Abstract
The American Mutoscope Company’s The Haverstraw Tunnel was one of the most popular screenings of 1897, inspiring ecstatic rhetoric in descriptions of the experience of watching the original “phantom ride” train film. Historians appropriated such language (“an unseen energy swallows up space”) to theorize about early cinema. Yet until 2020, this significant production was difficult to see. The one-minute recording was shot and projected on large-format 68mm film stock, producing a high-resolution image as seen from the front of an express train traveling along the Hudson River. This essay recounts the archival research process abetted by the Library of Congress and British Film Institute National Archive. In 2020 the library provided digital access to its 16mm film print, created in 1955 from a paper print. This research then culminated with the British archive providing access to its 2018 restoration of Haverstraw Tunnel, an 8K scan of an original 68mm print.
Recommended Citation
Streible, Dan
(2024)
"Seeing through the Haverstraw Tunnel,"
The Journal of e-Media Studies: Vol. 7:
Iss.
1, Article 4.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1349/PS1.1938-6060.A.500
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/joems/vol7/iss1/4
Figure 1. Empire State Express (American Mutoscope Co., 1896). Frames from LOC version (left) and Eye Filmmuseum (right). Haverstraw Tunnel
Empire_State_Express_1896_diptych.mp4 (2106 kB)
Video 1. Empire State Express (1896): Comparing Paper Print to 68mm (2020).
Streible Figure 2.png (1219 kB)
Figure 2. Ad for Poli’s Wonderland Theatre, Morning Journal–Courier (New Haven), December 27, 1897. Haverstraw Tunnel
Fig.3_Haverstraw_AMB_Photo_Catalog_301.png (1892 kB)
Figure 3. Each photographic frame in the original booklet measures 35mm wide. Detail from Museum of Modern Art object number F1938.1.73, page from Biograph Photo Catalog (1902). Biograph Collection, MoMA Department of Film Special Collections, New York.
Haverstraw Tunnel_ProRes LT_1080.mp4 (4884 kB)
Video 4. LOC paper print of Haverstraw Tunnel, copyright American Mutoscope & Biograph, April 24, 1903.
Fig.4_Haverstraw_Tunnel_LOC_PP_midtunnel-Screen capture of the digitized 16mm film created from the 35mm.png (921 kB)
Figure 4. Screen capture of the digitized 16mm film created from the LOC 35mm paper print. Haverstraw Tunnel
Fig.5_Haverstraw_Kleine_ad_ Billboard_1906_detail.png (496 kB)
Figure 5. Detail from the Kleine Optical Co ad. Billboard, March 17, 1906. Haverstraw Tunnel
Haverstraw Tunnel_N-599895-Proxy.ia.mp4 (11107 kB)
Video 5. The Haverstraw Tunnel. BFI National Archive 68mm film print digitized.
Fig.6_twin imperfections visible in some 68mm prints.png (1833 kB)
Figure 6. The twin imperfections visible in some 68mm prints. Left: A frame from The Making of “The Brilliant Biograph.” Annike Kross holds a 68mm print over a light table. Right: A frame from the BFI copy of Haverstraw Tunnel. The white marks that mar the black of the tunnel shot are not present in the LOC paper print.
Haverstraw_Tunnel_comparison_2020.ia.mp4 (77021 kB)
Video 6. The Haverstraw Tunnel (1897): Comparing Paper Print to 68mm (2020).
Fig.7_Haverstraw_comparison_LOC_BFI_final_frames.png (1808 kB)
Figure 7. Top: A frame from the digitized LOC paper print, sprockets from the 16mm print included. Bottom: A similar frame from the BFI scan of one of its 68mm prints. Haverstraw Tunnel
Fig.8_Haverstraw_comparison_POSTCARD_Mutoscope_frame.png (1873 kB)
Figure 8. Left: Postcard published by New York, Ontario, and Western Railway, 1905. Right: A frame from the 1897 film. Haverstraw Tunnel