™* *»» ^ 7' PP 322-324, A new source of history A new source of history 323 Boleslas Matuszewski Paris, March 25, 1898 Sir, Allow me to call your attention to a project, an outline of which Follows, which is ready to be executed and in which I hope to interest you. It is a question of giving o location of general interest to a collection of cinematographic documents, collected under very particular circumstances, which hove been most favourably received in the select circles in which I had the opportunity to show them. I would be very grateful if you would communicate to me, through your newspaper or otherwise, any criticisms or new suggestions that this project might suggest to you, and I am at your disposal with any supplementary information that you'may desire. B.M Place of animated photography among the sources of history It is wrong to believe that all the various kinds of illustrated documents that come to the aid of History have a place in Museums and Libraries. Next to prints, medals, figured pottery, sculpture, etc., etc., which are collected and classified, photography, for example, does not have a special department. Truly, the documents furnished by photography are only rarely of noteworthy historical interest, and above all there are too many of them! Someday, however, portraits of men who have had o marked influence on their times will be classed by series. But this will be only a backward move, because from this point it is a question of moving even further in this direction; and, in official spheres, the idea has been welcomed to create in Paris a Cinematographic Museum or Depository. This collection, of necessity restricted in the beginning, will expand more and more, in the measure that cinematographic photographers' curiosity moves from merely entertaining or whimsr cal scenes to actions and spectacles of c documentary interest, and from humorous slices o, life to slices of public and national life. From simple' pastime, animated photography will thus become an agreeable method for studying the past; oj| rather, since it will give a direct view of the past, will eliminate, at least on certain points of som importance, the necessity of investigation an study. Moreover, animated photography coul become a singularly efficacious teaching proces How many lines of vague description in books i tended for young people will be rendered u necessary, the day we unroll in front of a classroo in a precise, moving picture the more or less ac tated aspect of a deliberative assembly; the mej ing of Heads of State about to ratify an alliance; departure of troops or squadrons; or even t changing, mobile physiognomy of the city! B necessarily a good deal of time must pass befo' we can have recourse to this resource for teachlf History. In order to unfold graphic, external hisfg before the eyes of those who did not witness it, necessary first to store it. One difficulty might briefly give us pau namely, that a historical event does not alw appear where one expects it. It is far From the c that History is composed solely of scheduled soli nities, organized in advance and ready to pos front of the lenses. It is the beginnings, initial mi ments, unattended facts that avoid capture by photographic camera ... just as they escape inquiry. Without doubt historical effects are always easier to seize than causes. But the two shed light upon each other; these effects brought into the broad daylight of cinematography will cast bright flashes of light upon causes lying in their shadow. And to secure not all there is, but all that can be secured, is already an excellent result for any type of inquiry, scientific or historical. Even oral accounts and written documents do not deliver to us oil the class of facts to which they correspond, and ■ nevertheless History exists, true after all in its broad ||§Outlines, even if its details are distorted. And then, jhe cinematographic photographer is indiscreet by icrofession; always lying in wait, his instinct very Ifften enables him to divine where those events will pass that will become historical causes. It is necessary more often to check his excesses of zeal than to Ifplore his timidity! Sometimes the natural curios-bf the human spirit, sometimes the lure of profit, men the two sentiments combined make him inven-Jp and daring. Authorized in somewhat official ICumstances, he will contrive to slip unauthorized others, and most often will know how to find occasions and places where the history of to-pow is unfolding. A popular movement, the ft o- a riot does not scare him, and even in a war □ n well imagine him aiming his lens in the way a soldier does his gun, and seizing at it.