Video
NPS Western Museum Laboratories, 1938
Descriptive Transcript
Title card: A Pictorial Story of the Western Museum Laboratories, National Park Service, Berkeley, California.
Intertitle card: This film was prepared by technicians attached to the Western Museum Laboratories.
Intertitle card: Forward. We, of the Western Museum Laboratories, take pleasure in presenting this pictorial story of our work. We hope it will be of interest to our associates in Washington and in the parks. We feel that it illustrates the work which is being done and the value of the Laboratories to the western national parks and monuments. The following pictures, taken in the studios and shops, show the personnel of many agencies at work—
Intertitle card: CCC—
About ten men climb into the back of a stake bed truck with arched support poles going from one side of the bed to another. The truck is parked in a wooded area and a cabin can be seen in the trees. After all the men enter, two others put the tailgate sections onto the truck. Although not identified by name in the film, the men are probably leaving from Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) barracks at Strawberry Canyon.
The truck driving along city streets, now with a canvas cover pulled over the arched support poles and covering the back of the truck. It pulls up in front of a large building with columns out front. Although not identified in the film, this is likely the rented Federal Land Bank Building located just off the University of California Berkeley campus. Two people exit from the truck’s cab, go around to the back of the truck, and remove one section of the tailgate, leaning it against the truck. Sixteen men use the tailgate as a ladder to get out of the truck and enter the building. The tailgate is placed back on the stake bed.
Intertitle card: WPA—
A man exits the front door of a house, followed by a woman. On the porch he takes off his hat and kisses her goodbye. He walks down the porch steps, turns to his left, and begins to walk down the sidewalk.
The man stands on a streetcorner. A car is parked on the road near him. In the background is a large building. A sign on the front of the building reads, “Coach Stop”. The man looks around.
Intertitle card: NYA—
A streetcar comes down a street lined with parked cars. As it passes another streetcar going in the other direction, people get off. Fourteen men and three women climb up the steps to the building with marble columns. A sign on the steps behind them reads, “National Park Service” but the rest of the text cannot be made out.
Intertitle card: All contribute to the program.
A view down the car-lined street to the large building with four ionic columns visible. The pediment indicates it as some sort of bank building in the near past. A sign for “Candy Store” is seen on a building on the left side of the street. A person crosses the street in the distance.
Between two of the columns a sign up on a building reads, “National Park Service. Western Museum Laboratories.”
Intertitle card: Personnel of the laboratories is comprised of CCC, WPA, and NYA.
A large group of about 75 people sit on the steps and stand in the entrance area, posing for a photograph. They quickly stand up and go inside the building. The “National Park Service. Western Museum Laboratories” sign can be seen above.
Men and women file into the building taking their positions at their desks or moving through other areas of building not seen on camera.
A close-up of an ornate clock face reads 8:50.
The camera pans around the room, past a three-dimensional model, to show people at their desks in the large building.
Intertitle card: The exhibit plan is the first step in any museum. It is the result of detailed research by museum technicians into the story which the museum is to tell. A great deal of time and effort is necessary to produce the plans, which must be complete before an exhibit may be started.
A man sits at a desk, pen in hand, comparing maps in one book to documents in another while making notes on a small pad of paper. On the far left of the screen a woman’s hand can be seen working a typewriter.
The cover of an exhibit plan reads “A Preliminary Exhibit Plan for the Museum at Guernsey Lake Park, Wyoming. Revised Edition by John C. Ewers. Western Museum Laboratories, National Park Service, July 21, 1937.”
Drawing of Case No. 6 “The White Man’s Road” exhibit case layout from the Guernsey exhibit plan.
Intertitle card: Before work can start on exhibits, the plan must be approved by all officials concerned.
View of the approval page for the Guernsey exhibit plan with nine signatures representing different levels of approval.
Intertitle card: Frequent staff meeting are held to discuss current work and future problems.
Seven men in conversation sit around a table as a woman sits nearby taking notes. The camera pans around the table.
Intertitle card: Flatwork plays an important part in exhibit preparation.
The camera pans around a room where nine men and one woman sit at drafting tables covered in drawings and other artwork.
Close up of a male artist working on a painting featuring a group of Native Americans. The camera zooms even closer revealing how the artist outlines the drawing with a paintbrush.
Intertitle card: Emphasis is laid on balance. This is obtained on dummy backgrounds, the same size as the case into which the exhibit will actually be placed.
A woman uses a hammer to tack three dummy backgrounds onto a wall.
Intertitle card: Balanced exhibits completed and ready for shipment.
Close up of finished, colored drawings demonstrating hunting, women cooking, and men harvesting corn to represent agriculture. These three scenes are the first color photography in this film. The camera pans across four hand-colored portraits of Native Americans. Another colored scene featuring Spaniards and Native Americans, horses, and sheep, is present. Spaniards and a friar appear to be waiting for payments, although other friars stand nearby as Native Americans kneel before them.
Another color exhibit panel features the Sonoran Desert with 11 portraits and flags above. To the right is an image of men being beaten above one with a man tied to a stake as a crowd looks on. The camera pans across the 11 portraits. A well-dressed Hispanic man featuring a cape, hat, and boots is illustrated in color, as is a woman wearing a skirt, blouse, and shawl. A drawing of Tumacácori at its height with sample exhibit text below gives way to a color drawing of ruins.
Intertitle card: The various models are made in the plastic art department, which is a veritable toyland, for most of the objects are in miniature.
A man sits at a desk in front of windows covered with blinds. A large statue of a naked man sits on the table behind him. The camera pans to the left revealing a woman and another man working on miniatures that their tables. The camera continues to pan to the left, revealing three men working on a model of Tumacácori Mission. Another man works on a wooden crate.
A man sits in a chair with what appears to be a paper bag on his head as he airbrushes a statue of a man on a horse in front of him.
Intertitle card: The diorama is a masterpiece of research, skill and ingenuity.
A couple of color images of dioramas representing the interior of Tumacácori Mission follow.
Intertitle card: First a small “test model” is made to insure proper atmosphere and balance in the large diorama.
View of a diorama model in a small wooden box followed by a close up detailing the building ruins, a gunfight, and wounded men. Although the film does not note this, the scene represents an attack on Tubutama during the Pima revolt of 1751, one of the dioramas for Tumacácori.
Intertitle card: To decrease the weight, the shell for the large model is made of sheet metal instead of plaster.
A man walks forward and touches a curved sheet metal and wood diorama shell.
The back of the diorama shell showing the wood structure around the sheet metal.
Intertitle card: It takes a good artist to transform a piece of sheet metal into a realistic background.
The back of a man as he reached into a diorama to paint the background. His artist’s palette can be seen in the left hand.
Intertitle card: The small figures, brush, trees and terrain of a diorama foreground take time and patience.
Close up of a man using a pallet knife to sculpt a Native American figure. The flame of a small lamp burns next to him, used to help his tools work the clay better.
Close up of a man’s hand fixing a diorama figure of a man mounted on a horse, next to a Native American standing next to another horse. Although the film does not say this, this figure on the horse represents Father Kino, founder of the mission at Tumacácori.
A man uses tweezers to put a broad-brimmed hat onto the back of a small kneeling figure. Close up of that figure together with a kneeling woman as a hand holding tweezers adjusts her skirt.
A man sits at a table placing small branches into a larger shrub like plant held in his other hand. Close up of him using tweezers to place the branches.
Intertitle card: Brush bristle becomes cactus spines.
A man sits at a table cutting bristles from a brush. Close up of him using tweezers to insert the bristles into globular cactus bodies. He trims the bristles with scissors to get just the right look.
A man at a workbench puts a small rifle into a vice mounted to the side of the bench. Close up of how he uses tweezers to attach the flintlocks to the rifle.
Intertitle card: When the foreground of a diorama nears completion, it is fitted into place and the final ”touching ups” are done.
Two men carry in the foreground scene representing the Pima rebellion of 1751 showing the attack on Tubutama and place it within the diorama shell which now has a painted background with sky and clouds. They add figures to the diorama scene. One man stands admiring it with his hands on his hips as another brings in more figures to add. They make the final adjustments together.
Intertitle cards: This is not a nudist colony. When completed, all figures will be fully clothed.
Panning close ups of the unpainted and unfinished wax bodies in the Tubutama scene before it was finished.
Intertitle card: Another diorama nearing completion. “Father Kino on the Trail.”
View in color of diorama scene featuring Father Kino on a horse with a Native American guide standing next to him and another horse set in a desert scene with cacti and a few cows, with a background of mountains and a cloudy sky.
Close up views of the diorama with a tight view of Father Kino and his companion.
Close up view of the cows in the diorama.
Intertitle card: And another. “Mining activities at Tumacácori.” At the left is the Indian type. Center is the Spanish type. Right is the American shaft.
View of the unfinished diorama in the shell showing a cross section of three different mining tunnels below ground. Above are painted mountains and sky.
Intertitle card: Each diorama has its own peculiar lighting problems, depending on the background, colors, and objects in the foreground. Filters are used to produce the best effects.
A man attaches lights with aluminum shades to a piece of wood.
Intertitle card: The End of Reel One.
Department of the Interior seal.
Intertitle card: When completed, this complicated mass of wires will automatically tell the story of explorations in the southwest. It contains approximately 1000 one-quarter watt globes; 12,000 feet of wire and 3500 lug connections. This map will tell the story of explorations far better than any text book and in a much shorter time.
Three men work around a large wooden platform and a separate board with many wires and connections on them.
The large wooden platform tilted up to reveal the start of a map together with all the wires beneath and next to it.
Close up of all the wires and connectors on the back of the wooden platform, which is divided into small boxes by cross pieces of wood providing strength to the platform.
Intertitle card: A small test map shows how its big brother will work when completed. The test map shows but one route; the completed on will show thirty-on in sequence by touch of a button.
Locations begin to light up on a small map of the Aztec Empire in 1519.
Another scene labeled 1915 Hernando Cortes traces his route through the Aztec Empire, lighting a path from place to place.
Intertitle card: In the shops carpentry and metal work, as well as casting, is done.
Close up of a January 3, 1938, letter on Mount Rainier stationary to Dorr G. Yeager, assistant chief of the Museum Division from O. A. Tomlinson, superintendent. Letter reads, ‘Dear Mr. Yeager: On a recent nature trail which we are laying out we will have need of approximately 199 stamped labels similar in size to those which you have sent in the past. We shall appreciate it if you can manufacture these labels for us and ship them to Mount Rainier National Park as soon as possible. The copy for the 100 labels in attached.”
Scene of a man sitting at a machine, spinning it and pulling a lever to make the requested signs for Mount Rainier. Close up of the embossed metal sign held in the man’s hand.
A man wearing safety goggles welds metal with a torch into a V shape with a long stem.
Another man at the same workstation connects a metal sign in between the two ends of the V on the shape just made. A close-up reveals that that the finished sign with white embossed letters reads, “The Canadian Zone. This deep wooded region of the park is known as the Canadian Zone as plants and animals here resemble those of southern Canada. Plant and animal life varies with altitude as well as latitude.”
Intertitle card: Casts of everything, from prehistoric animals to man, are made here.
A man in overalls and splattered with plaster stands at a wooden workbench mixing plaster in a bowl. He begins to spoon and pour it into a mold on the workbench in front of him.
After the plaster has set, the man removes the mold to reveal an upside-down figure. He turns it over and sets it on the bench to reveal the figure of a bare-breasted woman wearing a loincloth and carrying a basket or pot in her arm.
Panning view of plaster casts on a shelf. The figures represent prehistoric animals such as giant sloth, alligator-type creature, camel, large horse-like animal, a wild cat, and a mammoth. Two human figures include the bare-breasted woman cast in the previous scene and another woman kneeling to grind corn.
Another panning shot of figures which now appear to have a base coat of paint on them or are modeled in wax, including the camel, wild cat, a man in a hat, a woman carrying a large jar on her shoulders, a man on a horse, the bare-breasted woman carrying the basket or jar, a long-horned cow, and another woman.
Intertitle card: A few of the many relief maps prepared at the Western Museum Laboratories.
An octagonal relief map stored on its side. A large rectangular relief map which has not yet been painted propped up on sawhorses. An unpainted plaster model of Devils Tower.
Intertitle card: The carpenter shop—
A panning shot across the carpenter shop showing at least ten men working in the room. Two men work together at a saw cutting strips of wood. Stacks of wood and various wood-cutting tools are seen throughout the space.
Intertitle card: and some of its products:
A man comes and removes the front of an unpainted wooden cabinet, revealing that it is full of drawers with a hole cut in each. The man demonstrates how to open the drawers with a finger using the hole as the handle. He then puts the front of the cabinet back on, securing the latches. Although the film does not say this, this is an example of the geology cabinets the lab made for park museum collections.
Intertitle card: Some of the study skin and herbarium cases require metal covers.
A man bends over a piece of sheet metal on a stack of wood, using nippers to cut along a line drawn on it.
Another man tacks the sheet metal onto wooden pieces. He removes the finished cabinet section revealing his work. A stack of finished panels leans against the wall in the background.
Intertitle card: These cases will house rare study collections in the various parks.
View of several unfinished herbarium and geology cabinets stacked together. A man walks across the scene towards one of the geology cabinets, but the scene cuts away.
Intertitle card: A WPA nurse is available at all times.
A nurse, with her back to the screen, organizes medical supplies on a cart. She turns as a man walks in holding one hand. He sits down, revealing a cut on his right forearm. She immediately treats it by daubing a cotton ball into what is presumably a disinfectant then putting it on the cut and wiping it dry with another cotton ball.
Intertitle card: In addition to the preparation of museum exhibits, many other services, of value to the parks, are rendered by these laboratories. Such as—
Intertitle card: mimeographing publications—
A woman stands turning the handle on a mechanical drum occasionally placing a stiffer piece of card into the tray receiving the copied papers.
The same woman stands in between two large wooden trays divided into page-size sections filled with mimeographed pages. She goes along pulling a page from each box to collate the document.
Another woman stands in front of a large stapler, stapling the side of collated documents.
Close up of a finished document title page reading, “A Report on the Geology of Devils Tower National Monument by William L. Effinger”. The report is held in a three sided frame which falls forward, revealing a rotating display of different reports prepared by the Laboratories, including “Mammals of the Navajo Country”, “The Zoology of Rocky Mountain National Park”, “The Blackfoot”, “Material Culture of the Pima, Papago, and Western Apache”, “Ethnology of Rocky Mountain National Park: The Ute and Arapaho”, and “Historical Background for the Rocky Mountain National Park”.
Intertitle card: repairing books—
A woman sits at a desk organizing pages into a three-sided wooden box as another woman walks up to her desk and hands her a book that has fallen apart.
The woman sits before a wooden and metal frame resewing the binding of the book. After she has finished sewing, she then uses a brush to paste endpapers in place, closes the cover, and reveals a finished hard-cover book.
Intertitle card: making file boxes—
Two men and a woman sit assembly line style at a table applying cut strips of fabric to the outside of file boxes, rubbing it smooth with wooden blocks. The rolls of fabric are in the foreground.
At least 80 finished file boxes stacked 10-high on a table.
Intertitle card: mounting plants—
Three women sit at a large table with sheets of plants spread out in front of them. A close up shows one of the women using strips of white linen tape to adhere the plants onto the sheets. A paper packet, known as a fragment packet, is attached to the upper left corner of the sheet. A finished herbarium sheet with plant label is then shown.
Intertitle card: In the five photographic dark rooms of the Western Museum Laboratories every type of work is done; developing, printing, enlarging, copying, lantern slide production, etc. Thousands of negatives are on file to be used not only by the laboratory technicians but by the various parks as well.
A man works at a copy stand, adjusting a large document he will photograph. Two men sit at a table in the background.
In a darkroom, a man stands developing photographs in a bath of chemicals in a tray. He pulls out the photo to examine it and puts it back into the bath.
The light comes on in a darkroom revealing a man with a large photograph in a wooden frame. A close up depicts a photo of a Native American child and his dog. The man using his hands around the photo.
A close up of the same photograph with a man’s hand carrying a stylus filling in white spots on the photo. A final shot shows the touched-up photograph.
Two woman pull photographs mounted on large cards from drawers in a long row of filing cabinets.
Intertitle card: making lantern slides.
Close up of a letter on Lassen Volcanic National Park stationary to Dorr G. Yeager at the laboratories from John C. Preston, superintendent at the park. “Dear Mr. Yeager: I am enclosing 150 photographic negatives which we would like made into lantern slides and colored. Detail color notes and captions will be found attached.”
A man places a glass plate on a table and adjusts a large vertical camera above it.
A woman in an office sits at a desk in front of a glass slide on a backlight box. Another woman points to an aspect of the slide, apparently inspecting it, as the seated woman nods. She moves to another woman seated nearby looking over that work.
A close up of a woman painting a lantern slide. A similar image is placed above apparently for reference. She grabs a magnifying glass to check her work then paints again.
Women sit around a table. Two tape the edges of the lantern slides. Opposite them sits a woman typing furiously on a typewriter. A woman behind her looks at slides on a slanted light table.
A close up in someone’s hand of a completed lantern slide with taped edges and a typed label.
A series of backlit lantern slides. The first shows three men on a trail next to a balanced rock feature. Another features a man in cowboy gear on a horse. Then one of a raging river in a canyon, followed by one with a group of rangers standing in a forest looking at a large map or plan. Scene changes to a lantern slide of a baby Trumpeter swan in a lake, its reflection showing in the water. Next is a close up of a flowering plant, then one of a large bear.
Intertitle card: When orders from parks are completed.
Two men hammering together a shipping crate. One man then places diorama figures inside the crate and nails the lid closed.
A man sits on a wooden bench stenciling a label on a large, square shipping crate labeled “Tumacácori” down the narrow side. Close up of the stenciled address “Custodian, Tumacácori Nat’l Monument, Nogales, Arizona.”
Men load that crate on top of others in the back of a canvas-covered stake bed truck and the truck drives off, with one man still in the back, being jostled against the crates.
Intertitle card: The laboratories are here to serve the parks and monuments by making exhibits and equipment for museums and other parts of the educational program. Many of the things made here are supplied without cost to the parks; others, for the mere transportation charges. Park superintendents and naturalists should let us know their needs. We may be able to help them.
Card: The End.
Description
Silent black-and-white film with some color scenes depicting the work done by the NPS Western Museum Laboratories. Created by the NPS to advertise the lab's services to parks and the Washington Office. Filmed in early 1938, it does not include silkscreen poster making, which started later that year. Demonstrates services such as exhibit planning; making dioramas, museum cabinets, relief maps, and signs; photographic services including hand-coloring lantern slides; mimeographing; book repair; and others.
Duration
20 minutes, 58 seconds
Credit
NPS History Collection (HFCA 2486)
Date Created
08/24/2023
Copyright and Usage Info