This collection of home movies documents the lives of the Armstrong family, who lived and worked in Chicago during the 1920s - 40s, then moved to the suburbs in the post-war era. The films depict family vacations to Michigan, Florida, and Wisconsin, alongside a few amateur horror films made by the younger generations during the 1980s.

The entire Baker collection was shot by commercial artist Jack Baker on 8mm film between the 1940s and 80s, with the exception of one 16mm film of unknown origin. The collection consists of in-house industrial films Jack made for work and home movie footage he took of his wife and two kids. The films he made on the job consist of downtown Chicago scenes, an American Can Company plant and trips to Milwaukee, New Orleans, and New York City. The home movies include suburban construction, numerous children's birthday parties, a few Christmas celebrations, an adult Halloween party, a Cubs game and trips to the Indiana dunes and Wisconsin's Lake Geneva.

This collection of home movies was shot by Chicagoan Frank "Burt" Bryant and document his wife (Anne Geraldine McCabe Bryant), mother (Hilda Jernberg Bryant), children (Peter, Ricard, David and Judith) and their family travels. The Bryant family lived primarily in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood, at 1726 W. Jarvis Avenue. All four of the Bryant children attended St. Jerome's Grammar School. The boys attended Loyola Academy for high school, while Judy attended St. Scholastica Academy. These family films include scenes of Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood, as well as footage of the family's annual summer trip to Eagle Lake, Wisconsin, where the McCabe family owned a cottage.

This collection contains one 35mm home movie shot in Evanston, IL during the 1920s.

The John T. and Jane D. Clark collection consists of home movies primarily shot by John T. Clark and his father, Herbert Clark, from 1930 - 1989. The films are of three generations of a Chicago Irish family in Oak Park & River Forest, Illinois and the Western shores of Michigan. They capture holiday gatherings, family reunions, the Lake Michigan shoreline, religious rituals, and social events as well as annual vacations to watering holes in Wisconsin and Michigan, especially Long Beach, IN; New Buffalo, MI; Palisades Park & South Haven, MI.

The Margaret Conneely Collection contains the films and papers of Margaret Conneely, a prolific and respected Chicago amateur filmmaker. The collection includes medical films she made as a cinematographer for Loyola University, story films she made with other local hobbyists and professional filmmakers, films made by other amateur filmmakers, such as Carl Frazier and Nora Rafferty, and commercial films that she collected. Four of her films have been preserved by the National Film Preservation Foundation and the New York Women in Film & Television sponsored Women's Film Preservation Fund. The papers include a wealth of correspondence between Conneely and other amateur filmmakers, documents and publications from amateur film and photography associations, as well as photographs of Conneely and other filmmakers.

The Camille Cook Collection consists of outtakes, work prints, original negatives, collected films, home movies, and edited diary films of the experimental and personal work of Camille Cook, filmmaker and founder of The Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (now The Gene Siskel Film Center). The films depict various aspects of Cook’s life in Chicago throughout the mid 1960s, ranging from images of city street life to moments with her friends and family in Western Springs, IL, as well as her experiments in structural filmmaking.

This 16mm home movie collection documents the Cring family of St. Louis, Missouri. Highlights of the collection include its railroad footage, Brentwood High School football games, an entertaining teenage dance party and a rare glimpse of Charles Lindbergh at a Mexican bull fight. This collection is sponsored by Susan Hayes.

The John Dame Collection consists of 16mm and 8mm home movies shot by multiple generations of an Illinois family. Most of the home movies document life in the western Chicago suburb of Elmhurst, Illinois, including community parades, graduations, weddings and high school football games. The collection also contains extensive footage of global travel, sailing, and kayaking.

The Robert & Theresa Davis collection primarily consists of travelogue films created by the Illinois-based husband and wife duo Robert & Theresa Davis. Places that are filmed include: Australia, Belgium, Cyprus, Iceland, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Thailand, Tunisia, Sicily and Yugoslavia. The collection also contains a few amateur short films and musical productions as well as a handful of educational films. Additionally, the collection contains extensive papers and ephemera, including scrapbooks, photos, maps and diaries that describe the Davis' career as filmmakers, lecturers and tour guides.

The Raymond and Jane Dean Collection consists of films made and collected by the Dean family of Rockford, IL. The films depict the family at leisure at home and on their farm, including hiking, golfing at the Sinnissippi Golf Course, and celebrating Christmas, Easter, and other holidays. Trips to nearby towns and locations include Belvidere, Edgebrook, Beloit (WI), Lake Geneva, and Auburn (IN), and at least one film depicts a 1943 game of the Rockford Peaches women's baseball team. Included with the collection is a spiral-bound notebook that describes some of the home movie reels in detail.

The Robert R. Dockum collection contains the home movies of Robert ("Bob") Dockum (b. 1938), a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force. The movies in this collection were made between 1965 and 1973 on 50-foot rolls of Super 8mm film. They include scenes of Bob's homecoming from the Vietnam War in 1968, family camping trips in Wisconsin, pony and tractor rides at Dockum's parents' farmhouse in Ohio, and the Butler County Fair. The individuals that appear in these films include Dockum; his first wife, Joanne; his parents and extended family members; and his children, Todd, J.R. and Leah.

The David Drazin Collection contains both commercial prints that were created for the home market and home movies that were made at the Holy Family Academy school in Chicago between 1939 and 1946. The commercial films include educational films, a Dick Tracy cartoon, and Charlie Chaplin’s 1916 short “Behind the Screen.” The Holy Family Academy was an all-girls Catholic school on Chicago’s north side, and the home movies document nuns and young girls playing outside and on various outings in and around Chicago, as well as seasonal dance recitals.

The Richard J. Finnegan collection is a series of home movies, travelogues and amateur shorts shot by Chicago Sun-Times editor Richard J. Finnegan between 1929 and 1953. Many of the films in this collection creatively meld narrative inter-titles with non-fiction footage, and employ cinematic conventions such as slow motion and narrative-style editing. Subject matter spans trips to Yellowstone, Eureka, Bermuda and various parts of Northern and Southern California, personal films of notable events such as the 1929 Olympics in Los Angeles, and "classic" home movie family films of vacations, holidays and events, including birthday parties, baptisms, a wedding, Christmas and Halloween celebrations.

This black and white 16mm film depicts the leisure activities of an affluent family on Chicago's north side. Scenes include a grandiose building that is possibly the Edgewater Beach Hotel and a football game at University of Chicago.

Home Movies shot by Ellen Galt and Ann Calfee Alden featuring pop and rock concerts in St. Louis and Chicago as well as footage from Ann and Ellen's train ride from St. Louis to Chicago to see the Beatles in August of 1965. The majority of the collection consists of music performances filmed off the television.

The Benjamin Gasul Collection includes 5 reels of 16mm home movies shot by a well-respected Chicago area pediatrician, Dr. Benjamin M. Gasul. The films date from 1936 to 1940 and include footage of Brookfield Zoo and trips to Mackinac Island, Niagara Falls, Cuba, Miami, New Orleans and the 1939 New York World's Fair.

The Glick-Berolzheimer Collection contains home movies by Diane Berolzheimer's father Jacob Glick from the mid 1930s through the early 1960s. It also includes home movies made by Diane and her husband Karl Berolzheimer from the mid 1950s through the mid 1970s. The home movies in this collection depict the leisure activities of the larger Glick/Berolzheimer family, rituals of Jewish life, and numerous fishing trips by Mr. Glick.

A collection of home movies documenting the Godman family of Chicago and Evanston, Illinois. The patriarch of the family, Carl Lawrence Godman, shot the majority of the collection. The films primarily feature his wife, Fay F. Godman, and their three sons, David, Andrew, and James. Collection highlights include a 1968 Chicago River boat tour, a trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo as well as home movies Carl shot while serving in the Korean War.

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 Heidkamp Family Collection consists primarily of home movies shot by Herbert A. Heidkamp, a Chicago optometrist and realtor. The 16mm films were shot between ca. 1924 - 1956 and depict the life of the Heidkamp family in the Lincoln Square neighborhood. Events recorded include First Communions, May Day celebrations, and various weddings - almost all at Queen of Angels church on Sunnyside Ave. Heidkamp also filmed historic events in the city, including the 1928 Graf Zeppelin flyover from Grant Park and a 1939 Armistice Day parade, as well as footage of notable Chicago landmarks (Wrigley Building, Field Museum, Lincoln Park Zoo and Conservatory, etc.) over the decades. The collection also contains a handful of collected commercial films (mostly German cartoons), and 8mm and Super 8 home movies from the next generation of Heidkamps.

The Cynthia Holmberg Collection consists of 16mm home movies shot primarily by Henry Brooks, Cynthia’s father, and 8mm home movies shot by Cynthia’s husband Ron Holmberg. Ranging from the late 1930s to the mid-1960s, the 16mm films document Cynthia’s childhood and the life of a middle class family living in Chicago. The 8mm home movies document Ron and Cynthia Holmberg’s family and life in the suburbs of Chicago in the 1970s and early 80s. They include various locations around Chicago as well as family trips to Wisconsin, various U.S. National Parks, and Florida.

The Mary Heftel Hooton collection includes Super 8mm home movies of vacations she and her husband, William Heftel, took from 1967-1973. The films document trips to Japan, Hawaii, Norway, Antartica, Australia, and the Bahamas. Hooton was a lawyer and Illinois judge. Heftel was a Chicago area realtor.

A home movie collection that documents the Homer Henselt Howard family of Skokie and Glenview, Illinois. Included in the collection are suburban residential scenes shot in Skokie, Illinois, a glimpse inside a Kingsley Stamping Machine factory as well as trips to Los Angeles and Wisconsin's Lake Geneva.

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 Marion and Maurice Kaplan Collection contains home movies shot and compiled by Maurice Kaplan of Chicago, Illinois. Maurice shot 16mm films from the 1940s through 1950s. The collection depicts his travels to Hawaii, as member of the U.S. Army in World War II, and family weddings, other celebrations, and vacations at Glen, Michigan; Lincoln Park Zoo; Union Pier; and Lakeside.

The Chuck Kleinhans collection consists of home movies and experimental films by film scholar Charles "Chuck" Kleinhans. His Super 8 films depict a sensitivity to daily life, gender, and leftist politics, and frequently showcase his sense of humor. Highlights include a documentary about the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon, tongue-in-cheek critiques of American masculinity, and diary films of everyday life with partner Julia Lesage and friends in Logan Square.

These film materials consist of news footage Frank Koza shot from the mid 1930s through the late 1980s. They contain local, national and international news events.

These 8mm home movies document the Kubicek family of Dearborn, Michigan from 1965 to the mid 1970s. When donated to CFA, this collection was accompanied by detailed notes describing the people and places in the films. These notes are uncommonly personal, detailed and are very welcome as part of the collection. They provide a richness and context to the films and to the family seen in them. The films and paper documents in this collection will be invaluable as genealogical traces to coming generations of the Kubicek family.

The Marion Kudlick collection contains home movies and amateur travelogue films shot by amateur filmmaker Marion Kudlick, Sr. Highlights include films shot in Chicago, Poland, western Europe and Mexico during the 1960s, family vacations in Florida, and Boy Scout activities.

This collection of home movies documents an unknown family at various Chicago neighborhood and downtown locations. The majority of the films document scenes shot at the outdoor pool and rooftop of the Lake Shore Club of Chicago, an 18-story luxury country club once located at 850 North Lake Shore Drive in downtown Chicago. Also of note are reels documenting the 1948-1949 Chicago Railroad Fair and the subsequent Chicago Fair of 1950, which both took place on Chicago's lakefront.

The LaRue Collection consists of films and film technology made and collected by two generations of Chicago-based motion picture engineers, Mervin W. LaRue Sr. and Jr. The elder LaRue filmed news subjects for Pathé in Canada before moving to Chicago to work for Bell & Howell and later establish a medical film business. His films include a mix of home movies from Toronto and Chicago, medical films depicting experiments in obstetrics and anesthesia, and Burton Holmes travelogues of Ethiopia, Bali, and Holland. A VHS copy of the film Those Roos Boys and Friends (1987), directed by Barbara Boyden, is included, featuring LaRue and his colleagues Charlie and Len Roos in Canada. The younger LaRue was also an engineer at Bell & Howell, as well as for Ampex in the 1960s. His films include home movies that show the family at home in then-unincorporated North Barrington, IL, celebrating birthdays and weddings, and traveling to Iowa and Colorado. Also included in the collection is a 16mm projector equipped with a lenticular lens to project Kodacolor.

The collection consists of home movies shot by Julia Lesage. All were captured on small gauge formats, and feature images of everyday life in Logan Square with partner Chuck Kleinhans as well as travel to Central and South America.

A collection of home movies shot by three generations of the Lieb and Hootnick families between 1936 and 1985. They are largely shot around Chicago, where both families lived, capturing family events and holidays as well as public events and locations such as the Chicago Railroad Fair in the late 1940s and the Great America amusement park in the early 1980s. Highlights include a rare sound home movie circa 1951 and several films shot by David's son Daniel.

Home movies documenting the Italian-American Marino family of Chicago, Illinois. The films were shot by Joseph and Sadie Marino and contain footage of their children (John and Joanne) and themselves.

The Marks-Stix Collection consists of primarily of home movies shot by Arnold and Frances Marks between the 1920s and 1940s, and by their son-in-law Lawrence C. Stix from the 1930s to the '60s. The Marks films contain footage of the family home in Hyde Park (including daughters Muriel and Louise Marks pushing their pet goat around in a baby carriage in 1933), the Grand Hotel in Mackinac on the weekend before the market crashed in 1929, and family visits in Elgin. The Stix films feature sausage making in New York in the '30s, vacations to Europe, and Lawrence and Muriel's daughters growing up in Lincoln Park. Also contains two student films made by Paul Muth (Jennifer Stix's husband) in the 1970s.

Just under four hundred reels, this home movie collection includes over fifty-five reels of birthdays, fifty-four reels of Christmas, twenty-one reels of Easter holidays and nineteen reels of Fourth of July celebrations. The Maugans Collection spans from 1965-1984. It begins with a newly married Indiana couple (Connie and Judy Maugans) in a sparsely decorated mobile home and ends with their eldest daughter, Lisa Maugans, going off to prom. Almost all of the home movies were shot in Indiana, except for family vacations shot throughout the United States.

Home movies and short films shot or collected by Chicago artist and muralist Don McIlvaine. The collection primarily consists of home movies from Chicago's North Lawndale and Bronzeville neighborhoods, including footage of mural works in progress and scenes from McIlvaine's "Art and Soul" classroom in North Lawndale. The collection also includes home movies documenting McIlvaine's travels, including a trip to Haiti and a young Conservative Vice Lords camping trip. Also in the collection are interview films, one with Chicago Bear's football player Gale Sayers as well as a 1972 interview with American political activist and scholar Angela Davis.

The Morrison-Shearer collection is an extensive collection of dance films, most of which were shot by Helen Balfour Morrison. Sybil Shearer and Jerry Lev, a Shearer Company dancer, shot a small number of the films. Most films were shot in Northbrook, IL at Shearer’s dance studio and the surrounding environs that include the neighboring golf course, Green Acres Country Club. Some of the 8mm films were shot in New York City. The collection features solo performances by Sybil Shearer, Shearer with her dance company, interviews with Sybil Shearer and some rehearsal footage.

The Rod Nordberg Collection contains 16mm film prints and videotapes of documentary series and educational programs produced by Chicago’s public television station WTTW 11 and Rod Nordberg’s company Hollywood East in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. These include The Architecture of Chicago (1968-9), Metro!!! The School Without Walls (1970), Until I Die (1970) Earthkeeping (1972-3), and Making M*A*S*H (1981). The collection also features 16mm prints of student films from Columbia College, the Chicago Public High School for Metropolitan Studies (Metro), and University of Illinois at Chicago Circle (UICC), as well as 16mm Chicago home movies from the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s collected by Nordberg.

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.

The Pat Pahr Collection contains home movies shot and compiled by Pat Pahr of Blue Island, Illinois, throughout the the latter 1970s. The Super 8 films primarily consist of various sports outings attended by Pahr: ranging from the Blackhawks to the White Sox at Comiskey Park. The collection also includes two more personal films, including a Christmas celebration.

The Tom Palazzolo Collection consists of experimental films and documentaries, their elements, and outtakes made by Chicago-based filmmaker Tom Palazzolo, once called "Chicago's filmmaker laureate" by critic Roger Ebert. Although the subjects of his films vary widely, they are all united in their humanist depiction of those living on the margins of society. Included in the collection are well-known works like Jerry's (1976), featuring the explosive owner of a deli in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood and At Maxwell Street (1984), about the city's storied Maxwell Street market, as well as lesser-known films like Pigeon Lady (1966), Palazzolo's first film, and Rita on the Ropes (2001), the most recent film in the collection.

The Perser Family Collection contains home movies shot by William Ballert and his son-in-law Donald Alan Perser between 1940 and 1992. Most of the footage was shot around the family homes in Chicago, Northbrook, and Delavan, WI, as well trips to visit family in Toronto and Florida. Some of the home movies have sound. The collection also contains elements for "A Step in Time Saves Nine," an industrial film made by Donald Perser for Avon Cosmetics.

The filmmaker and the family (or families) depicted in the Howard Prouty Collection are currently unknown. The films were purchased by Howard Prouty at a Los Angeles garage sale in the Carthay Circle Neighborhood (6101 Del Valle Dr.). The majority films were shot in the Midwest from the late 1940s to the early 1960s, and were developed at various camera shops in the northern suburb of Waukegan, Illinois. The collection includes footage of weddings, birthdays, various Michigan boat trips, and most notably, footage from the Korean war and the Chicago's Railroad Fair of 1948-1949.

The bulk of this 16mm & 8mm home movie collection was shot in Dayton, Ohio in the 1950s and 60s, and includes trips to Kentucky's Cumberland Lake and scenes from Put In Bay along the coast of Ohio's Lake Erie. Mr. and Mrs. Quilling also took a trip to Chicago in 1954 for a National Restaurant Association show and brought a camera along with them. They shot footage of Soldier Field and the Buckingham Fountain while driving down Lake Shore Drive, and even shot scenes of the Chicago skyline atop the Drake Hotel.

The Roland Rives Collection consists of three films documenting Dartmouth College students on a Cunard Line European tour in the 1920s. These films feature scenes shot on the Cunard ocean liner, as well as various destinations in western Europe. The fourth film in the collection, “The Cunard Line Oceanews,” is a promotional film that showcases various features and attractions of the ocean liner, including dining, entertainment and sports facilities.

The Monica Ross Collection contains home movies and commercially produced films made between 1936 and 1996. These films were purchased at estate sales in Chicago between around 1999 and 2019. They are from and mostly represent the North Side and northern suburbs of Chicago.

16mm home movie collection shot by Greg Rouleau, a magician and radio man from Wisconsin.

The John and Marilyn Sanner collection contains 16mm, 8mm and Super 8mm amateur and home movie films. John and Marilyn Sanner were members of the Metro Movie Club, a local amateur filmmaking club (1940s-1980s), during the later years of the organization (1972-1987). John Sanner of Deerfield, Illinois shot the majority of the films in this collection. He shot both amateur films and home movies, including footage of Deerfield High School football games, the Chicago snow blizzard of 1979, a behind-the-scenes look at a Metro Movie Club production and a short documentary about the arrival of a Vietnamese family to Deerfield by way of a refuge camp in Hong Kong. The collection also includes films made by John's brother Richard Sanner, who taught at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and established the audiovisual department at the University of Hawaii in 1957. Richard's films include home movies from the Sanner home in Iowa, as well as footage depicting the eruption of Kilauea volcano in 1960.

This 8mm. home movie collection documents the Sanzi family of Detroit, Michigan. The majority of the collection consists of footage from family vacations within the United States and Canada.

Charles P. Schwartz, Sr. began filming his family in 1926 after the birth of his first two children, Polly and Robert. His namesake Charles, Jr. was born in 1927. These home movies portray family vacations in Herbster, Wisconsin, (close to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where he grew up), Lake Geneva, Wisconsin and Charlevoix, Michigan. Included is footage from his daughter's wedding in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. This collection is sponsored by Susan H. and Charles Schwartz, Jr.

This collection of home movies was shot by Paul Shreves, who grew up in the Angel Guardian Orphanage (now known as Misericordia Home North), located at 2001 W. Devon Avenue, in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. The home movies document leisure scenes from the orphanage and the surrounding area, including Halloween celebrations and picnics.

16mm home movies of Oak Park and Downtown Chicago shot between 1929 and 1930. Features footage of Museum Campus and other important landmarks, while also documenting Beryl Simon's stay at Fair Oaks Avenue with a friend.

This collection of home movies documents the Sisak family of Racine, Wisconsin. The films capture family gatherings, family travels as well as their short stay in Washington State during the 1961 Berlin Crisis. The films include scenes from Sherwood Point Lighthouse in Door County, Wisconsin, The Basilica Shrine of Holy Hill in Hubertus, Wisconsin, The Washington State Capital in Olympia, Washington, and a family picnic in Saunders Park in Racine County, Wisconsin.

This home movie collection consists of 8mm home movies shot between the years 1936-1970. The majority of the films were shot in Chicago. The few exceptions include a visit to Stillman Valley, Illinois, a bike club trip to Beloit, Wisconsin, a honeymoon to Paris & London and a visit to a horse track. The Chicago reels depict railways, neighborhood street and stoop scenes, multiple weddings, interior domestic scenes, a funeral and soda shop interiors.

The Soucie Collection is comprised of 85 reels of 8mm acetate films, an issue of the Sam Campbell Special newsletter sponsored by the Chicago and North Western Railway, and the original inventories created by the filmmaker. These films are amateur travel films of classic American festivals, rituals, amusement parks, parades, Civil War re-enactments, national parks, industrial shows, railroad fairs and Native American tribal ceremonies.

The films in this collection were made and collected by Chicago area film critic and filmmaker Bill Stamets. The bulk of the collection consists of Super 8 films and outtakes shot by Stamets in the 1970s and 1980s. They depict political events primarily in the city of Chicago, including former Chicago Mayor Harold Washington's two election campaigns, inaugurations, and time in office; numerous street protests and marches; and cultural festivals around the city.

A collection of experimental films and home movies created by Chicago-based photographer and Institute of Design alum, Robert Stiegler. The collection also contains numerous 1/4" audio reel to reels. It is unclear at this time whether these audio reels are original recordings created by Stiegler.

This collection was donated to CFA by Steven Olderr, a librarian at St. Paul’s Episcopal Parish in Riverside, Illinois. The films were left over from a white elephant sale at the church and the original owner is unknown. The collection includes Castle Film’s News Parades news reels, home movies and classic studio animations such as Popeye and Mickey Mouse.

The Sunquist home movie collection (16mm and S8mm) features the Sunquist family who resided in Illinois from the 1930s-80. The collection contains reels of birthdays, weddings, Christmas and other celebrations, as well as numerous reels of family holidays. In addition there is documentation of "Worth Day Parades" in Worth, Illinois, footage of the "Carl Sandburg Band", and travel films of various domestic and international destinations. Included are trips to Cheyenne, Miami, Yellowstone, Alaska, Colorado Springs, Michigan, Sweden, France, Italy and Germany.

This collection of home movies was shot by Illinoisans Barbara Suster and her nephew John Edward III (Rip) Suster in the Chicago area between the 1950s and early 1980s.

The David Szabo Collection is mainly comprised of films and ephemera from David Szabo's time as a student at Columbia College in the late 1960s and his time as a freelance editor and partner of the Szabo-Tohtz editing company in the 1970s and 1980s. Included are distributed prints that are unclear as to Szabo's involvement, 16mm films and intermediate materials Szabo worked on during his time at Columbia College, advertisements he worked on as an editor in the 1970s and 1980s, and 8mm home movies dating from 1948-1963.

The Otto E. Wagenknect Collection consists of 8mm films shot by Otto between the years 1941 and 1955 while a resident of the Wildwood neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Many of the films feature his then-wife Mary Theml Wagenknecht and his daughter Karin Wagenknecht (Cox) at home and during their travels. Many reels feature home-made titles which Otto created with his Quixet Magnetic Titling Set.

This home movie collection documents the Chicago-based Wagner family in the late 1970's. Though mostly shot by Almarie Wagner, she sporadically appears in the footage along with her husband (James Wagner), two daughters, and a handful of other friends and family members. The footage captures the family and friends celebrating birthdays, Christmases, vacations, a honeymoon to England and Lebanon, and leisure time at home.

The Walsh Collection consists of home movies shot between 1961-1975. In addition to numerous birthday and Christmas celebrations, the collection depicts several family vacations (Detroit, Florida, Mexico, San Francisco and the Virgin Islands), a Girl Scout International Rally, a trip to Lincoln's Tomb & New Salem State Historic Park, a visit to Southern Illinois University and a 1967 Midwest snowstorm. A few experimental reels by Steven Walsh featuring stop-motion animation and sailing scenes also reside in the collection.

This collection contains the home movies of the Wilczynski family. They lived on the south side of Chicago and ran a bakery. Some of the highlights of the collection are the Bahai Temple in Wilmette, IL, Chicago's Riverview amusement park, the Chicago Flower and Garden show, family weddings, Niagra Falls, and 1952 Chicago subway scenes.

This home movie collection was donated by the Wilmette Historical Museum in 2009 and documents the Grove Family from this northern suburb. The four reels were shot by Axel Grove between 1959-1963 and include footage of the Brookfield Zoo, O’Hare International Airport, the Morton Arboretum, Adventure Island Amusement Park, a trip to Wilmette’s beaches, a child’s tennis lesson and a very entertaining living room puppet show.

Home movies shot by insurance man, Homer L. Young. The majority of the films were shot in Ohio and Indiana, except for handful of films that document vacations throughout the United States. Also included in the collection are short newsreels, animations and comedies collected by Homer throughout the years.

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.

The Dominic and Natalie Zulpo, Family and Friends Collection contains home movies shot and compiled by Dominic and Natalie Zulpo of Carpentersville, Illinois. From the 1950s to 1970s, the Zulpos recorded on 8mm and Super 8 their family celebrations, special occasions, and travels to the likes of Arkansas, Florida, California, and Europe.