Overview
- Library of Congress specialists identified the 1897 short Gugusse and the Automaton inside a donated reel and have posted the digitized film online.
- Retiree Bill McFarland drove a century‑old trunk of nitrate reels to the archive after museums and dealers refused to hold the combustible films.
- Archivists spotted a painted star tied to Méliès’s Star Film company, then restored the 45‑second scene frame by frame from a shrunken, frayed copy.
- Staff secured the original reels in a refrigerated nitrate vault that slows chemical decay and reduces the risk of fire from the unstable stock.
- The trunk also held another Méliès title and fragments of an 1896 Thomas Edison film, showing how copying and careful archiving have kept early cinema alive.