Interested in screening a film — or any media — at Wellesley College? For this project, I wanted to look at how you might do that on our campus, in what physical spaces and with what available technology. Collins Cinema, a 174-seat theater built in 1993 as part of the Davis Museum and Cultural Center complex, is — as its name suggests — Wellesley College’s most obvious site for movie screenings, and the focus of my research. In the process, however, I also learned about other spaces physically equipped for screenings, such as our classrooms or auditoriums.
To be clear, this is far from a complete history of Collins or technical analysis of screening technologies at Wellesley, but I hope the information collected here will be a helpful point of documented institutional memory. The material I was able to find provides some snapshots of screening technologies at different times, and from different perspectives, than students might usually experience.
EARLY PROJECTION AT WELLESLEY
Although cameras and moving picture technology were still in their early development at the time of Wellesley’s founding (1875), the College’s history with screening technologies had begun by at least the early 20th century. Some of the earliest records I found in the College archives date to 1922, when Wellesley Superintendent Henry H. Austin was involved in meetings at MIT, regarding a legislative bill “to make possible the use of non-inflammable picture films in schools and colleges” in Massachusetts. There are also several permit certificates, dating from 1919 to 1921, granting permission for “a special exhibition of moving pictures” in “The Barn in the 1st story of Wellesley College Building located at College Grounds.”
Around the same time, apparently those in charge of the construction of Alumnae Hall (built 1923, today Diana Walsh Chapman Alumnae Hall) were looking to install a projector in the new space. One file I found, a folder of records from the Superintendent of College Buildings, contained several brochures and advertisements for projectors — General Electric’s Incandescent Lamp Projector, Bausch and Lomb’s Balopticon, and the Spencer Delineascope, among others.
Advertisement cards for projectors by GE and Spencer.
Evidently, the College was surveying the market at the time before eventually purchasing a Dissolving Stereopticon from E.W. Goodrich for $165 — $194 in total with additional hardware, or about $3,126 today. A stereopticon, however, and similar “slide” projectors are used for photographic, not moving, pictures.
Jewett Theater in 1958, from the Wellesley College Archives Image Gallery. In detail, one can see projectors set up on the balcony that resemble stereopticons or other slide projectors; unfortunately, I was so far unable to find more information confirming this, or more on the Alumnae Hall equipment.
COLLINS CINEMA
Jumping ahead to the 1990s, another folder from the archives contained files from the President’s Office (then Nannerl Keohane), specifically from the College committee assigned to the Collins Cinema and Cafe. Perhaps the most interesting of these was a 24-page document of policy recommendations to senior staff regarding the new facilities. Some interesting points:
- The first recommendation from the committee was “That Cafe Hoop be selected to run the cafe.” Further, refreshments not prepared in store “should be ordered from a local Wellesley vendor”. As the document noted, other student enterprises were also considered (El Table and a now-defunct Bedrock Cafe) but Hoop was the only one to submit an official proposal. Today, Collins is run by Wellesley Fresh, a subsidiary of the controversial AVI Foodsystems, Inc. that also operates our dining halls.
- Another initial, “very controversial” recommendation was that no food or drink be allowed in the cinema, only the cafe/lobby. Interestingly, part of the background included in the chairperson’s note was that this was in line with other campus buildings such as the Science Center or library, implicitly positioning the new cinema as another academic space.
- In preparing their notes, the committee also looked at comparable institutions at other schools — Dartmouth, Harvard, Vassar, Babson, etc (in another copy of the same document, “Williams?” was also annotated in pen). Also in the file was the “Hopkins Center Building Monitor’s Bible”, the policy handbook for Dartmouth’s Arts Center and apparently a source of inspiration or comparison for Collins.
- Even before it opened, there was such a “high anticipated usage” that the committee already expected “Collins Cinema alone cannot meet the demand for high quality film viewing space now, and will certainly not be able to do so in the future.” This, based on “the strong level of film activity here on the Wellesley College campus” (referring to a previous memo, surveys, and records that were unfortunately not included in the file) and the new Film Studies program. To alleviate this, several scheduling processes were suggested in the document, prioritizing not only class-related viewings but also the student Film Society.
- Further, the committee also recommended that “other campus viewing facilities be upgraded to alleviate the load on Collins Cinema” and that these technologies related to film and video studies should be coordinated across Wellesley’s campus.
Additionally, consideration was given to how the cinema would relate to not only the Wellesley campus but the town and greater public. One of the recommended policies was that non-Wellesley parties seeking to use the space should pay a rental fee, with an exception (a lower flat rate) “to make the space inexpensively available to non-profit and local/community groups during non-academic periods,” as a way “to encourage the local community to use this resource, per the donor’s intentions.” The College even hired The Kreisberg Group (a New York-based PR firm) to outline a “Public Relations Plan” for the Davis Museum and Cultural Center. While primarily focused on the Davis, this plan also recommended contacting “members of the press who covered the closing of Wellesley’s only movie house and let them know that a new public cinema is opening on the College campus. Similarly, make certain that Boston and Boston-area film reporters and critics are kept well-informed about the program and schedule of the cinema at Wellesley College.”
Still, it’s clear that students were to be the primary audience of this new campus space, with the policy recommendations continually centering the educational purpose of the cinema.
TECHNOLOGIES AT COLLINS AND ON CAMPUS
Presumably, at the time of writing the committee’s policy recommendations (May 28, 1993) most of the construction and technologies were already determined or even installed. However, the section titled “Cinema/Technology” outlined more specific suggestions for Collins Cinema, including that Wellesley “consider installing 35mm projection in the future.” As the background note remarked,
“Although 35mm brings with it a myriad of issues – size and weight of film reels , more complex machinery, specialized projection needs – it also opens a myriad of film possibilities, especially in the area of third world and multi-cultural films. Rental is not a viable option in the Boston area … [and] There are no non-profit institutions in the metro west area which have 35mm capacity; this may be a void we could consider filling. The committee suggests adding 35mm to the colleges “wish list” for future expenditures and suggests including funding for special projectionists, technical support and the costly shipping and transporting of 50 lb film reels in its proposed budget … (Perhaps an alum in the cinema industry would “help” us here, either through funding or donation of equipment.)”
The committee further recommended having both a trained technician and trained student projectionists available on campus to support the Collins projection system, noting that “The cinema’s new projector is considerably more advanced and complex than any other on the campus.” In an interview with Jarlath Waldron, Director of Instructional Media at Wellesley College, he explained that the equipment in Collins Cinema has since evolved from its initial Barco projector to a more powerful Christie three-chip (named for its 3 individual LCD chips, generating sharp definition and color). Per the initial wishes of senior staff and later faculty demand, he was also able to purchase a set of Kinoton 35mm film projectors (from the Boston Celtics!) with funding from a filmmaker alum, in addition to the 16mm projector already in the space. Waldron predicted that looking forward, Collins might adopt a DCP (digital cinema packages, video files configured to servers) capable system, which requires expensive and system-compatible projectors but is the industry standard in many movie theaters today.
As far as the cinema, I assume that over time, we might look at DCP … where you would have a server and that would request a key to a print or to a video file, and be able to download it so that you could screen it in the room.
– Jarlath Waldron
Waldron was also able to speak to the other screening set-ups elsewhere on campus, such as having DVD and region-free blu ray players in Collins and across campus, or LED screens in addition to laser projectors and Apple TVs in certain classrooms. Further, classrooms that sometimes function as exhibition spaces, such as Pendleton 001 or Founders 120, also have the very high-end three-chip projectors, and some Jewett arts classrooms have one-chip projectors (still “significantly better than our standard projectors”) to help students working in or displaying mixed media to match their computer monitors. In the new Science Center, there are other kinds of advanced screening setups, such as spaces with multiple projectors — a main front in addition to several “short-throw” (closer range) ones — and multiple screens, so that students around a circular table can always see the image being displayed, or a food lab with several cameras and screens to allow the cooking demonstrations on the table to be visible around the room.
All of these histories and their details continue to reinforce the mission of Collins Cinema, and other Wellesley screening sites, as spaces dedicated foremost to the students. Whether or not these intentions have translated into effective viewing practices may be another inquiry into itself — but it’s clear that there has been significant thought and investment put into making these spaces educational, entertaining, and engaging for the Wellesley community.
