Sadly, this is the final post here on Lost in Light. We extend great thanks to all of our contributors and supporters as we draw this project to a close. The site will remain live and searchable as an archive of all the great home movies and creative projects that have been offered here.

With this last film, we present another gem from the great collector of film ephemera, Nolan Pelletier. He includes with this film some amazing slides collected from the same estate sale that offered up this eclectic home movie:

This film came from the Estate of this man. He was definitely a hunter. Half the slides I found were of his latest blood covered hunting kills or his hunting buddies. Mixed in with the rest of the slides was this picture. One of these things is not like the other.

I highly recommend browsing Nolan’s Flickr stream, the owls go, which includes wonderful still images as well as selections of the hours of home movies we transferred from his collection, which make fantastic use of Flickr’s video feature.

Nolan Pelletier of Connecticut, USA, has one of my favorite streams on Flickr, the owls go. It’s a collection of found photos and slides picked up at estate and garage sales – odd, poignant, charming, and adorable images of strangers from eras past.

Here, Nolan offers a few home movies his picked up in his collecting travels. Because they’re found films, details can often be hard to come by, but Nolan offers a description of this particular gem:

This film is from the estate of a family who lived only 2 or 3 minutes from my house. It’s very odd to see the neighborhood they lived in 50 years ago. From what I can gather, this film was taken by the mother. She worked for the American School for the Deaf, and these were taken there. There are several reels of footage of all the children gathered for different occasions. They were all taken in the mid to late 1960s. I would love to know where these kids are today. They’re all pretty adorable.

The American School for the Deaf was founded in 1817 and is based in West Hartford, Connecticut. Students there also made this quite interesting website, Deaf is….

This post is among the last new entries Lost in Light will be making, as we prepare to retire the project. It’s been a wonderful year and a half, but our lives beckon us toward other projects. The site will remain up and complete as an archive of all these wonderful films we have collected. thanks to everyone who has participated in this labor of love.

This week, some great shots of huge turtles, a snoozing alligator, Mt. Rushmore, and vistas of the Grand Canyon. All from our contributor Ashima, who adds this:

My mama had a hard time remembering the year, but she thinks it is 1977. I do clearly remembering waking up that alligator in my little brown suit. I didn’t want to get mud on it! We took this trip from Chicago to California and these were some stops along the way. I think the trading post at the end of the video is the Hubbell Trading Post, a national historic site. Honestly, I have no idea where the turtle and alligator were located. I asked my mama and she cannot remember either. BUT, doesn’t that guy look like Steve Irwin only skinnier? I doubt it was him…

The Hubbell Trading Post is the oldest operating trading post in the Navajo Nation of the U.S., located in Northeastern Arizona.

For high-resolution footage of this film and more, click the “MPEG-2″ link above to access the Internet Archive.

More from Ashima’s collection of home movies this week. Here, we feature a visit to India in 1969, with lush, detailed images of the spectacular architecture there. Ashima offers a little more detail on the locations:

This must have been 1969 and taken at two places, Red Fort in Delhi and Jama Masjid. The snake charmer was at Red Fort. This must have been just before we left for Europe.

The Red Fort is a tremendous fortress palace and Jama Masjid a historic mosque, both constructed by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in the mid-1600s. See a satellite view of the Red Fort here and Jama Masjid here.

Click the “MPEG-2″ link above for high-resolution footage of this gorgeous film and more at the Internet Archive.

In this film full of delicious looking food, our contributor Ashima turns one year old. She tells us more:

My 1st year birthday party (1969) in Albany Village which is student housing in Berkeley, CA. My father was working on his PhD at UC-Berkeley (Industrial Engineering).

This was a typical Indian gathering, outside and with lots of food. Mama made a lot of the Indian food, but she got the cake and sandwiches catered. There were probably 30+ people in attendance.

There is a man holding me whose name is Russ. He was friends with my Leo Uncle. Leo and Ruth were two individuals who became like my Papa and Mama’s second parents in the US. We always had Easter and Thanksgiving with them when we lived in CA.

Anyway, Mama is wearing a sari that Papa gave her as a wedding gift. She still owns it! The two older girls are Raman (who lives in Detroit now) and Sunaina (not sure where she is now). Then, the other two babies I’m sitting with her friends I used to play with a lot. Mama couldn’t remember their names. The blue outfit I am wearing was sent to my Mama by her Mama. Ruth Auntie and my mama found the tights at a dime store called Kresge.

Interestingly, the Kresge dime store was the forerunner to the modern Kmart. Here are some fantastic recordings of the in-store background music to truly put you back in the 1960s Kresge experience. Read more about the history of the Kresge and Kmart stores here. And the Kresge Foundation website is here.

Click “MPEG-2″ above for a high resolution version of this film and more from Ashima at the Internet Archive.

This week, a charming tour of one of my favorite childhood haunts in the Bay Area, Children’s Fairyland. Located near Lake Merritt in Oakland, California, this theme park based on children’s literature is still very much alive, and not much changed from what we see in this film, submitted by Ashima here in Grand Rapids.

Ashima has a few words to add:

Must be 1968 and my Papa is holding me in the beginning. Papa was always wanting to use his camera to take pictures and video of me. Mama said that they had planned to send them to India, but never did.

Here’s another great set of photos from this unique place. A fun YouTube home movie that takes us down the rabbit hole in the Alice in Wonderland section. Here‘s a current bird’s eye view of the park, and an aerial view from Google maps.

Click the MPEG-2 link above for a high resolution version of this home movie on the Internet Archive.

This week, a beautiful and tender movie of a mother clearly in love with her new baby. Submitted by Ashima here in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the film features footage from California’s Bay Area in the late 1960s. A bit more detail from Ashima, who was the baby in the film:

Circa 1968 at Albany Village. Outside the apartment, the red car is what my parents used to drive. The red dress I am wearing my mama made. She used to make a lot of the clothes as long as the fabric cost less than $.25.

Next, outside on the lawn on the University campus. The pram was used for both Ashima and Shailesh [Ashima's brother, born later]. Sari was silk given by Mama’s mama when she got married. Building is near or around Berkeley campus. Hippie is some guy playing the guitar on Berkeley’s campus. My mama said that she didn’t think of him as a hippie, he was just a nice person playing pretty music. How sweet is that?! I love that shot! My mom in a sari and this dude playing guitar! Cultures come together peacefully!

Albany Village is now known as UC Village, a student housing complex just outside of the University of California at Berkeley campus. Ashima’s father was was then working on his Ph.D in Industrial Engineering.

Click the “MPEG-2″ link above for high-resolution footage of this lovely film from the Internet Archive.

Here in West Michigan, my student, Evan, brought me a box of wonderful footage of his family’s home movies, a number of which we’ll be featuring here. The first is the wedding of grandparents in the late 1940s, and includes images of Evan’s great-grandparents – one of those amazing events to have preserved on film.

Evan explains:

It’s the wedding of Ken and Jan Rattenbury (maiden name – Baxter)
The date is actually Sept. 18th, 1948 at St. Benedict’s in Chicago.
Behind the camera is Gardner Kreiser, the bride’s 2nd cousin.

Evan also shared the emails his grandparents sent with more details about the wedding (I love emails from grandparents):

Dear Evan, The pictures are Mine and your Grandmother’s Wedding on Sept 18, 1948. The pictures were made by Jan’s Uncle Gardner. The pictures are mostly the family. The two old ladies are your great-grandmothers. The lady with the pink flowered hat is my mother (Alice Rattenbury), and the car was our good friend Eddie Roger’s who took us away. Hope that is enough. Love grampa

Hi Evan: It’s your gramma. I just saw the movies and they are super. Haven’t watched any of them since your folks first sent the VCR’s. Terri Spies was my maid of honor, Uncle Bruce (Rattenbury) was Best Man (lady in red and the guy next to her in the second shot of her), my grandmother and Grampa’s grandmother were the oldest people in the movie. So many of our friends and relatives are gone!!! My dad (John Baxter) was the one with the sexy mustache, The church was St. Benedict’s down on the corner where we lived in Chicago.

Click the “MPEG-2″ link above for a high-resolution version of this film, provided by the Internet Archive.

The story behind the images is too vast and complex to present here; instead, click here, here, and here for accounts that better explain and document the historical significance of this event.

See also this photo slideshow with accompanying map for a better sense of the geography of these locations.

Thanks to Tony P. for sending this all the way from France to us in Michigan for inclusion on this site.

Click the “MPEG-2″ link above for a high-resolution version of the film, downloadable via the Internet Archive.

Mad Roads.

Lead us to and take us away.
Guides to our memories.
Detours in our minds.
Journeys.
Sharp turns.
Endless.
Mad roads… Driving.

–David Howell

We’re always excited when filmmakers and videobloggers incorporate home movie footage found here at Lost in Light into their work. This week we’re especially pleased to feature this gritty and stirring work by David Howell, in collaboration with Jack Kerouac.

Click the “REMIX ME” category on the right for a list of video posts available for reuse and remix.