Vesuvius expelling
steam. Athens. Ancient temples, historic sites. Jerusalem: Jaffa Gate. The
Street of David. Orthodox priests in procession with coffin. Damascus Gate.
Streets of Jewish Quarter, men praying at Wailing Wall. Via Dolorosa. Church of
the Holy Sepulchre. Rachel's Tomb. The Well of the Three Wise Men. Bethlehem,
"City of Nativity."
Original
1 reel (417 feet) : silent, black and white ; 16mm
|
circa 1933 |
VC179 | 3 |
The Mystic Land of
Egypt
Egypt: woman wearing face veil. Pyramid, Sphinx. Cairo. The
Citadel and Mohamed Ali Mosque. The Mouski Bazaar, "Center of all Trades." Boy
shows carpet. Craftsman. Man weaving carpet. Pyramids. New Excavations.
Archeological dig site. Sphinx. The Nile. Views of buildings on shoreline.
Colossus of Ramses, alabaster sphinx at Memphis. Veiled women look at camera.
People talking at outdoor café.Wagon overloaded with people. Tea vendor.
Djibouti, Somaliland: People with jugs get milk from cow in street. Woman
smiles at camera and claps hands. Dancing and festivity. Three women with
jewelry, elaborate hairstyles clap and sing. People, probably tourists, dancing
on ship.
Original
1 reel (421 feet) : silent, black and white ; 16mm
|
circa 1933 |
VC179 | 4 |
India; Bombay;
Delhi
Bombay. The Tower of Silence on Malabar Hill. Parsee men with
body. Busy train station. Akbar's Fort. The Pearl Mosque. Woman washing clothes
in river. Tomb of Idmad-ud-Daul. Trained bird performs as its handler stands in
doorway. Bird lights a little cannon. The Taj Mahal. Man demonstrates wrapping
of a turban. Fatepur-Sikri. The Tomb of Salem Chisti. Delhi. Houmayoum's Tomb.
Building, man salutes coffin. Camel driven cart. The Tomb of Nizam-ud-Din. The
Kutab Minar. Jami Masjid, largest mosque in India. Men praying. Chandni Chouk.
Shajahanabad. View from train window.
Original
1 reel (386 feet) : silent, black and white ; 16mm
|
circa 1933 |
VC179 | 5 |
Benares on the Holy River
Ganges
Pilgrims bathing. A burning ghat. Procession with people
carrying corpse to river's edge. Preparation of funeral pyre. Tonsorial
artists. Man on bed of nails. Calcutta: Victoria memorial. Colonial tearoom,
people seated at tables. Jain temple. Goat sacrifice. Worshippers, holy man,
white peacock.
Original
1 reel (376 feet) : silent, black and white ; 16mm
|
circa 1933 |
VC179 | 6 |
Darjeeling; Kinchinjanga;
Himalayas
Steam train on track. Prayer wheels in a Tibetan monastery.
Kinchinjanga. Men sit on ground playing game with old card deck. Festive
ceremony with costumed dancers. Ceylon, the "pearl of India." A Ceylon devil
dance. Children in costume dancing. Elephant doing tricks. Colombo. Mt. Lavinia
Beach.
Original
1 reel (393 feet) : silent, black and white ; 16mm
|
circa 1933 |
VC179 | 7 |
Penang Malacca; Siam;
Bangkok
Ayer Itam Temple. Malaccirca Boats, busy market. Uniformed men
marching in formation down street. Sikh man. Siam. Bangkok, the "Venice of the
Orient." Wat Arun, the "Porcelain Temple." The Royal Palace. Temples and
worshipers. Wat Po. Dancers with Hanuman mask.
Original
1 reel (245 feet) : silent, black and white ; 16mm
|
circa 1933 |
VC179 | 8 |
Angkor Wat;
Singapore
Angkor Wat with elephants in foreground. Palace of the Leper
King, Pra Khan. The Boro Boedoer, ancient Buddhist temple in the heart of Java.
Rice paddies, farmer and buffalo plowing. People walking in rice paddy. Mendoet
temple. Merapi Volcano. Singapore. A man fills opium pipe and lies down to
smoke. Man tapping rubber tree in field. Tourists on a boat, women in bathing
suits.
Original
1 reel (576 feet) : silent, black and white ; 16mm
|
circa 1933 |
VC179 | 9 |
Java; Batavia; Buitenzorg;
Bali
Weltevreden, "Residence of the Dutch." People, probably
tourists, eating traditional Indonesian rijstafel ("rice table") dinner, served
by Javanese waiters. Mangostines. Hands opening fruit. Old Batavia. "The Sacred
Gun, where women pray for motherhood." People at shrine. Incense. Person making
an offering or praying. Buitenzorg. Semarang. Bali, "island of primitive
beauty." Batoer Crater. Traditional dance by two girls. Other dancers
performing. Musicians. Person in ornate bird costume.
Original
1 reel (451 feet) : silent, black and white ; 16mm
|
circa 1933 |
VC179 | 10 |
Zamboanga;
Manila
Men diving from sides of canoes or boats. Manila, Philippine
Islands. Filipina woman smokes cheroot while seated in chair. Horse and buggy
full of people and items strapped to sides on country road.
Original
1 reel (133 feet) : silent, black and white ; 16mm
|
circa 1933 |
VC179 | 11 |
China; Hong Kong;
Formosa
Views of Chinese junk sailing ships. Wedding procession: paper
lantern, marchers, ornamented sedan chair. Victoria Peak to Repulse Bay.
Canton. Small boats in busy harbor. Guards in uniforms with brass buttons walk
through gate in area with other gate, bars. Man with cigarette uses foot and
rope net pedal at machine to grind jade. The city of the dead. View of
courtyard, shrine, incense burners. Taihoku. Island of Formosa. Ryujanzi
temple.
Original
1 reel (394 feet) : silent, black and white ; 16mm
|
circa 1933 |
VC180 | 12 |
Shanghai; Korea
Shanghai. Chapei. Rickshaws. Funeral procession, flags, carrying
shrines, banners, very long dragon borne on people's shoulders. Ching-Wang-Tao
Refugees, April 4th, 1933. Armed soldiers. Peiping, "the former Peking." Views
of women with bound feet. Chien Men Gate. South gate of the imperial city.
Policemen walk past elaborately carved façade. The Forbidden City. The Temple
of Heaven. At the street barbershop, a man shaves another's forehead, braids
his hair. The Great Wall of China. Men with poles carry Ford in a basket chair.
Korea. Seoul. Keifuku Palace.
Original
1 reel (550 feet) : silent, black and white ; 16mm
|
circa 1933 |
VC180 | 13 |
Kyoto; Nara; Yokohama;
Tokyo
Kobe. Kyoto. Maruyama Park. Chion-In Monastery. Heiyan Shrine.
Ieyasu Shrine. Torii gate. Iyemitsu Shrine. People wearing both western style
and traditional Japanese clothes walk by an enormous temple bell. Man uses
large piece of wood to ring bell. Avenues of lanterns. Yokohama. A group of
women in kimonos stand atop a stage or platform and wave rising sun pattern
national flags. Kamakura's Dai-Butsu. Views of the giant Buddha at Kamakura.
"Tokio, the Imperial City." Mt. Fuji seen from train.
Original
1 reel (487 feet) silent, black and white ; 16mm
|
circa 1933 |
VC180 | 14 |
Hawaii; Panama;
Havana
Honolulu. Waikiki. Hula dancers perform in group with sticks.
Hilo. Kiluea Crater. A worker watches an outdoor conveyor belt carrying pieces
of cane. Rainbow Falls. Onomea Arch. San Francisco. The Panama Canal. Culebra
Cut. Through Gatun Lock. Havana, Cuba.
Original
1 reel (330 feet) : silent, black and white ; 16mm
|
circa 1933 |
VC180 | 15 |
Tsubameya Graph
Woman in kimono seated by candle. Man and woman outdoors stand
on riverbank as boats pass by.Effect of a camera iris opening. Man in Western
dress stands on shore with a camera. Busy park scene with people dancing.
Drummer, woman wearing long robe or dress faces man as she dances. Two men in
Western dress dance nearby. Two girls in school uniform run past. Water wheel,
boats. Building reflected in water. People with headscarves on riverbank. One
passes close to camera; she has a child strapped to her back. A person tows a
boat along a canal with a rope. Title card with kanji over the image of a
deer.View of a multi-story temple. View of small temple or shrine building and
water. Tourists with deer. Deer beg for food from a woman. Man walks through
crowd of deer carrying a box suspended from a pole. Deer walk in a herd. People
picknicking on the grass.
Original
1 reel (208 feet) : silent, black and white ; 16mm
|
circa 1933 |
VC180 | 16 |
Japan; Italy; New York
City
Three women and a man standing in a courtyard. Mrs. Ford feeding
deer in Japan. An ocean liner in harbor in New York, Statue of Liberty visible
in background. Skyline seen from ship's deck. Mrs. Ford standing next to an
Asian man with a white beard. Busy street scene, possibly in China. A street
performer in India wears a long robe, balances something on her head and
dances. Open, square stone cistern, man looking down into it. View of ruins of
Pompeii with Mt. Vesuvius in background. New York City traffic, including a
long moving van. Empire State Building façade. Gravestones in historic
graveyard on Wall Street. Harbor, zoo scenes.
Listed as "Reel 19" on access DVD.
Original
1 reel (165 feet) : silent, black and white ; 16mm
|
circa 1933 |
Reel | |||
17 | 17 |
Rothman
Itinerary
1 reel (200 feet) : Silent/B & W/Color ; 16mm
World Cruise Route, 1933. Maps showing animated line moving
along route through Mediterranean, then from Africa to India and to Asia.
Animated route map. No viewing copy available.
|
circa 1933 |
viewcopy | |||
VC180 | 18 |
San Juan,
Mexico
View of person looking out of the top of a bell tower. Man,
woman wearing yellow and purple costumes. They are on a broad, flat stage space
outdoors on a sunny day. Both scamper off and a performance begins. A crowd of
costumed people. Dancing in Mexican or Spanish style costumes. A woman in an
open sedan chair is carried onstage. Person in white costume resembling a
rabbit. Men and women singing, dancing. Elaborate theatrical performance.
Original
1 reel (287 feet) : silent, color ; 16mm
|
circa 1940 |
VC180 | 19 |
Cholula, Mexico
Mrs Ford and another woman in the midst of a market. A sign in
back reads "Garcia Crespo." Mrs. Ford or her companion walks with three local
children. Detail of painting shows images of mounted soldiers engaged in
battle. Façade of a large circular stone building. Mrs. Ford and tourist group
walk through market; a boy wearing a cap tries to sell flowers to them. Flower
market, vendors, Mrs. Ford and two women posing.
Original
1 reel (417 feet) : silent, color ; 16mm
|
circa 1945 |
Hawaii TripReturn to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
viewcopy | ||
VC180 | San Francisco; Hawaii
Hawaii. Ship sailing from the dock under the San Francisco
Golden Gate bridge, with some views of the ship from shore.
Surfing Waikiki, commercially-distributed short
film inserted featuring close-ups of surfing performers on vintage surf boards.
Another inserted film with close-ups of surfers on vintage surf boards. Another
inserted film called Hula Dancers records dance
performances as well as other tourist attractions, including plants. Tropical
fish in aquarium, with species spearated in tanks that contain different
species. Hula dancers performing in native costumes. Children, churches, public
and commercial buildings, families and tourists reboarding boats while a shore
band plays and the ship cruises into the sunset.
The two original reels (38 minutes/silent/color/16mm) from which
this footage was transfered were not included in the donation, and the location
of the originals is unknown. Footage exists only on the access DVD, with both
reels listed as "Reel 18" by the creator of the viewing copy. "Reel 18" begins
at at 1:01:25 on the access DVD.
|
undated |
Names and SubjectsReturn to Top
Subject Terms
- Visual Materials Collections (University of Washington)
Personal Names
- Ford, Helen Louise--Archives