During July 2012, the Center for Adventist Research had the opportunity to transfer one of the 16 mm films from our collection to a digital format. This was a 16 mm film from when Andrews University was still known as Emmanuel Missionary College

You can view clips from the film below.

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Martin Doblemeier, producer/director of the film The Adventists, has begun a project on Adventist education. As part of this project he contacted our office looking for film footage of early Adventist education, and during our search we found a 16 mm film reel with clips of Emmanuel Missionary College, the earliest of which we estimate to be from the 1920s.

The film was transferred from film to computer hard disk by ColorLabs in the Washington, DC, area. The process is called Telecine. The film reels were hand delivered to the ColorLabs office by our colleagues at the White Estate main office in Silver Spring, Maryland.

The film appears to be a collection of smaller clips brought together and transferred from smaller reels. It is silent. The film is very fragile and has been spliced in several places.

The first part of the film footage contains film clips in color. There are scenes of the 1941 Graduation, 1940 Founder’s Day, the construction of Nethery Hall, activities in the Campus Bindery, the farm, nursing and science classes, and women reading to small children.

The next part contains footage that is in black and white, estimated to be from the 1920s. These are the clips featured on the website reference above. These clips start with a view of an orchard, the farm, chickens, tractors, cows, plowing activities, and walking through the fields. At this point the film broke.

After the point where the film broke there are scenes featuring the College Press, and shows people sorting papers, cutting and trimming books, and operating printing presses. Next are shown several women ironing. Next are a group of people around the sundial that is still found on campus near Buller and Harrigan Halls.

Other scenes show individuals displaying wooden folding beach-type chairs outside a building, and an ironing board, which we assumed were examples of products made by College Wood Products.
At the end of the film clips were scenes of the College Dairy van delivering milk and various views of campus buildings.