THE AUDIOVISUAL COLLECTION

On over 7,000 feet of 16mm film and nearly 4,000 slides, Marvin Vann has recorded the Lacandon way of life just as it was beginning to feel the impact of globalization. The film and slides provide a valuable baseline record for gauging changes in Lacandon culture in response to the recent array of new opportunities and pressures. Scenes include views of the Lacandon habitat as it was in the late 1960s. The images depict the Lacandon engaged in the activities of their day-to-day lives, as well as in that of craft and ritual. Important Lacandon individuals are featured. Vann also photographed archaeological excavations at several Classic Maya sites: Kaminaljuyu, Tikal, Copan, Aguateca, Seibal, Canancax, Yaxchilan, and Coba. The images provide a record of monuments that have been stolen or destroyed in subsequent years and of excavated buildings as they were prior to later restorations. Captured in the slides and film as well are cameo appearances by individuals of historic importance to Mayan archeology, including Gordon Willey and Jeremy Sabloff.

The audiovisual materials in the Vann Collection are of considerable worth to scholars. The slides and film are currently being housed in the Albion College Archives, but they need to be transferred to digital form in order to preserve the record on a less fragile medium and to make this visual record easier to use. Funds are needed for the transfer of these films and slides to DVD, which could then be stored on a computer network and made available to researchers via the Internet. Funds are also needed to purchase cold storage units in order to preserve the original images for posterity.

Special Collections Stockwell-Mudd Libraries Albion College 611 E. Porter Street Albion, MI 49224

Updated February 27, 2003 JAT