Loss of Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age | The CerebralRift

Lubin Manufacturing Company in 1911

Table of Contents

Introduction

Lubin Vault Fire

Fox Vault Fire

MGM Vault Fire

National Archives Vault Fire

Universal Studios Fire

Still Confusing

Conclusion

Introduction

Tom’s Hardware published an article about Nine PBS’s legal battle to recover 50TB of broadcast materials, representing 70 years worth of the station’s history/1 Tom’s Hardware was rather flippant about the situation, stating:

This wouldn’t have been an issue if the organization bought a $1,000 NAS and populated it with a few hard drives.

But this is a major issue. These digital copies are likely the only surviving copies of a piece of history. Could they have done better? Could they have followed the 3-2-1 backup plan? Yes, certainly. It’s easy to pass judgment on an organization when looking in from the outside. However, it’s another matter to actually be in the room, and understand the efforts behind the preservation of these volatile pieces of history.

On Bubbles Michael Harley recently posted about What happens to our blogs when we die?, with the idea of preserving his writings and some of his photography by making physical books he can pass along to his family. I responded by writing about generating e-books, and issues to consider when printing a book (such as archival inks and papers): Website Archival and Preservation.

This started me wondering about another, much more recent incident involving the potential loss of a massive collection of historically important materials held by a private company. I went to Wikipedia to look up the event, and ended up going down a rabbit hole of historical events that I had previously been unaware of. So, let’s talk about how some American companies have lost massive amounts of history.

Lubin Vault Fire

The Lubin vault fire2 is possibly one of the most tragic, and understandable of the losses of massive amounts of materials. On June 13th, 1914 one of the vaults on the Lubin Manufacturing Company caught fire. When the first vault caught on fire it actually exploded, causing several more vaults to catch on fire. As noted in the Wikipedia article, the loses were catastrophic:

Millions of feet of film were consumed in the flames, including most of the master negatives and initial prints of Lubin’s pre-1914 catalog, several of the company’s recently completed theatrical prints ready for release and distribution, a considerable number of films produced by other studios, inventories of raw and stock footage, hundreds of reels documenting historic events that occurred between 1897 and early 1914, as well as other films related to notable political and military figures, innovations in medical science, and professional athletic contests from that period.

There was no definitive cause of the fire, but there were several theories. The part that was fairly certain was that one of the canisters of film had “spontaneously” combusted, which in turn, started a chain reaction in the vault, which led to the explosion and the remaining vaults catching on first. This was a likely scenario because of the nitrate film used during the early years of motion pictures was known to be highly volatile. The volatility of the film was why the vaults were created in the first place.

The leading theory, supported by Siegmund Lubin, the studio’s founder and owner, was that some sunlight had been magnified through one of the dormer windows on the roof of the vault, and caused a canister to catch fire. However, years later, several employees of the company maintained that it was likely the person who ran films to the vault not putting out a cigarette that lead to the fire.

While the financial losses from the fire eventually lead to Lubin’s bankruptcy in 1916, the actual damages were fairly contained. Lubin had been meticulous when it came to safety precautions during the construction and operation of the plant. Fire extinguishers were plentiful and in full operating order. Emergency exits were designed into the building plans, and Lubin himself made certain that they were fully operational and accessible at all times. In the end, a few employees received minor injuries.

One boy was seriously burned from falling debris across the street from the vaults. Despite the three-foot thick brick wall that ran along the street, the explosions had thrown burning pieces of film and other material into the air and struck the boy. An actor, Harry Myers, was credited with much heroism during the fire, Including, finding, and getting the boy, Ray Eidio medical assistance. Overall, only twenty people were injured in the fire.

Today, the Philadelphia Free Library has a collection of Lubin related materials3 and several films are available on the Internet Archive4.

Fox Vault Fire

In 1937, a vault at the 20th Century Fox storage facility in Little Ferry,...