A selection of historic films is now available for viewing on the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Archives web pages, including the following:
• The College’s first “talkie,”
1929. ACS Founder and Director General Franklin H. Martin, MD, FACS, introduces the
officers, Board of Regents, and past presidents. This film was recently transferred from the
original 35mm nitrate negative to preservation quality film stock. The Nitrate Film Vault at
the Library of Congress holds the original negative.
[Image Caption: American College of Surgeons Officers, Board of Regents and Past Presidents in Session at the Clinical Congress, Chicago, 1929. Courtesy American College of Surgeons Archives.]
• Surgical operation films from the Gamble Collection. Hugh Agnew Gamble, MD, FACS, recorded many of his surgical operations in the 1940s on 16mm silent color film. Dr. Gamble's grandson, Hugh A. Gamble II, MD, FACS, donated the collection to the College. The film features Refrigeration Anesthesia in the Treatment of Arteriosclerotic and Diabetic Gangrene in the Poor-Risk Patient; and Gangrene Bowel Resection.
• White Battalions, 1942. This ACS film describes modern hospital care to the layperson.
• Fractures: an Introduction. This film was produced by the Committee on Fractures and other Traumas (now the Committee on Trauma), 1948.
• To Serve All, 1963 and 1970. Past presidents and others explain the College’s history and accomplishments.
You can view these films on the ACS website. [http://www.facs.org/archives/films.html]
Approximately 100 of the films and videos in the Archives have been transferred to a digital format. The Archives also is planning a new online system that will provide visitors with access to full descriptions of all cataloged materials, including links to more films, videos, sound recordings, images, and texts. Many Archives resources are already available online.[http://www.facs.org/archives/onlineresources.html]
