Moving Picture Age (Jan-Dec 1922)

The NATIONAL ACADEMY of VISUAL INSTRUCTION OFFICERS President: F. W. REYNOLDS, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah Vice-President: G. E. CONDRA, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Neb. Secretary: J. V. ANKENEY, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo. Treasurer: CHARLES ROACH, Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE W. H. DUDLEY, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin F. W. REYNOLDS, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah G. E. CONDRA, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska DUDLEY GRANT HAYS, Assistant Superintendent of Schools,Chicago W. M. GREGORY, Cleveland School of Education, Cleveland W. C. CROSB Y, State Department of Education, Raleigh, North Carolina A. G. BALCOM, Assistant Superintendent of Schools, Newark, New Jersey A department conducted by the Secretary for the purpose of disseminating Academy news and thought ANNOUNCEMENTS LETTERS have been received from, several persons stating that they were members of the Academy but had not been receiving its publications. This is due to the fact that the proper names or addresses or both were not turned over to me by the former secretary. All such members, who have not been receiving Moving Picture Age or have not received the statement for annual dues, should write me at once. The following is the personnel of the Publications Committee : W. H. Dudley, University of Wisconsin, Madison, and W. M. Gregory, Cleveland Normal School, Cleveland. The Secretary of the Academy is chairman of this committee. All material offered for publication in the official Academy department in Moving Picture Age must be presented to this committee for approval. Manuscripts should be addressed to the Secretary. The third annual meeting of the Academy will be held at Lexington, Kentucky, April 18-20. Suggestions for this program should be mailed to the Secretary at once. The President has appointed the following Program Committee : J. V. Ankeney, chairman; W. M. Gregory; J. W. Shepherd; A. W. Abrams. J. V. Ankeney, Secretary of the Academy. [The following is a contribution by Alfred W. Abrams, member N. A. V. I., and Chief, Visual Instruction Division, New York State Education Department.] VISUAL INSTRUCTION AS ENCOURAGED THE NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT BY THE VISUAL Instruction Division of the New York State Education Department prepares and lends for free use throughout the state various forms of aids to visual instruction, particularly lantern slides and photographic prints. It also encourages the use of high-grade reproductions of works of art for wall decoration in schools through loans and through approval of such reproductions for apportionments of state money in part payment of cost. It likewise approves projection apparatus and undertakes to encourage the educational use of pictures. This article deals specifically with the lantern-slide collection of the Division. Basis of Collection and Standards Maintained. State-owned negatives are the basis of the loan collection of slides. Most of these are original negatives, that is, made directly from the objects represented. The standard size of negatives adopted is 6^4 by 8^2 inches. Formerly the 8-by-10 size was used, but the smaller size proved to be more satisfactory for prints, where the problem is to use a mount that is not too large for easy filing and circulating and at the same time provides a suitable margin for artistic effect. Negatives of large size are required for making prints • by contact. Further, better slides can be made from large negatives by reduction than from small ones by contact. Only glass plates are used. Film negatives for a collection of this sort are considered objectionable. Economy in Ownership of Negatives There are several reasons for ownership of negatives. Notwithstanding the relatively high cost of obtaining negatives of the character and quality required by the standard adopted, ownership is cheaper in the long run than purchasing slides. The Division furnished only the slides announced in its printed catalogues, but when slides have been announced the Division holds itself responsible for supplying on short notice at the time wanted whatever slides are called for. It is now doing this to the extent of more than 98 per cent, but could not if dependent upon purchases from numerous sources, on account of time required for executing orders and because of withdrawal of trade material. Ownership of negatives gives the Division much fuller control of the character and quality of its slides. This is of the utmost importance. If the use of slides is to be increased to the full extent to which they can be made educationally profitable, standards of excellence must be maintained that are quite the equivalent of those found in the publication of books. It costs no more to make slides from negatives of the highest grade than from inferior ones, and this is a fact to be kept constantly in mind when from 50 to 100, ultimately perhaps several hundred slides, are to be made from a negative. It does cost more in thought and money to keep up the highest standard of slide-making even after the negative has been secured. The Division makes from each negative a plain slide that is accepted as the standard for all duplicates. A similar guide is used for coloring. The plain guide or test slide determines the size of image, composition, depth of printing, tone, and other features of all duplicates. About 20 per cent of all slides made are for one reason or another never put into this loan collection. Qualifications of Material In determining what slides to color, the need of color to express something for which the slide is to be used is fully considered. Stress is laid upon correctness of coloring. Painting slides are colored only when the guide slide can be made from the original painting. The same is true for birds, flowers, and many objects. An incorrectly colored slide is as much an untruth as a misstatement in a book, and equally open to complaint. Many pictures that appear in books and also in the form of slides are insignificant. A constant aim of the Division is to keep out of its collection all pictures that do not have a positive value. Elimination is one of the most important steps in the creation of a collection of pictures. Permanency of interest is one criterion for the admission of a picture into the collection. The magazines and daily papers bring to everyone pictures of merely current interest. It seems unwise for a state institution to make expenditures for pictures that can hardly get into circulation before the demand for them ceases. In the interest of this idea of authenticity, the source of each picture is indicated in the title. If sound scholarship is to be acquired, the student must early learn to question the value of an expression whether it be verbal or pictorial. No picture is used unless its origin is known and its sources is regarded as authentic. This standard eliminates many drawings and other pictures often found in books and elsewhere. Knowledge of when a photograph was made very often determines the use that can properly be made of it ; hence the date of each picture is noted. Information of this sort is. fundamental to a scientifically prepared collection of pictures. Whether the trade recognizes this fact or not, an educational institution should do so. Organization of Material. Negatives are accessioned like books in a modern library. They are filed vertically in special envelopes in steel cabinets. Both the accession book and the envelope give specific data as to sources of the negative, the date when and place where it was made, and what is shown. 22