Kane in Continuity Main Menu About the Collection "It isn't enough to tell us what a man did. You've got to tell us who he was."-Rawlston Materiality "Old age. It's the only disease, Mr. Thompson, that you don't look forward to being cured of."-Bernstein Describing the Collection "I don't think there's one word that can describe a man's life" -- Charles Foster Kane The Digitization Process "I run a couple of newspapers. What do you do?"--Charles Kane The Continuity Collection "Forty-nine thousand acres of nothing but scenery and statues. I'm lonesome." Susan Kane The Production's Chronology "I can remember everything. That's my curse, young man. It's the greatest curse that's ever been inflicted on the human race: memory." -Leland

Kane & Continuity

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In his article “Digital Transformations and the Archival Nature of Surrogates,” Paul Conway discusses how digitization not only preserves archival materials, but allows them to transcend their original value. Our digitization process seeks to fulfill this vision; our digitized photographs, are published on this site. This site will not only allow for Welles scholars and enthusiasts to view them from anywhere in the world, but also allows us to re-contextualize these materials in meaningful ways.

The sets for Citizen Kane were the product of close collaboration between director Orson Welles, art director Perry Ferguson,  and cinematographer Gregg Toland. All three would meet together to decide how each scene would be shot and therefore how each set needed to be constructed. Ferguson would give notes from these conversations to the artists so they could begin their preliminary sketches. These sketches were then passed between Welles and Ferguson until Welles was satisfied. At this point, a master sketch was completed and photographed.Some of the sketches, however, had to be redone due to budget constraints.
This collection serves as evidence of this collaboration. Many of these stills align closely with the shots of the completed film. These photographs also provide a unique insight to each set due to their utilitarian nature. Because the filmmakers needed to see where each piece of the set was placed, the entire set was illuminated. This provides a unique perspective on sets such as Xanadu and the Thatcher Library, where the lighting was dark and austere.  


This exhibit allows users to explore the sets of Citizen Kane in ways not possible outside of the digital realm. This path takes you through Citizen Kane scene by scene, placing the photographs side-by-side with stills from the film.
 

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