Collections

Our books and special collections are available for consultation by researchers from BUFVC members. Find out here if your institution is in BUFVC membership, or consider taking out membership of the BUFVC and taking advantage of a wide range of other special benefits.

Library

The BUFVC library holds most of the books published on British newsreels and cinemagazines, as well as many other titles relating to British film history and the use of film for historical research, including theses, papers and unpublished manuscripts.

British Movietone News documents

The BUFVC holds a complete set of commentary scripts (1929-1979) for the British Movietone newsreel. The Movietone collection also includes a complete copied set of the papers of the Newsreel Association of Great Britain and Ireland (the originals are held by the British Film Institute). Access to the collection is limited at present.

British Pathe newsreel documents

The BUFVC holds the entire surviving paper collection for the British Pathe newsreel and cinemagazine series, including Pathe Gazette, Pathe News and Pathe Pictorial. This includes issue sheets, commentary scripts, cameramen’s dope sheets and shot lists, as well as some business papers, and documents relating to individual film productions, footage used for television programmes, and films distributed by Pathe. Access to the collection is limited at present. There is a general inventory available.

David Samuelson papers

A major addition to the BUFVC’s newsreel documentation holdings is the papers of British Movietone News cameraman David Samuelson. These include a detailed record of his assignments with the newsreel 1947-1959, as well as other working papers and newsreel ephemera.

Margaret Leahy photograph album

Margaret Leahy was the winner of a competition organised in 1922 by the Daily Sketch newspaper and Topical Budget newsreel to find a ‘British film star’. Her prize was to star in a Hollywood feature, and her photograph album, donated to the BUFVC by her family, documents her time on set with Buster Keaton making the film THE THREE AGES (1923). An album of newspaper clippings is also held.

Norman Fisher collection

The late Norman Fisher was a cameraman with the British Movietone News newsreel between 1935 and 1979. The BUFVC holds his substantial photographic collection, including several albums relating to the newsreels, plus his diaries and other newsreel memorabilia.

Norman Roper collection

The late Norman Roper was a newsreel cameraman and editor, working with British Paramount News, Warwork News, Pathe News and British Movietone News. His newsreel effects have been passed on to the BUFVC, including photographs, news clippings, address books, posters and equipment.

Reg Sutton memoirs

Sound engineer Reg Sutton has generously donated a copy of his manuscript memoirs to the BUFVC. Sutton worked at the BBC from 1936, joining the British Movietone newsreel in 1946, leaving them in 1960 to join the Samuelson Film Service. The memoirs include a partial list of outside broadcasts recorded by Sutton in Newcastle 1939-1948. Sutton has also donated his assignments list for his time at Movietone.

Reuters Television newsreel documentation

In 1998 the BUFVC was offered a substantial collection of original documents, such as shot lists, dope sheets and commentary scripts, relating to the newsreels British Paramount News, Gaumont British News and Universal News. The majority of these have now been digitised and are available in downloadable form attached to their respective news stories on the British Universities Newsreel Database. The collection includes ephemera such as football programmes and publicity leaflets for events filmed by the newsreels. It also includes those documents not so far digitised, chiefly shot lists for unissued material.

Slade Film History Register

The Slade Film History Register was established by filmmaker Thorold Dickinson in 1969 at the Slade Film School, and aimed to create a register of documents relating to film that would be of value to historians. Central to the Register was the gathering of data relating to newsreels, in particular copies of newsreel issue sheets from the 1910s to the 1970s. The Register came into the care of the BUFVC in 1974 and formed the basis of the British Universities Newsreel Database. The Register also includes miscellaneous documents relating to history and film.