H. Lee Waters Film collection, 1936-2005, bulk 1936-1942

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Access note: Collection contains fragile audiovisual formats that may need to be reformatted before use. Contact Research Services for access. Original film reels in the Waters collection are...
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Summary

Creator:
Waters, H. Lee
Abstract:
Born in Caroleen, North Carolina in 1902, studio photographer Herbert Lee Waters supplemented his income from 1936 to 1942 by traveling across North Carolina and parts of Virginia, Tennessee, and South Carolina to film the people of small communities. He collaborated with local movie theaters to screen his films, which he called Movies of Local People. It is estimated that Waters produced films across 118 communities, visiting some of them multiple times. The H. Lee Waters Film Collection dates from 1936 to 2005 and is comprised primarily of 16mm black-and-white and color reversal original motion picture films created by Waters during the filming of the Movies of Local People series. The collection, arranged alphabetically by town name, also includes various preservation and access elements created over the years from the original footage: 16mm internegatives, 16mm screening prints, 3/4-inch Umatic videotape, Betacam SP videotape, Digital Betacam videotape, VHS videotape, DVD discs, and high resolution digital files including 2K preservation video copies. The collection contains a small number of papers and physical objects related to Waters' film making, including: a photocopy of two log books (encompassed in one volume) maintained by Waters to record financial and business information during the filming of Movies of Local People; photocopied and original advertisements for screenings of Waters' films; photocopies of Waters' notes, receipts, and correspondence concerning film sales; related ephemera; copy of a 2005 master's thesis written on the films of H. Lee Waters; home movies made by Waters from the 1930s to the 1950s; and oral histories with Mary Waters Spaulding and Tom Waters, the children of H. Lee Waters.
Extent:
50 Linear Feet
Language:
English
Collection ID:
RL.10075

Background

Scope and content:

The H. Lee Waters Film Collection dates from 1936 to 2005 and comprises primarily 16mm black-and-white and color reversal original motion picture films created by Waters between 1936 and 1942 as he traveled across North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia filming the residents of small towns. Waters aimed to film as many residents in each community as possible, often setting up his camera at the main intersection in town to capture community members walking downtown. Waters also typically filmed school children entering or leaving school and workers arriving to or departing from mills, plants, and factories. Waters often included trick shots to engage his audience, such as trains moving backwards or children jumping in reverse. Although the films are dominated by shots of crowds and individual faces, Waters also captured a wide variety of activities, like school recitals, sports, mechanics at work, and manufacturing processes in factories. Waters also regularly filmed in Black communities within the towns he visited, and in the case of Chapel Hill, filmed exclusively in the Black community.

The H. Lee Waters Film Collection dates from 1936 to 2005 and is comprised primarily of 16mm black-and-white and color reversal original motion picture films created by Waters during the filming of the Movies of Local People series. The collection, arranged alphabetically by town name, also includes various preservation and access elements created over the years from the original footage: 16mm internegatives, 16mm screening prints, 3/4-inch Umatic videotape, Betacam SP videotape, Digital Betacam videotape, VHS videotape, DVD discs, and high resolution digital files including 2K preservation video copies. The majority of films represented in the collection are silent, black and white, and were filmed in North Carolina. The collection includes a small number of color films and one film with sound. Where reels containing mixed black-and-white and color footage were preserved to 16mm film, they were separated into two reels based on picture characteristic during the preservation process.

The collection also contains a small number of papers and physical objects related to Waters, including: photocopied and original advertisements for screenings of Waters' films; photocopies of Waters' notes, receipts, and correspondence concerning film sales; related ephemera; VHS copies of a news report and a film on Waters; a copy of the master's thesis written on the films of H. Lee Waters by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill student Martin Johnson in 2005; home movies created by Waters from the 1930s to the 1950s; and oral histories with Mary Waters Spaulding and Tom Waters, the children of H. Lee Waters.

In addition, the collection contains a photocopy of two log books (encompassed in one volume) maintained by Waters between the years of 1936 and 1942 to document his earnings from the Movies of Local People films. The logs provide information about film screenings in the towns that he visited, including the dates of the screenings, the theaters where the films played, admission prices, the number of tickets sold, and advertising revenues. See the digital collection to view the logbooks.

Biographical / historical:

Born August 23, 1902, Herbert Lee Waters spent the majority of his life in Lexington, North Carolina operating a photography studio. Waters supplemented his income from 1936-1942 by traveling across North Carolina and parts of Virginia, Tennessee, and South Carolina to film the people of small communities. He collaborated with local movie theaters to screen his films, which he called Movies of Local People and billed with the phrase "See yourself in the movies!" It is estimated that Waters created films in 118 communities, visiting some of them multiple times. In 1942, Waters returned to Lexington and continued operating his photographic studio until his death in 1997. The Library of Congress listed Waters' Kannapolis film on the National Film Registry in 2004.

Acquisition information:
The H. Lee Waters Film Collection was received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a series of gifts and purchases beginning in 1988.
Processing information:

Processed and re-encoded by Craig Breaden, April 2014, May 2020, April 2021.

Processed by Rubenstein library staff between 1988 and 2008, and by Lindsay Matson, October 2009.

All accessions from 1988-2021 are represented in this collection guide.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
General note:

Preservation screening prints, where they exist for particular films, may be projected by special request by on-campus departments or groups. For further information, contact Rubenstein Library Research Services.

Notes on ordering 2K+ digital copies of films

* The Waters collection at Duke was built across decades and consequently the moving image formats in the collection are diverse.

* All formats for each town film are listed in this collection guide, and a particular film may be represented by original reversal or preservation film reels, video tape or DVD derivatives made from the original reels, standard definition or high definition digital files, or a combination of all of these.

* Because many of the films in the Waters collection were preserved to film and digitized in the early 2000s with grants from the National Film Preservation Foundation, the majority of the digital copies in the collection are standard definition (720:480), following the technology of the time. Where a film resource can be safely scanned, higher definition digital scans of the films (up to UHD, 3840:2880) can be scanned in-house at the Rubenstein Library, on request and for a fee.

* If a reversal original reel (the film Waters shot and developed) exists and is in good condition, that will be the film that will be scanned.

* When requesting an 2K+ scan of a film, request the reversal original reel that is listed in the collection guide for that particular town/date.

* If the reversal original is too deteriorated or was destroyed in creating the copy negative, then the copy negative will be used. Note that copy negatives are typically less resolute than originals, and it is possible that an standard definition streaming copy will look more detailed than a 2K+ scan of a copy negative.

* All film scans are made at an aspect ratio of 4:3 and "over-scanned," meaning the frame includes the film's sprocket holes and a portion of the previous and subsequent frames.

* Where there is no film source remaining for a particular town film, a video image can be upscaled, but resolution will be lost.

* For further information, contact Rubenstein Library Research Services.

Contents

Using These Materials

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials

Restrictions:

Access note: Collection contains fragile audiovisual formats that may need to be reformatted before use. Contact Research Services for access.

Original film reels in the Waters collection are available by special request and for inspection purposes only; some may not be available due to advanced deterioration. Digital use copies for much of the collection are available through this guide and the H. Lee Waters Digital Collection in the Duke Digital Repository.

Terms of access:

Any copyright interests in this collection are managed by Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Copyright for Movies of Local People is largely undetermined. The publication status of these items is uncertain, making public domain determination difficult. To the extent these materials are protected by copyright, Duke has been granted permission to make digital reproductions and make them available to the public as part of a digital collection. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library: https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

Before you visit:
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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], H. Lee Waters Film Collection, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

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