Muncie and Delaware County and Ball State Historic Film Collections Now Available Online



Ball State Homecoming parade, 1952

 The Ball State University Libraries is pleased to announce the creation of two new Digital Media Repository (DMR) collections that provide online access to newly-digitized archival film from Archives and Special Collections.  The Muncie and Delaware County Films and Videos collection and The Ball State University Historic Films and Videos collection, when completed, will provide access to several hundred unique visual records of Muncie and Delaware County and Ball State history.

The Ball State University Historic Films and Videos collection contains films that document significant campus events, social activities, athletic events, lectures and notable campus visitors, and faculty research projects from the 1950s through the 1970s. You can see University presidential inaugurations, ground breakings and dedications for campus buildings, speeches and interviews of celebrities and other campus visitors, football games (including Ball State’s appearance in the 1965 Grantland Rice Bowl), Homecoming, promotional films for Ball State, and campus scenes depicting student activities and campus life.

White River flood of 1913

 The Muncie and Delaware County Films and Videos collection features rare historical film footage of Muncie and Delaware County from the 1910s through the 1970s. The collection documents local businesses and industry, family life, social activities, buildings, and events.  For example the Indiana floods from 1913 and the 1930s, the groundbreaking for the Westinghouse plant (now Progress Rail) in 1959, the Delco Remy UAW strike in the 1970s, and a tour of Camp Chesterfield (spiritual camp) in the early 1970s are all documented in these newly digitized films.

After viewing digitized video objects in the DMR, please consider completing this short digital video survey to help the University Libraries understand how to best provide online video content to our digital patrons.

Protests surrounding George Wallace's
1964 campus visit

These two new collections will continue to grow over the next few months as more films are digitized and added.  Please visit the DMR often to see what’s new in these interesting and historically valuable collections. You might see someone you know, or even a younger version of yourself.