My father, Edward H. Roberts, carried his trusty 8mm movie camera all through the forties, and I have had the pleasure of digitizing much of his history from the decade before I came into existence. This one is a treasure… about three minutes of film from the Swarthmore alumni weekend, 5 years after his graduation.

Some of the treats in this historical footage include his parents, Chester and Abby Roberts (part of the college staff), a pan of campus, and lots of grads from the late 1800s (with the oldest representing the class of 1876). If you have any information to add about names and places… please feel free to contact me and I will append notes to this post to help future researchers (this archive will be maintained in perpetuity by the Computer History Museum after I am gone, and of course I want that film to make it into the college archives… download is enabled). The embedded player below is hosted on Vimeo (no ads), and the video is also on YouTube.

Swarthmore College Reunion 1941 from Steven K Roberts.

I digitized this at 2K (well into the grain), then did basic editing to improve color, stabilize camera jitter, and clean up transitions. For 80 years the film sat in a metal box. There is more on this theme… I also have footage from the 1946 Swarthmore reunion.

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