The finding aid for the Walt Disney Productions Publicity Ephemera catalogues many of Disney’s feature-length and short subject films through a collection of press kits, press books, publicity stills, and other ephemera for their films. This collection contains objects from 1938 to the 1980s.
These items can reveal a lot about the narrative and history of Disney. Many of the objects in this collection are related to the advertising of these motion pictures, so a lot about how Disney markets themselves can be seen through these items. Disney has always been a family entertainment company, and these records show this through cataloguing the kind of films Disney produced and the way they were marketed, specifically to children and families. We might also be able to recognize the scope of these films as a whole, and the overall themes that Disney was trying to portray through them. Also, the biography mentions the decline of Disney’s reputation from 1966 to 1980. Because the collection has items from this time period, we might be able to see the effects of Disney’s decline on the publicity of the films produced during this time.
Although this collection is about Disney’s impactful films, the collection does not contain the films themselves, so it would be difficult to construct ideas of why their films are so impactful and significant based on ephemera alone. Another important part of the history of these films are how they were made and who worked on them. Also, although the decline of Disney’s popularity may be able to be noticed through the records, the reason for what caused the decline and the general history of Disney would be difficult to decipher from the records alone. The included biography of Disney helps remedy this by giving a general history of the company. To understand these records fully however, I believe it would be important to also have copies or at least summaries of the films themselves.
Risha Sanikommu
Nice job, Rishita! Interestingly, Disney is famously strict about limiting access to its own archives. I’m kind of surprised we even have these materials!
This was a very insightful post! Excellent observation about how without summaries or copies of the actual films, the ephemera cannot truly illustrate the significance of the Disney films. Great work!
Great post, Risha. I did this finding aid too, and I was curious to see other insights on it. You bring up a great point that the films are not actually in this collections. Without the films, it is missing out on a huge portion of the narrative. I also enjoy the points you bring up of the creation of the films. These would all be very helpful and help to understand the overall picture.