Donate to the Monterey Camp Historic Film Project

"I remember the bugle calls in the early morning coming from the camps across the lake. It was a wonderful sound that warned my mother to pack our lunches so we could spend the morning in the sun-splashed water below my uncle's cabin off Eaton Road in Monterey, MA. Except for 2 photos of my aunt lined up on the dock of Camp Glenmere in the 1930s, I never knew much about the history of the camps." —Barbara Emmel Wolinsky, Friends of Lake Garfield

Now, a treasure trove of 19 - 16mm film reels has been given to the Monterey Library. They appear to be of the Camps on Lake Garfield from the late 1940s to the 1950s. But we will not know for sure until we can view them all. Sadly, they are not very well labeled.

Although the reels are not in great condition, now is the best time to capture the footage before they deteriorate further. Each reel contains 400 feet. They need to be cleaned of rust dust from the cans, scanned at 4K High Dynamic Range, and then color corrected.

We would like to raise the $6471 remaining—to digitally scan all 19 reels and make them available to full and part-time residents of Monterey and the surrounding Berkshires, as well as those who attended the camps and are living outside this area.

We need to raise the following:

Film Prep: 19 Reels @ $5 = $95

Cleaning: 6500 x $0.10/ft = $650

Scanning: 6500 x $0.81/ft = $5265

Recanning: 19 Reels @ $10 = $190

ReColor: 19 Files @ $100 = $1300

Total: $7500

The Monterey Cultural Council gave us a grant of $1029 to start the fundraiser.

These films will give people a window into a time in Monterey's history that is largely forgotten. The footage, when ready to view, will become part of the Monterey History Project and stored on the Upper Housatonic Heritage server.

During the summer of 2023, the Monterey Library hopes to host round-table story-telling sessions about the camps.

Please DONATE NOW so we can save this treasure trove of Monterey history.