Commentary
About this Edition
In 2010, Smithsonian Magazine published an article, "The Faces of War," describing the rapid development of plastic surgery at the end of World War I. As illustration, this article included a link to a video showing work within a Paris studio for facial reconstruction. The article did not, however, describe the creation, preservation, or current location of the original film from which their digital copy was made. Subsequently, YouTube user Gilbert Kantin re-posted the clip, listing Smithsonian Magazine as his source. By the summer of 2015, it had been watched over 71,000 times.
Contacting Smithsonian Magazine, we were able to learn that the film from which their copy was digitized is currently preserved in the Otis Historical Archives of the National Museum of Health and Medicine (in Silver Spring, MD). The archive graciously sent us a full digital copy of their original, on hard disk. This hard copy is now held in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Archives.
The digital copy we present here is a full and faithful copy of this original, without any edits. (We have been able to confirm, as well, that the Smithsonian Magazine and YouTube copies also match this version.)
The archival citation for the original at the Otis Historical Archives is:
In 2010, Smithsonian Magazine published an article, "The Faces of War," describing the rapid development of plastic surgery at the end of World War I. As illustration, this article included a link to a video showing work within a Paris studio for facial reconstruction. The article did not, however, describe the creation, preservation, or current location of the original film from which their digital copy was made. Subsequently, YouTube user Gilbert Kantin re-posted the clip, listing Smithsonian Magazine as his source. By the summer of 2015, it had been watched over 71,000 times.
Contacting Smithsonian Magazine, we were able to learn that the film from which their copy was digitized is currently preserved in the Otis Historical Archives of the National Museum of Health and Medicine (in Silver Spring, MD). The archive graciously sent us a full digital copy of their original, on hard disk. This hard copy is now held in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Archives.
The digital copy we present here is a full and faithful copy of this original, without any edits. (We have been able to confirm, as well, that the Smithsonian Magazine and YouTube copies also match this version.)
The archival citation for the original at the Otis Historical Archives is:
“Red Cross Work on Mutiles, At Paris,” 1918 [Master], US Army / Allied Expeditionary Force, B&W, Silent, 16mm film, M 0010. OHA 252: NMHM Audiovisual Collection, Otis Historical Archives, National Museum of Health and Medicine.
See our citation guide for information on how this edition may be cited.
Publication HistorySee our citation guide for information on how this edition may be cited.
After the American Red Cross Bureau of Pictures’ New York office was closed on December 30, 1921, editor Linda Ristcher catalogued the films for storage for six months. The Bureau’s prints and negatives were moved to American Red Cross National Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and kept in government vaults.
The War War I films were forgotten until 1941, when the head of the Public Information Service, G. Stewart Brown, learned of their existence and offered them to the National Archives. During this process, it was discovered that the films had been removed from the vaults sometime in the 1930s and put in the attic of the National Headquarters building. While American Red Cross personnel wished to archive the footage immediately, the National Archives stated that no vault space was available. As a result, most films were apparently removed from the attic and burned. Still photographs in the Library of Congress show fragments of what those films looked like. While the American Red Cross was urged multiple times in the 1920s to build its own vault to preserve these films, they believed the high cost of the film vault was not justified. The surviving films exist more by accident than by design. Unfortunately, information on how or why our film in particular survived is unavailable.
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- "Red Cross Work on Mutilés, At Paris" (1918) John Randolph
