The following is a guest post by Amy Gallick, a Preservation Specialist in the Moving Image Section.
Charles and Ray Eames
I’m a Preservation Specialist in the Moving Image Section, which means I have responsibility for ensuring the physical integrity of our film and video collections. I also manage many of the contracts we have with vendors for things like equipment maintenance, and I’m also involved with various preservation projects, particularly films in the Charles and Ray Eames Collection. The Eameses worked with many companies over the course of their long career, but are most closely associated with the furniture manufacturer Herman Miller, manufacturers of the iconic Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman among other Eames designs. Charles and Ray also made films about their Herman Miller designs, and recently the company has been funding restorations of those films by the Library of Congress, where we hold all the original elements. Today an article was published in Herman Miller’s online magazine, “WHY,” about these preservations, but I want to provide a little more background on the collection and my involvement with it.
On November 19, 1982, Ray Eames signed a deed of gift to bequeath the Eames Collection to the Library of Congress. The donation included paper, photographs, and motion pictures. Due