The Water-Damaged F.L. Roy Films Preservation Project – Part 1

Hi everyone, my name is Bo Pickett and I’m conducting a 6-month residency as the Assistant Archivist at the Peterborough Museum & Archives (PMA), as part of my Master’s through Toronto Metropolitan University’s Film + Photography Preservation and Collection Management (FPPCM) program. Between January-June of 2025, I have been working to help organize and inspect the PMA’s motion picture film holdings— numbering some 300 reels of film shot in the Peterborough area— as well as conduct a Major Research Project centering on creating a conservation treatment process for a very unique and vulnerable collection of films here at the PMA. 

While an intern at the PMA in 2021, I learned about 33 film reels that were caught in the July 2004 flood that hit Peterborough, leaving these films soaking wet and prone to decay like loss of image, shrinking, warping, and mold growth. After arriving at the PMA, they were frozen as an emergency measure to halt more decay but, since then, the films have sat untouched in the freezer. Naturally, this piqued my interest, not only because of their threatened status, but also because of their creator—Frederick Lewis Roy (1882-1950). In Peterborough, Roy is best known as one of the three generations of photographers who operated the Roy Studio on Hunter Street, but few know that he also made films. This is largely because until now, none of them have been publicly accessible. So, with a unique collection made by a Peterborough filmmaker, I knew I wanted to help bring these films—and Roy’s filmmaking—back into the light.

To that end, with the invaluable support of the PMA and in consultation with conservation experts, we have established the workflow stages to safely thaw, disinfect, unstick, wash, dry, and rehouse these films to integrate them into the PMA’s publicly accessible collection, as well as digitize some films to bring them to new audiences. This process required us to design and build specialized equipment using local 3D printing resources and TMU’s laser-cutting tools which allows to execute the project at a low cost, as well as be replicable and adjustable, to allow similar projects at other institutions like the PMA. While the project is still ongoing, we are on track to fully treat all of these flood-affected films by June of 2025, including digitization of ten reels of film. So far, the films have been in remarkable condition for the circumstances they experienced.

One film we have already digitized demonstrates just how well they have survived. This film, titled Spring Fever: Jackson Park Creek Goes on the Rampage, was a local newsreel that documented efforts by city employees to clear an ice jam on the Jackson Park Creek on April 2, 1934. The film shows us areas of the city never before seen, the oldest currently available footage of the city, as well as a unique glimpse into forgotten pieces of the city’s history. All of that in 150 feet of film, while the flooded film collection consists of some 11,000 feet of film. Beyond that, the PMA holds another 90 reels of Roy’s films—which were never affected by the flood— for a grand total of approximately 40,000 feet of films made by Roy between 1926-1950, so there are countless treasures still to uncover. While this project is far from completion, I look forward to sharing its results, the films themselves, and how we can use them to expand Peterborough’s visual history and our understanding of the spaces and places around us.

In recognition of National Canadian Film Day (April 16, 2025) the PMA is pleased to present the first two films restored and digitized under the Water-Damaged F.L. Roy Films Preservation Project:  Spring Fever: Jackson Park Creek Goes on the Rampage.