Mary Dowdell Ashley film collection, 1937-1975

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Collection is open for research. Original audiovisual materials are closed to use. Use of these materials may require production of listening or viewing copies. Please contact Research Services...
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Summary

Creator:
Ashley, Mary Dowdell
Abstract:
The collection consists of approximately 9,000 film feet (about 5.5 hours across 13 reels) of 16mm home movies, shot from the 1930s to the 1970s by Mary Dowdell Ashley. The footage consists primarily of Ashley's family and community life in Montgomery, Alabama and the Gulf Coast area.
Extent:
3 Linear Feet (13 16mm film reels)
Language:
English
Collection ID:
RL.10048

Background

Scope and content:

The collection consists of approximately 9,000 film feet (about 5.5 hours across 13 reels) of 16mm home movies, shot from the 1930s to the 1970s by Mary Dowdell Ashley. The footage consists primarily of Ashley's family and community life in Montgomery, Alabama and the Gulf Coast area. Additionally, there is some documentation of African American life in the South in the mid-century: footage on Reel 6 shows an outdoor African American baptism in Shorter, Alabama, in 1939, as well as street scenes in Montgomery from that same year; footage on Reel 7 captures the circa 1950 Thanksgiving Day parade leading up to the Alabama State versus Tuskegee football game, an annual rivalry between the two historically black institutions; and there is footage on Reel 11 of cotton picking. Some commercial footage is mixed in with the longer compilation reels.

Biographical / historical:

Mary Barnett Dowdell was born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1917, to Annie Solomon Dowdell and William Shapard "Shap" Dowdell. In 1919 the family moved to Pelham Manor, New York, where Shap Dowdell managed the New York office of the Montgomery firm Weil Brothers Cotton. Shap died unexpectedly in late 1937, and in 1938 the family returned to Montgomery. In 1941 Mary Dowdell married John Myrick Ashley, an independent insurance agent, in Montgomery. They had five children, Virginia, Ann, Bonnie, Rick, and Shap.

On her 16th birthday, Mary Dowdell received a 16mm camera, and over the next 40 years recorded with it a very active life, which included managing a large household in Montgomery as well as a country property in Coosa County, maintaining membership in a variety of community organizations, and travelling. She died in 1983.

Acquisition information:
The Mary Dowdell Ashley films were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a gift between 2010, 2011, and 2013.
Arrangement:

The collection is arranged by original reel number.

Physical location:
For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Subjects

Click on terms below to find related finding aids on this site. For other related materials in the Duke University Libraries, search for these terms in the Catalog.

Format:
Film
Audiovisual materials
16mm
Home movies
Places:
Montgomery (Ala.)

Contents

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Using These Materials

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Original audiovisual materials are closed to use. Use of these materials may require production of listening or viewing copies. Please contact Research Services before coming to use this collection.

The collection may contain materials to which the Acknowledgment of Legal Responsibilities and Privacy Rights form applies. Patrons must sign this form before using the collection.

All or portions of this collection may be housed off-site in Duke University's Library Service Center. The library may require up to 48-hours to retrieve these materials for research use.

Please contact Research Services staff before visiting the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library to use this collection.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

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