This collection is located off-site. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.
This original film is archival only and cannot be used.
The films have been digitized by the Preservation Reformatting Department of the Columbia University Libraries
Twelve reel of 16mm film and two cans of edited out footage, as well as article, clippings, letters, photographs, ephemera, and a thesis.
Arranged in four series.
You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.
This collection is located off-site. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.
This original film is archival only and cannot be used.
The films have been digitized by the Preservation Reformatting Department of the Columbia University Libraries
Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); The Gay Humphrey Matthaei Collection of Photographs, Films and Clippings.; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
2015.2016.M039: Source of acquisition--Marcella Hague Matthaei. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--8/7/2015.
Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Papers Processed 8/21/2015 by PTL and Robert Davis
2015-08-19 File created.
2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.
In August 1954, four graduate students from Columbia's Russian Institute--Gay Humphrey, Ted Curran, Jeri Lidsky, and Francis B. Randall--set off on an eight-week journey across the Soviet Union. They became, effectively, the first student tourist group to visit the USSR, just seventeen months after the death of Stalin and before Khrushchev had consolidated power. Although photography was carefully controlled in the USSR, they were allowed more or less free access to all save military and other secure installations.
Equipped with camera and film provided by CBS (and according to her obituary, by NBC as well), and Kodachrome provided by Time Magazine (the undeveloped film was, alas, ultimately confiscated from Ms. Lidsky at the border) their observations and footage created a sensation back in the U.S.
Following their return, the students became celebrities, with Ms. Humphrey appearing with Eric Sevareid on CBS's "The American Week" and articles in the New York Times, Ladies' Home Journal, and other publications. Ms. Humphrey and Mr. Curran went on the lecture circuit, with well-received presentations at many universities throughout the country.
All four participants went on to distinguished careers. Mr. Randall became a professor of history at Sarah Lawrence, while Mr. Curran embarked on a foreign service career. Ms. Lidsky's married name was Laber, and she became one of the founders of the human rights group Helsinki Watch. Columbia holds Ms. Laber's papers as a series within the Helsinki Watch records. Accounts of their trip appear in Ms. Laber's memoir "The Courage of Strangers" (2002, see pp. 35-45 available in-ebook form: http://site.ebrary.com/lib/columbia/detail.action?docID=10477865), and in an oral history interview by Mr. Curran. Mr. Randall published an article in the Amherst Alumni News in 1955 (a copy of which is found in Box 1, Folder 2, and it is referenced in a later note from the News.
Ms. Humphrey married Konrad Henry Matthaei, in 1956. She went on to write prize-winning books about the Lakota Sioux, and produced and directed a film "Where Time is a River" that was selected for inclusion in the MoMA Archive of Films.
The Matthaei Family was the subject of an extensive photo shoot by Diane Arbus, subsequently donated to Mount Holyoke, Gay's alma mater.
Gay Humphrey Matthaei died in 2010. This collection is a gift from her daughter, Marcella Hague Matthaei.
Twelve reels of 16mm, black & white safety film and 2 cans of feel fragments
Box 2 Reel 1
Box 2 Reel 2
Box 2 Reel 3
Box 2 Reel 4
Box 2 Reel 5
Box 3 Reel 6
Box 3 Reel 7
Box 3 Reel 8
Box 3 Reel 9
Box 3 Reel 10
Box 4 Reel 11
Box 4 Reel 12
Box 4 Reel cans 13 & 14
The contents of one scrap book (scrap book itself not retained)
Box 1 Folder 1
Box 1 Folder 2
Box 1 Folder 3
Box 1 Folder 4
Box 1 Folder 5
Box 1 Folder 6
Box 1 Folder 7
Box 1 Folder 8
Box 1 Folder 9
Box 1 Folder 10
Box 1 Folder 11
Box 1 Folder 12
Box 1 Folder 13
Box 1 Folder 14
Box 1 Folder 15
Box 1 Folder 18
Box 1 Folder 17
Box 1 Folder 18
Box 1 Folder 19
Box 1 Folder 20
Box 1 Folder 20
Box 1 Folder 20
Box 1 Folder 20
Box 1 Folder 20
Box 1 Folder 20
Box 1 Folder 20
Box 1 Folder 20
Box 1 Folder 20
Box 1 Folder 20
Box 1 Folder 20
Box 1 Folder 20
Box 1 Folder 20
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 21
Box 1 Folder 22
Box 1 Folder 23
Box 1 Folder 23
Mapcase 15-K-5
Mapcase 15-K-5
Not to be used. In cold stotage.
Nine reels of 18mm, black & white safety film and 1 take up reel
See Series VI for use.
Box 5 Reel 1
Not to be used
Box 5 Reel 2
Not to be used
Box 5 Reel 3
Not to be used
Box 5 Reel 4
Not to be used
Box 5 Reel 5
Not to be used
Box 5 Reel 6
Not to be used
Box 5 Reel 7
Not to be used
Box 5 Reel 8
Not to be used
Box 5 Reel 9
Not to be used
Nine reels of 18mm film transferred to nine viewing CDs
Box 6 Cd 1
Shows the airport entrance. On the street walk officers and bureaucrats. But attention is focused on a woman in headscarf sweeping the streets with a traditional "metla" broom.
Diary Page 10: Arrival at airport, description of people
Box 6 Cd 1
"Travelers, including Gay, reading popular Russian newspapers ""Pravda"" and ""Izvestiia"" in hotel dining room; views of some other patrons."
DiaryPages 11-12: Describes dining room ("Lots of cut glass")
Box 6 Cd 1
"Panning view of Red Square, the Kremlin, Manezh. From behind State History Museum, St. Basil's in the distance; pans to the Manege."
Diary Pagees 12-13: Walk around Kremlin; description of buildings, including ""1879 atrocity""--Historical Mus."
Box 6 Cd 1
"On Red Square. View of St. Basil's, the Mausoleum; group of soldiers marching by; many citizens."
Diary Page 12
Box 6 Cd 1
More footage of Kremlin, Red Sq.; St. Basil's, Dormition, Anunciation, and Archangel Cathedrals; Moscow River; city skyline; Moscow Univ.
Diary Page 12
Box 6 Cd 1
Street scenes: citizens, "babushki," officers going about daily life on Moscow streets.
Diary Pages 13-16
Box 6 Cd 1
Diary Page 19
Box 6 Cd 2
Images of daily life in more ""suburban"" ""Podmoskov'e""? Wooden buildings, wattle fences, dirt roads.
Diary Pages 27-28: F.B. Randall describes the ""slums on edge of town gradually merge into country villages.
Box 6 Cd 2
Queues outside of food shops; boys swimming in river; various children
Diary Pages 16: Randal describes Kitaigorod"
Box 6 Cd 2
Children. Juxtaposition of village children to those in the city.
Box 6 Cd 3
Chatting with Orthodox Priest; sign reads ""Moskovskaia dukhovnaya akademiia." More life on city's outskirts.
Diary Pages 27-28: F.B. Randall describes the ""slums on edge of town gradually merge into country villages.
Box 6 Cd 3
Gates of the "Pionerskii lager'"; inside the grounds and facilities. A day at camp for the Pioneer boys and girls. Studying, playing; mealtime.
Diary Pages 27 & 28
Box 6 Cd 3
"Pioneer display: children marching, flag-bearing, dancing on outdoor stage. 10:47- Pioneer girls doing "the Robot!"
Diary Pages 27 & 28
Box 6 Cd 4
Collection of images and scenes from the Exhibition Center: people touring the grounds, tending the gardens; images of the livestock and other animals.
Box 6 Cd 4
Footage transitions abruptly from Exhibition Center to a rural marketplace. Inhabitants clearly of Asian Russia in ethnic appearance and dress. Imagery aligns with much of the description of Tashkent and Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
Diary Pages 31-52: Again, much of the imagery lines up with descriptions here of Tashkent - Samarkand - Tashkent. Pp. 39-40 describe film being confiscated by police, though this may have been only still photography film
Box 6 Cd 4
Camels
Diary Page 49: Travelers went "to the animal bazaar to take picures of the ten camels that were browsing."
Box 6 Cd 4
Brief scene of travelers enjoying some food and merry- making at table.
Diary Pages ?
Box 6 Cd 4
People tending livestock. Children eating under a pavilion.
Diary Pages ?
Box 6 Cd 5
Arrival in Tashkent; footage of inhabitants. Descriptions of the town and its inhabitants--their dress and activities; adobe houses, etc. are rendered wonderfully in the diary entries. Footage opens in the "larger, modern, Russian part… with broad boulevards," (33) and moves toward older city. Palaces in the grassy foothills. At some point may transition to Samarkand, but not clear until next scene.
Diary Pages 31-40. (P. 33: "irrigated trees" of downtown (07:33 - 08:07); P. 35 "One old man struggled painfully with two huge logs") (02:13-02:23 on film)
Box 6 Cd 5
At the Registan. Foootage of people walking by with Tilya Kori Madrasah as backdrop.
Diary Pages 40-41
Box 6 Cd 5
Views of the adobe houses from above.
Box 6 Cd 5
More footage of inhabitants; marketplace
Box 6 Cd 6
Various images of Tbilisi village architecture and inhabitants.
Diary Pages Pp. 53-73: Describes trip to Tblisi; P. 59: Images from opening footage first described here, including architecture, clothing, etc.
Box 6 Cd 6
Some of our travelers enjoying a day "swimming in an artificial lake near the airport."
Diary Pages 67
Box 6 Cd 6
Trip "up to and through the high Caucasus." Footage of the country, often from the little "Pobedas [that] zipped along... the celebrated Georgian Military Road" (69). View of Svetitskhoveli Cathedral (described in detail earlier, (59). Mountain villages (71).
Diary Pages Pp. 69-73; P. 60-61: Earlier, detailed description of Svetitskhoveli Cathedral (in diary as "Basilica of the Life Giving Tree" (03:56 on film).
Box 6 Cd 6
Gypsy encampment, with "quilted canopies."
Diary Pages 72-73
Box 6 Cd 7
Diary Pages
Box 6 Cd 7
Diary Pages
Box 6 Cd 7
Difficult to place accurately the following footage. Much, perhaps, from an "evening walk around the quaint old streets" (64). Some from trip the following day to Tsinandali. Fine footage of village life, architecture, inhabitants.
Diary Pages P. 64: "The Georgians seem to live outdoors a lot, on their balconies, in their yards, in the streets… Lots of the old men look a lot like Stalin."; P. 65-67: Trip to Tsinandali; P. 65: "Flocks of sheep and long-horned goats being driven along the road" (09:51-10:34).
Box 6 Cd 8
Street scenes around travelers' Astoria Hotel, near the Moika and the monument to Nikolai I on St. Isaac's Square.
Diary Pages Pp. 84-100: Leningrad; P. 86: Description of St. Isaac's Sq.; P. 95: "Walked along the canal near the hotel…"
Box 6 Cd 8
Leningraders on the beach at Gulf of Finland.
Diary Page 96
Box 6 Cd 8
Difficult to pinpoint location. Leningraders; children. Very sad, very Russian scene of a probably drunk man sleeping on the grass (05:02-05:14).
Diary Pages ?
Box 6 Cd 8
Smol'nyi complex
Diary Pages 96-97: Description of Smol'nyi
Box 6 Cd 8
Hermitage as seen from Vasil'evskii Island
Box 6 Cd 8
Footage of a movie being filmed on Gulf of Finland
Diary Pages 96: "On the beach they were making a movie. Peasants in carts and 18th C. gentlemen… We took movies of the movie makers and attracted a crowd."
Box 6 Cd 8
Housing complex? Dirt communal courtyard; garden plots; laundry on the line; wooden shacks.
Box 6 Cd 8
Schoolchildren on the street.
Box 6 Cd 8
Various street scenes around downtown Leningrad. Man painting Aleksandrovskaia kolon(?); St. Isaac's Sq.
Box 6 Cd 8
Footage from the banks of canals. Man dragging a boat with a long pole; food line(?); Spas' na krovi.
Box 6 Cd 8
Street scenes from downtown Leningrad. G. Mattaie chatting with butcher; schoolchildren; Neva.
Box 6 Cd 9
Leningraders, children in park (Yet to determine which); boys playing soccer.
Diary Pages 84-100: Leningrad
Box 6 Cd 9
Street scenes, mostly on and around Nevskii Prospekt. Book vendor on Nevskii; Spas' na krovi; crowds of pedestrians; artist on the street, surrounded by children.
Diary Pages 84-100: Leningrad
Box 6 Cd 9
Housing complex, communal courtyard(?). Children on teeter-totter.
Diary Pages 84-100: Leningrad
Box 6 Cd 9
Smol'nii Cathedral, with bust of Stalin in the foreground.
Diary Pages 84-100: Leningrad
Box 6 Cd 9
Street scenes. St. Isaac's Sq.; banks of the Moika; women collecting bricks.
Diary Pages 84-100: Leningrad
Box 6 Cd 9
Train station. Train ride passes through "industry and Neva and slums of Leningrad into the swamps north of town" to the "pine forests and little hay fields--pleasant woods to Vyborg."
Diary Pages 98-99
Box 6 Cd 9
Street scene, downtown Copenhagen.
Diary Pages 100-111: Copenhagen
Box 6 Cd 9
Kronborg Castle
Diary Pages 108-109: Description of Castle.