Join us for the glorious cinematic record of the famed Admiral Richard E. Byrd's expeditions in 1928-1930 and 1933-1935 with the film Byrd 1933. A panel discussion featuring the filmmaker, OSU's Polar Curator, and a Byrd Polar, and Climate Research Center scientist will follow the film. This event will take place at the Ohio History Connection.
Film:
In 1985, the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center at Ohio State made a successful bid to acquire the archives of polar explorer Admiral Richard Byrd. And what they found in these archives were reels and reels of acetate and nitrate film, including 28 reels containing Byrd's Discovery Lecture Film Series. Before their acquisition by Ohio State, they had been stored in several warehouses and even in a barn!
Out of all these reels, only 10 were deemed salvageable. With a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation, written by Laura Kissel, those reels were restored for the archive. Pam Theodotou of Byrd Polar realized that there was enough material present to piece back together one of Admiral Byrd’s most famous expeditions to Antarctica, which took place from 1933 – 1935.
Panelists:
Laura Kissel is the Polar Curator for the Archival Program at the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center. Laura has been with Byrd Polar since 1996. The Archival Center is a joint program of the Byrd Center and the OSU Libraries; whose mission is to document the history of polar exploration, within an active research environment. Laura was awarded the grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation, to preserve the original 35-mm film from the Byrd Expedition.
Pam Theodotou is a photographer, filmmaker, writer and artist. She currently works as the Media Specialist at Byrd Polar. She pieced together this film from over 1000 individual film and audio clips! She has travelled to the arctic regions to do infrared fine art photography, which has been exhibited not only in galleries but even on the billboards in Times Square, New York City. Pam has a Master of Fine Arts degree from CCAD, a biology degree from Denison Univ., and a Law Degree from Case Western Reserve University.
Melisa Diaz is currently a master's student and future PhD student in the School of Earth Sciences with the Lyons Environmental Geochemistry group. Her research aims to characterize spatial and temporal variations in the geochemistry of wind-blown dust from the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica. She has traveled to Greenland to extract gases in cores for carbon-14 analyses and has recently returned from a summer in Antarctica where she worked as an analytical chemist for the McMurdo Long Term Ecological Research (MCM-LTER) group.
