The David Gray Collection contains home movies shot by Uriel Hadley of St. Louis, Missouri. Highlights include footage shot at the Chicago World’s Fair (A Century of Progress International Exhibition) in 1933-34, the St. Louis Botanical Gardens and holiday celebrations with the family. Hadley worked for Eastman Kodak and he often shot these home movies on or with the latest technology being developed by the company.

The Ferd Isserman collection consists of 16mm home movies shot primarily in Chicago from the early 1930s through the late 1960s. Documenting leisure time, trips and holidays, highlights from the collection include family visits to the Chicago World’s Fair (A Century of Progress International Exposition) in 1933-34; a legion marching band and USO dedication in Chicago during WWII; the Republican National Convention in Chicago in 1932; the 20th Miss America pageant held at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ in 1946; a trip to San Francisco and Los Angeles in 1946-47; and Thanksgiving celebrations in the 1930s, 1940s and 1968.

The Russell V. Zahn Collection contains 38 reels of 8mm film chronicling the many birthdays, Christmases, and family outings between the years of 1933 and 1946 -- primarily in and around the family's Wisconsin home. Highlights of this collection include the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, a trip to Sturgeon Bay, and some very entertaining backyard dance performances. The collection also includes one commercially produced Felix the Cat animation.

This collection consists of "orphan" films and is named after William O'Farrell, a Canadian moving image archivist and champion of the neglected, lost film and regional archives in general.