Film in the lives of others

For most of us, our own moving image artefacts, be it televisions or cameras and all the accompanying paraphernalia, are simply a part of our daily existence, occupying a peripheral area of our lives. It is this almost incidental dimension of screen-related objects that is explored by Beamish, the North of England Open Air Museum in its presentation of the social history of the people of the North East of England. Here projectors, cine cameras, stereoscopes and zoetropes are viewed within a much wider social context. One which gives weight to documents such as trade catalogues for example. This collection, which dates from the 1820s, includes early twentieth century items for photographic and optical equipment, ‘Catalogue of Science Lanterns, Magic Lanterns, Dissolving-View Apparatus and Lantern Slides’ (1921) right through to cine film processing leaflets from the 1960s. People’s recollections of working in cinemas, as well as visiting them, are also recorded in some 40 interviews, a significant element of the museum’s oral history collection which was started in 1970.