January 1, 2026

Independent Archivist Launches 2026 Fundraiser to Save America's Forgotten Classroom Films

Uncommon Ephemera continues solo mission to preserve educational filmstrips before they decompose

JOHNSON CITY, NY - January 1, 2026 - Uncommon Ephemera, the only known initiative dedicated to preserving American educational and industrial filmstrips, has launched its 2026 fundraising campaign to continue its work saving a forgotten 20th-century media format from permanent loss.

Filmstrips, projected still-image presentations on 35mm film, often synchronized with audio on vinyl records or cassette tapes, were ubiquitous in American classrooms, industrial settings, and corporate training rooms from the 1920s through the 1990s. Millions were produced, covering subjects from history to sex education, and sales training to automotive service updates. Today, most have been discarded, and many that survive are actively deteriorating.

"As far as I can tell, I'm the only person actively preserving this format at scale," says Mark O'Brien, founder of Uncommon Ephemera. "Many of these filmstrips are decomposing because they were printed on Eastmancolor stock, which is notorious for uneven dye fading and chemical decomposition. Others are sitting in eBay listings priced as vintage décor by sellers who don't realize they may be holding the last surviving copy of something historically significant."

O'Brien's work was recognized in the Internet Archive's 2024 Vanishing Culture Report. To date, he has preserved more than 1,300 filmstrips, all freely available on the Internet Archive. More than 3,000 filmstrips await preservation, with additional titles donated regularly.

The preservation process is painstaking. Without access to professional film scanners costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, O'Brien scans each frame individually on a flatbed scanner—up to three minutes per frame, with some filmstrips exceeding 100 frames. When a filmstrip's original soundtrack survives, full restoration involves manually cropping and straightening each frame, digitizing audio from vinyl or cassette, correcting faded colors, and assembling everything in a video editor to simulate how the filmstrip would have been viewed decades ago.

"Despite the promise of AI and machine learning, there is no automated tool that does this correctly," O'Brien notes. "And no human has been able to create one for me either."

In 2025, O'Brien held the first-ever Filmstrip Festival, a three-day online showcase of restored works with commentary and behind-the-scenes content. He also hosts "Is This Anything?", a weekly Twitch show exploring lost media on donated VHS tapes, and releases newly restored filmstrips every two weeks.

Despite this output, financial support in 2025 was insufficient to sustain full-time preservation work. O'Brien took a job driving for DoorDash to cover expenses, fitting in preservation work late at night or between deliveries on a laptop in his car. The 2026 fundraising goal of $30,000 will cover operating expenses and allow O'Brien to focus on preservation full-time. Exceeding the goal could fund better scanning equipment to accelerate the work.

About Uncommon Ephemera

Uncommon Ephemera is a media preservation initiative focused on saving American educational and industrial filmstrips. All preserved materials are made freely available through the Internet Archive. For more information, visit uncommonephemera.org.

Links:

Media Contact:

Mark O'Brien
[email protected]