Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research

Ava Gardner and Kirk Douglas in a scene from the motion picture drama, "SEVEN DAYS IN MAY." Visit our current featured collection, The Papers of Kirk Douglas (1945-1978)


	Featured Collections In 2007 the WCFTR developed a pilot project that would provide authoritative scholarly websites focused on WCFTR collections that combine well-researched information with digitized selections of primary-source materials from our archives.

	Purpose of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research We believe that one of the most important gateways into understanding American culture is the original records of its creators, particularly in the field of drama and audio-visual media.

	History of the Center It may come as a surprise to learn that Madison, Wisconsin, far from the bright lights of Hollywood and New York, is the home of the one of the largest and most significant collections of media history in the world.

	Relationship with the Wisconsin Historical Society The WCFTR works closely with the Wisconsin Historical Society in carrying out its mission.

Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research Awarded NEH Grant

The WCFTR has been awarded a $200,000 grant by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The grant will fund a project titled “Investigation of Cellulose Nitrate Motion Picture Film Chemical Decomposition & Associated Fire Risk.” This project will test cellulose nitrate film stock with the goal of creating guidelines for the handling and long-term storage of this highly unstable medium.

Nitrate film is extremely flammable, as well as very susceptible to decomposition. Though discontinued in the 1950s, much of the early 20th century’s still and moving image content is stored on nitrate film base, and thus a large portion of America’s media heritage is at risk of deterioration or complete destruction by fire. Yet, very little empirical research on nitrate film decay and flammability has been conducted. This project will undertake precisely this research in a 30-month study that will bring together the WCFTR and the Wisconsin Historical Society with the UW-Madison Department of Chemistry’s Mahanthappa Research Group. Project results will be published in a white paper and translated into improved best practice guidelines for the handling and long-term storage of nitrate film. Moreover, this project will provide archival institutions with better information for cost-benefit analyses of preserving nitrate film holdings, as well as clarify contradictory information circulating in current standards and serve as a model for future collaborations between the archival, chemical, and safety communities.

Many thanks are due to Heather Heckman, interim director of the WCFTR and the proposal’s author, for helping secure this significant grant award. ”This is very important research, connecting the sciences and the humanities,” WCFTR Director Vance Kepley confirmed. ”Heather’s elegant NEH proposal identified that connection and produced significant grant activity for two L&S units, Chemistry and the WCFTR.”

If you’re unfamiliar with the WCFTR, its collections comprise one of the major archives of research materials relating to film, theater, radio, and television in the United States. The Center holds more than 300 manuscript collections, 15,000 motion pictures and television shows, 2,000,000 still photographs, and several thousand sound recordings. Although it is administered by UW-Madison, WCFTR’s film, photo, and manuscript collections are cared for and housed in the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Library-Archives Division. For more information about the WCFTR, please peruse our website.

The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research (WCFTR) is the home of one of the oldest and most extensive collections of print, audio/visual, and graphic materials relating to film, theater, radio and television in the United States. The Center is administered by the Communication Arts department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and works in close cooperation with the Wisconsin Historical Society. Our holdings focus on US entertainment-based media, though we also have smaller collections in social action documentary and non-US film, notably Hong Kong, Taiwanese and Soviet cinema. WCFTR collections are richest in records of the American film industry between 1930 and 1960, popular theater of the 1940s and 1950s, and television from the 1950s through the 1970s. They include over three hundred manuscript collections from outstanding playwrights, television and motion picture writers, producers, actors, designers, directors and production companies. In addition to the paper records, materials preserved include fifteen thousand motion pictures, television shows and videotapes, two million still photographs and promotional graphics, and several thousand sound recordings.

The Center also supports the UW Cinematheque, a vital part of Madison culture that provides free screenings of films from around the world, as well as the Wisconsin Film Festival.

For email and mailing addresses of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research staff, visit the contact section of this web site.