Some of Canada's oldest films and photographs, recorded on deteriorating and highly combustible cellulose nitrate, now have a safe home. Library and Archives Canada unveiled its new $14.7-million preservation facility for nitrate film on the government's Shirleys Bay campus Tuesday.
The new building houses 5,575 reels of nitrate film dating back to 1912. Famous titles include Back to God's Country (1919), the oldest existing Canadian feature film, and Churchill's Island, the first Canadian film to win an Oscar (in 1941). There are also almost 600,000 nitrate photograph negatives.
At the opening, Library and Archives Canada showed off a recently digitized panoramic photo of an original taken in 1916 of Canadian soldiers in the 81st battalion D Company in Toronto before they were sent oversees to fight in the First World War.
Genealogists and family members who want photos of their ancestors can make requests for access to the photos, said Daniel Caron, the Librarian and Archivist of Canada.
You can read more at: http://goo.gl/deD2r.
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