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Film, Video The forgotten frontier

digital viewing copy

About this Item

Title

  • The forgotten frontier

Summary

  • The forgotten frontier was filmed by photojournalist Marvin Breckinridge to document the humanitarian work being done in Kentucky by her cousin, nurse Mary Breckinridge, and the other nurse-midwives of the Frontier Nursing Service (FNS). The film shows nurse-midwives providing child hygiene, midwifery, sick nursing, medical care, dentistry, public health and assisting doctors with emergency surgery for people living in underserved areas in Kentucky's Appalachian Mountains. The film includes re-creations involving the actual patients, and depicts nurses traveling by horseback for miles through the mountains to help the community by delivering babies, inoculating children, and tending bullet wounds.

Names

  • Patterson, Mary Marvin Breckinridge, 1905-2002, filmmaker
  • Frontier Nursing Service, Inc., sponsor, film distributor

Created / Published

  • United States : [Frontier Nursing Service, Inc.], 1930.

Headings

  • -  Frontier Nursing Service, Inc
  • -  Midwifery--Kentucky
  • -  Nursing--Kentucky
  • -  Rural health services--Kentucky
  • -  Breckinridge, Mary,--1881-1965
  • -  Peacock, Gladys,--1890-1965
  • -  Willeford, Mary,--1900-1941
  • -  Price, Marion,--1887-1973
  • -  Halsall, Ellen,--1891-1961
  • -  Lester, Betty
  • -  MacKinnon, Ann,--1885-1953
  • -  Collins, R. L.,--1879-1963

Genre

  • Amateur films
  • Sponsored films
  • Feature films
  • Nonfiction films

Notes

  • -  Appearing: Mrs. Mary Breckinridge. R.N. (founder and director of FNS), Gladys M. Peacock, R.N., Mary B. Willeford, R.N., Marian Price, R.N., Ellen Hallsall, R.N., Betty Lester, R.N., Annie P. MacKinnon, R.N., Dr. R.L. Collins.
  • -  Midwives are indentifed by last name in film. Full names taken from the Quarterly bulletin of the Frontier Nursing Service. On the film's interior title appearing at about 41:30 min, the doctor summoned is only identified as "the surgeon at Hazard". According to Kentucky Progress magazine, Spring, 1934, p. 148, the FNS consulting surgeon was Dr. R.L. Collins of Hazard, Kentucky.
  • -  Some sources give the original running time as 59 minutes. LC digital copy in the National Screening Room runs only 46 minutes, but seems complete. Contemporaneous sources do not give a running time, but give the orignal 35 mm footage as approximately 6,000 ft.
  • -  Filmed in December 1929 through the winter and spring of 1930 in Leslie County, Clay County, and Perry County, Kentucky.
  • -  LC also holds a 1986 shortened sound version (LCCN 97516682), as well as additional material on this title also in the Patterson (Jefferson, Mrs.) Collection (see LCCN 99468247, [The Mary Marvin Breckinridge Patterson Collection of her films and home movies, 1927-1976]).
  • -  This film was selected for the National Film Registry.
  • -  Sources used: Eagan, D. America's film legacy, 2010, p. 178-189; Quarterly bulletin of the Frontier Nursing Service, Inc., December, 1929 (v. 6 no. 8), p. 3 (Nursing staff) and Quarterly bulletin of the Frontier Nursing Service, Inc., Autumn, 1932 (v. 8, no. 2), p. 2 viewed July 18, 2024 via ExploreUK, University of Kentucky, UK Libraries, Special Collections Research Center; Kentucky progress magazine, p. 148 viewed online July 18, 2024 via the CORE WWW site; Marvin Breckinridge biography viewed online July 18, 2024 via the Women Film Pioneers Project WWW site; The Forgotten Frontier (1931) on the horsesheadblog, posted February 27, 2019, viewed July 18, 2024; National Board of Review magazine, March, 1931 (v. 6, no. 3) p. 17 viewed July 18, 2024 via the Internet Archive.

Medium

  • 1 video file (digital) (46 min.) : si., b&w.

Source Collection

  • Patterson (Jefferson, Mrs.) Collection (Library of Congress) (Library of Congress)

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2024600522

Online Format

  • image
  • video

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

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Credit Line: Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Patterson, Mary Marvin Breckinridge, Filmmaker, and Inc Frontier Nursing Service. The Forgotten Frontier. [United States: Frontier Nursing Service, Inc, 1930] Video. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/2024600522/.

APA citation style:

Patterson, M. M. B. & Frontier Nursing Service, I. (1930) The Forgotten Frontier. [United States: Frontier Nursing Service, Inc] [Video] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/2024600522/.

MLA citation style:

Patterson, Mary Marvin Breckinridge, Filmmaker, and Inc Frontier Nursing Service. The Forgotten Frontier. [United States: Frontier Nursing Service, Inc, 1930] Video. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <aj.sunback.homes/item/2024600522/>.