Margaret Whalen Collection

Margaret Whalen Collection

See the Collection


Subject(s):
, ,
Place(s):
City Island, New York; York, Maine; Goose Rock Beach, Maine


Primary Format and Extent:
Originally filmed with 8mm camera her brother bought for her at a PX. She had the film transferred to VHS tape & her family's old home movies transferred to dvd. LHMP worked from those.
Collection Date Range:
1950s-1991
Summary:
On the surface, most of Margaret Whalen's footage looks like traditional home movies, chock full of birthdays, weddings, holidays, and adorable children. If you didn't know, you'd never guess from the images that for a time Margaret shared her bedroom in her family home with that woman racing around in the snow with the nieces & nephews or that at another time with the one putting dinner on the table. Whalen's collection also documents groups of fellow elementary school teachers getting together for summers at Goose Rocks beach: ex-lovers with their new lovers; fellow teachers; and the piece de resistance for many, neighbor May Sarton who became a neighbor in 1973. The earliest part of the collection was originally shot in 8mm; the later was shot with a video camera, which Whalen often just hung on a wall and let run & run & run. Whalen shot her earliest work with an 8mm camera her brother bought for her at the PX, but most of her collection was shot on VHS tapes, and she had her 8mm work transferred to VHS and then to a single DVD as well. LHMP received the dvd and 8 vhs tapes in 2011. Because many occasions began on one tape and ended on another, LHMP worked with Whalen, her partner Barbara Martin, and NHF's Joe Gardner to collate each event. The results were transferred to dvd. As a result, we hold two sets of digital files: one from the original VHS tapes, the second from the collated DVDs
Repository:
Lesbian Home Movie Project, Orland, ME
Condition Governing Reproduction and Use:
Lesbian Home Movie Project (LHMP) holds all rights. Filmmaker and participants are entitled to approve uses uses of footage they appear in.
Source URL:
https://www.lesbianhomemovieproject.org/collection/margaret-whalen/