ERNEST C. OBERHOLTZER

An Inventory of His Sound and Visual Collection at the Minnesota Historical Society

Sound and Visual Collection

Part or all of this collection is restricted.
For details, please see restrictions.

OVERVIEW


	Creator:	Oberholtzer, Ernest C. (Ernest Carl), 1884-1977.
	Title:	Ernest C. Oberholtzer sound and visual collection.
	Dates:	[1909]-1960.
	Language:	Materials in English.
	Abstract:	Films, audio recordings, and photographs taken by explorer, conservation, and writer, Ernest C. Oberholtzer. The collection documents Oberholtzer's canoe travels, the natural environment, and Ojibwe life in the Minnesota-Ontario border lakes region. Included in this collection are lantern slides documenting Oberholtzer's 1912 canoe trip to Hudson Bay, Canada with Billy Magee.
	Quantity:	6 master film reels: silent, black and white and color; 16 mm, 6 user video files: MP4 (2.5 GB), 4 master audio files: WAV (1 GB), 4 user audio files: MP4 (145 MB), and 110 photographs: transparencies on glass, black and white and color; 3 x 4 in. (lantern slide format).
	Location:	I.377: See Detailed Description for shelf locations.

Oberholtzer was well known as an explorer, conservationist, and writer. In 1912 he settled in the Rainy Lake area of northern Minnesota. He often traveled the area with Ojibwe companions, particularly Billy Magee, and was a teller of their stories and legends. He is best known for his ceaseless role in preserving the boundary waters wilderness as a founder of both the Quetico-Superior Council and The Wilderness Society and as the first chairman of the President's Quetico-Superior Committee.

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SCOPE AND CONTENTS

The collection contains six reels of motion picture film taken by Oberholtzer and others between the 1930s and 1950s documenting canoe travel, the natural environment, and Ojibwe life in the Minnesota-Ontario border lakes region. Shots include live action scenes of canoeing, portaging, fishing, camp cooking, Ojibwe shelters, and wild rice harvesting and processing. Seasonal landscapes include forests, wetlands, waterfalls, rapids, shorelines, and aquatic plants. Pictured animals include porcupine, bear, moose, deer, and waterfowl. The Miscellaneous footage and Canoe cruise contain scenes of the Rainy Lake islands where Oberholtzer made his home as well as many action shots of Oberholtzer. Miscellaneous footage no. 3 also includes scenes of logging activity and Grand Portage. Footage principally taken by Oberholtzer.

In 1960, film footage that Ernest Oberholtzer and his friends had taken over previous few decades was spliced together and shown to Mr. Obertholtzer. He provided commentary on the scenes shown in the footage, and told stories about his canoe trips and the Ojibwe he knew. This commentary is on the four audio files in this series.

Unfortunately, this audio does not synchronize with any of the Oberholtzer reels of film in this collection. Portions of comments match up with portions of the movies, but it seems that the film footage was spliced together again in a different sequence after the recordings were made.

The glass lantern slides in this collection document Oberholtzer's 1912 canoe trip to Hudson Bay, Canada with Billy Magee, a 2,000 mile journey taken from June to November, 1912. The slides include views of the landscape, caribou, and of the indigenous peoples they encountered during their journey. The collection also includes sixteen images of Anishinaabe friends and moose in the wild, likely taken near Rainy Lake, Minnesota between 1909 and 1910. Among these are a view of the wooden bridge on Mallard Island, taken before the 1950 flood, which is known to have washed that bridge out.

The lantern slides were acquired with stickers on them with identifying numbers (sometimes multiple numbers) that are thought to have had some significance to Oberholtzer, but references to his slide collection within his personal papers don't provide any insight. The stickers were removed for preservation purposes, but the numbers have been retained within the finding aid for future identification.

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ARRANGEMENT

The collection is organized into the following sections:



		Films
		Soundtracks
		Lantern slides

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ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Access Restrictions:

Access to the master copies of films is restricted and requires the permission of the sound and visual curator.

Use Restrictions:

Citations to the films and soundtracks should credit both the Minnesota Historical Society and the Ernest C. Oberholtzer Foundation as the owners.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Ernest C. Oberholtzer Sound and Visual Collection. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: AV2002.96; AV2004.37; AV2016.25.

Location of Master Files

Digital masters of audiovisual material are maintained on the Society's secure digital collections storage servers and is managed and preserved in accordance with archival best practices.

The original audio reels were disposed after they were digitally reformatted into digital WAV files.

Processing Information:

Digital audiovisual files transferred from the master film and audio reels by the Minnesota Historical Society for preservation purposes (May 2018 and March 2019).

Catalog ID number: 990035934100104294

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DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FILMS

Location

I.377.1

Miscellaneous footage, circa 1930s-1950s. 1 master film reel (1 hour): silent, black and white and color; 16mm and 1 user video file: MP4 (626 MB).

Scene sequence: Ducks, elk, Native American kids in camp, canoe up ahead, processing rice, making a canoe, rice in canoe, lots of Native American kids, waterfall, Native American in canoe, Billy Magee?, Native Americans in winter camp, kids. Black & white footage of moose, in camp, more moose, kid with Duluth pack near river and walking, portaging briefly with Oberholtzer, canoeing above rapids, wide shot of falls, young boy catching fish, canoeing up river, porcupine swimming, close-up of boy canoeing, men in camp, pitching tent, lifting canoe, fishing in falls. Color footage of fall, taking canoe out, ducks, three canoes with Native Americans, winter camp, big falls, ducks, kid in camp, putting pine bough in tent, beaver, wildlife, boy fishing, man loading canoe, close up of doing dishes in camp, Oberholtzer setting off, winter at Mallard Island, wildlife, white pine, granite rimmed lakes, Oberholtzer’s back to camera while canoeing, porcupine, men working on island, houseboat on Mallard, Oberholtzer in flannel on bench, wildlife, Oberholtzer loading canoe, Oberholtzer putting canoe in water, putting on his hat with a flourish, planes taking off and landing on lake.

Digital version

Location

I.377.2

Miscellaneous footage, circa 1930s-1960s. 1 master film reel (58 minutes, 58 seconds): silent, black and white and color; 16mm and 1 user video file: MP4 (586 MB).

Scene sequence: Ducks, people canoeing, moving the houseboat onto Mallard in winter, fall, moose, 60’s kids in camp, ducks, lots and lots of animals, Oberholtzer canoeing to shore, views from an airplane, view of Oberholtzer's hands picking berries, little bird, loons, porcupine, waterfall footage.

Digital version

Location

I.377.3

Miscellaneous footage, circa 1930s-1950s. 1 master film reel (54 minutes, 50 seconds): silent, black and white and color; 16mm and 1 user video file: MP4 (544.8 MB).

Scene sequence: Porcupines, rapids, Oberholtzer making bread and washing dishes in camp, waterfalls, log jam on falls, boy in camp (half-light), Ojibwe in camp, trumpeter swans, Native American children sawing wood, man canoeing with glasses, winter, log cabin, native girl in Indigenous clothing, Grand Portage recreation, cleaning wild rice, close-up of Native American man and rice making, Oberholtzer dancing in the rice bucket, two kids making rice, parching rice, fall scenes, in camp with rocks, trees, rapids, Oberholtzer canoeing, wide waterfalls, cabin on Mallard, Native American boys boxing, porcupine climbing up paddle, Oberholtzer taking down tent, Oberholtzer getting in canoe and leaving, Oberholtzer going over a rapid, 1960’s logging, Oberholtzer rolling up tent, loading Duluth pack, walking to canoe, Oberholtzer loading up for a portage, Oberholtzer walking up the rock ledge with hat, Oberholtzer canoeing by waterfall and inspecting log dam, Oberholtzer sitting in the midst of logged and damaged woodland, rapids, logs piled up at water’s edge, huge log jam, towing a log boom, Native American stirring a pot, heavy-laden with Duluth packs through wetland, canoe being portaged through birch.

Digital version

Location

I.377.8

Canoe trip and Tropical City, circa 1930s-1950s. 1 master film reel (35 minutes, 9 seconds): silent, black and white and color; 16mm and 1 user video file: MP4 (348.8 MB).

Digital version

Location

I.377.9

The outdoor life, circa 1930s-1950s. 1 master film reel (25 minutes, 39 seconds): silent, black and white and color; 16mm and 1 user video file: MP4 (257.8 MB).

Scene sequence: River scenes, camp scenes with an Native American boy breaking camp and getting into a canoe, Native American family, man (possibly Billy Magee), elderly Native American woman smoking, Native American family, Native American woman and child in a canoe, fishing net, Native Americans ricing, parching wild rice, threshing and winnowing rice, portaging a canoe, three white women, two white men in the woods, canoeing, Native Americans in the woods, wigwam and birch bark. Man undressing and bathing in lake, Native American family, man with small outboard motor, aerials of Grand Portage, night time (or dark) footage, porcupine, waterfall, Mallard Island.

Digital version

Location

I.377.10

Canoe cruise, August 19 - September 3, 1938. 1 master film reel (20 minutes, 38 seconds): silent, black and white and color; 16mm and 1 user video file: MP4 (204.1 MB).

Scene sequence: Camouflaging a canoe (in preparation for filming), porcupines near the water and crossing water on a fallen sapling, mother bear and her two cubs swimming and scrambling up the bank, a deer at the water’s edge, Ted Hall with camping gear at the water’s edge, moose swimming, waterfall, party of men and women fishing, showing off the fish caught, moose in shallow water, young man fly-casting and catching fish, canoeing through the lily pads and grasses or rice, young man in camp, moose, duck, young man getting in camouflaged canoe, porcupine, camp, moose, duck, young man going down small rapids and portaging canoe, moose, young man at rapids and on shore, doe and two fawns at the water’s edge and dashing into the woods, canoe on water at dawn or dusk (or just dark footage), man fishing and letting the very large fish go, man in canoe, Oberholtzer catching fish by hand, man by camp fire, unloading a canoe, man in canoe, water and waterfalls, waterfowl, man, porcupine, man fishing, porcupine, moose, porcupine, waterfowl, moose, two men in a canoe, lily pads, boy swimming to pick a lily, two men swimming, lilies and grasses, man in camp, waterfall, fishing, portaging a canoe, porcupine near canoe, man in canoe, porcupine, dawn or dusk, snow, houses possibly belonging to Oberholtzer, porcupine, waterfowl, deer, porcupine, man fishing, a field, two canoes, deer at water’s edge, fall colors near the water, two Native American couples ricing in their canoes.

Digital version

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SOUNDTRACKS

Location

Internet

Accompanies miscellaneous footage [1], circa 1930s-1950s. 1 master audio file (50 minutes, 20 seconds): WAV (254 MB) and 1 user audio file: MP3 (36.2 MB).

Stories included: a lazy boy named Harry whom Obertholtzer took on a canoe trip; the drowning of Charlie Friday's twin sons and the tribe's sentence for the medicine man deemed responsible; Charlie Friday's revenge on his children's murderer.

Digital audio

Accompanies miscellaneous footage [2], circa 1930s-1950s. 1 master audio file (1 hour, 5 minutes): WAV (327 MB) and 1 user audio file: MP3 (48.1 MB).

Stories included: a song sparrow at her nest feeding her young, Isle Royale, camp scene of men making a canvas wigwam, taking an Native American boy in to help his family find out the boy's health issue, the boy was thought to have TB, back to the camp scene and breaking it down and placing the equipment into a canoe, High Falls and Turtle River, porcupine encounter, discussion of planes flying in and restricted air space, footage of ducks especially black mallards, autumn leaves changing color, characteristics of the surrounding lakes and wooded area, harvest and process of wild rice at the Mallard Island by Native Americans, footage of bears, moose, a frog, and wild foul, making bannock bread over the fire on a skillet, Grand Portage Minnesota and the fire lookout towers, more talk regarding High Falls and Turtle River , ends with talk about the camp scene and canoe.

Digital audio

Accompanies miscellaneous footage [3], circa 1930s-1950s. 1 master audio file (58 minutes, 20 seconds): WAV (292 MB) and 1 user audio file: MP3 (43 MB).

Stories included: an account of the first time Billy Magee looked through a camera on a trip to Hudson Bay; the six month long canoe trip that Oberholtzer and Magee took in 1912.

Digital audio

Accompanies miscellaneous footage [4], circa 1930s-1950s. 1 master audio file (29 minutes, 2 seconds): WAV (146 MB) and 1 user audio file: MP3 (18.3 MB).

Contains piano accompanying music only, no dialogue.

Digital audio

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LANTERN SLIDES

Location

Box

I.377.11

Hudson Bay map, 1912. 1 photograph: transparency on glass, black and white; 3 x 4 in. (lantern slide format)

Oberholtzer number: A003