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John Heminway Papers, 1968-2020

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Heminway, John Hylan, 1944-
Title
John Heminway Papers
Dates
1968-2020 (inclusive)
Quantity
68 linear feet
Collection Number
2660
Summary
John Hylan Heminway is a writer and a film maker who focuses on nature, science, history, biography, the American West, and Africa. His major works include six books, along with film work for ABC Sports, Anglia Television, the Discovery Channel, PBS (WNET/Thirteen and WGBH), Walt Disney Company, and National Geographic Television. The papers predominantly comprise materials related to his work as a writer and as a filmmaker. The collection includes drafts of his writings, research materials, correspondence, rough cuts of films, and finished products, and materials reflecting Heminway's education and life.
Repository
Montana State University Library, Merrill G. Burlingame Special Collections
Montana State University-Bozeman Library
Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections
P.O. Box 173320
Bozeman, MT
59717-3320
Telephone: 4069944242
Fax: 4069942851
Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research.

Languages
English, French, German, Swahili
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Biographical Note

John Hylan Heminway is a writer and a filmmaker who focuses on nature, science, history, biography, the American West, and Africa. He was born in 1944 in New York City to John Hyland Heminway Sr. and Jane Johnson. For primary and secondary school, he attended Buckley School in New York, le Rosey in Switzerland, and Saint Mark's School in Massachusetts. He graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts in 1966.

Heminway has published six books during his writing career: The Imminent Rains: A Visit among the Last Pioneers of Africa, No Man's Land, African Journeys: A Personal Guidebook, Disney Magic: The Launching of a Dream, Yonder, and In Full Flight. He has also produced articles for Town &amp Country, Travel &amp Leisure, Conde Nast Publications, National Geographic, and many other publications.

As a filmmaker, Heminway has held the roles of writer, director, and producer. His film making career began in 1968, writing for ABC Sports American Sportsman series. He went on to work for Anglia Television, the Discovery Channel, Public Broadcasting Service (U.S.) (PBS) specifically for the PBS stations of WNET (New York) and WGBH (Boston), Walt Disney Company, and National Geographic Television. For four years he was the producer and host of the PBS series Travels. His other major films and shows include National Geographic's Bones of Turkana, "Battle for Elephants" and its sequel "Warlords of Ivory," and PBS series The Brain, The Mind, and Evolution.

In the summer of 1960, he visited Africa for the first time at the age of 16 with Quentin Keynes. Throughout his travel and work in East Africa, particularly Kenya and Tanzania, Heminway came to know and interact with many people like Latham Leslie-Moore, Richard E. Leakey, Jonathan Kenworthy, and Anne Spoerry, all of whom are featured in his film and written works. Beyond writing and producing, Heminway also assisted in the planning, organization, and leading of trips to Africa and the American West.

In addition to writing and film making for the Walt Disney Company, Heminway was also a Creative Director for the Disney Vacation Club, and Director of Creative Development for Disney Cruise Lines.

Heminway has served on the boards and advisory councils of the African Wildlife Foundation, Trout Unlimited, American Prairie Reserve, White Oak Conservation Center, Okapi Conservation Project, Tusk and Elephant Family, and WildlifeDirect. He was also an adjunct lecturer at the Montana State University School of Film and Photography.

His work on The Mind won the 1989 Emmy for Outstanding Writing in Informational Programing. The Brain won the 1986 duPont-Columbia University Award. In 2016 he received an Honorary Doctorate from Montana State University, and in 2017 he was awarded the Edward O. Wilson Biodiversity Technology Pioneer Award by the American Computer and Robotics Museum for distinguished nature filmography.

Heminway married Katherine Wilmerdine Heminway in 1999; they have a daughter, Lucia.

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Content Description

The papers are predominantly composed of materials related to his work as a writer and as a filmmaker. The collection includes drafts of his writings, research materials, correspondence, rough cuts of films, and finished products, and materials reflecting on Heminway's education and life. His research materials include original interviews in both transcript and audio form, photographs and scrapbooks collected from interview subjects, copies of archival materials from other repositories, secondary materials such as newspaper and Wikipedia articles, and other internet research. The Travels episode "The Africa Passion" is the source of most of the rough-cut film in the collection and it is both film segments and entire reels of primary shoots and edited versions of 16 mm film that document the film making process of the 1990s. The finished products in the collection include published versions of his books, clippings of published articles, and Betacam, U-matic, and VHS copies of his film and television works. The collection also includes clippings of reviews and letters from readers and viewers that reflect how his work was received.

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Use of the Collection

Preferred Citation

[Creator Name], [Date of Creation], [Brief Description of Object], Folder [#], Box [#], [Collection Name], [Collection #], Montana State University (MSU) Library, Bozeman, MT

Alternative Forms Available

Original audio and video recordings for "The Africa Passion" as well as finished productions of "The Africa Passion," Bones of Contention, and "On Native Soil" are available as a digital collection: https://arc.lib.montana.edu/john-heminway/

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Items in the collection were arranged to keep identified projects together. Those projects were divided into the larger categories of "Books" and "Film" projects, with research that could not be associated with individual projects arranged as best as possible by similar topic.

Heminway frequently produced works on similar subjects in multiple formats, such as publishing book chapters as magazine articles, or producing film treatments to complement published books. In cases where smaller works became larger works, the archivist has attempted to put those materials, including the research materials, with the larger work, with some exceptions for the published versions of articles. Some research materials were on topics that were covered so often by Heminway, such as the continent of Africa, or the American West, that they were not associated with a specific project, but moved to the "Research and Business Communications" series.

Acquisition Information

Acquired from John Heminway in February 2020. Additional folder of Spoerry materials donated by Heminway in March 2022.

Processing Note

This collection was initially processed in December 2020. At that time, the collection was rehoused and mostly maintained the original order the items were donated in.

After some time, it was discovered that another round of processing was necessary to improve discoverability. In the meantime, in 2022, the media in the collection was identified and assigned media numbers. In February 2023, the second round of processing began. During the second round of processing items were completely reviewed and more defined series were developed. Materials were physically and intellectually re-ordered to better keep items of similar topics together. In rare instances, folders were reviewed and unrelated materials were separated and given their own titled folder, or added to appropriate folders. Thes rare instances have been noted in the scope and contents of both the original and new folders.

The second round of processing also assigned improved folder and item titles and removed duplicate materials. During this round of processing the archivist also identified a few media items that had not been identified and numbered during the initial media review and assigned numbers to those items, while also removing some of the numbered media items as duplicate items. These actions resulted in some gaps and duplication in the numbering system.

Some items came to the repository labeled as "Master Tape," but there is nothing on the item to indicate that they are in fact master copies. In these cases, the title of "Master Tape" has been maintained, but researchers should not regard that term as correct.

The second round of processing also identified items printed on thermo-fax that were in various stages of fading and items with personally identifiable information (PII) on them. Many of these items were copied and, where needed, digitally enhanced, or copied with PII redacted. Additional processing is still needed for identified thermo-fax as of June 2024.

The second round of processing was completed (with the exception of thermo-fax preservation) in July of 2024.

Separated Materials

During the second round of processing (2023-2024) easily identifiable duplicated items were removed from the collection. The removed items include the same versions of drafts, multiple copies of published articles, photocopies of research articles and reviews, and multiple copies of VHS tapes of the same programs. Other items were removed from folders relating to fund raising to protect the personal information of the donors (such as phone numbers, addresses, and amounts given). In addition to duplicated items, and items removed for sensitivity, items that were not clearly connected to the collection were also removed. Those items include George Being George, Reader's Digest from November 1980, a map of Kamishak Bay, Alaska, a 1996 Playboy Magazine in Japanese, a cassette of the Trap Family Singers from Christmas 1983, and a Smithsonian Magazine from January 1979.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Finding aid prepared by Sophia Phillips, substantially revised by Melissa Pomeroy
2024

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