Stephen Sprague collection

This collection has been divided into four series: Activity Files (1966-79), Personal Library (1971-75), Photographic Materials (1964-79), and Audio-visual Materials (1968-78), relating to the short but varied career of photographer, filmmaker, and videographer, Stephen Sprague. The collection was arranged largely as received from David Sprague.

Series one: Activity Files, 1966-79. Arranged alphabetically by the original folder headings, and then chronologically within each folder. The bulk of these files concern documentary projects in the 1970s employing photography and film. Maxwell Street Alley Blues, Naked City, Old Time Fiddlers Convention, C.J. Pansirna, Peru, and Yoruba are all represented. While assistant professor at Purdue, Sprague taught several film and photography classes. Files from this period contain correspondence with colleagues; bibliographies for classes on the history of photography and visual anthropology; two self-published books containing work by his photography students; several grant proposals; and others relating to personal and professional matters. There is correspondence relating to specific projects or subjects in several folders throughout the series especially those labeled "Peru," "Yoruba," and "Society for the Anthropology of Visual Communication". The folder "Photography Correspondence" concerns one-person and group exhibitions, video and film demonstrations, and exchanges of information on related topics.

The Activity Files contain five research papers by Sprague; two relate to his studies in geology, two to his studies in photography and film, and one to his published paper on research done in Africa, "Yoruba Photography: How the Yoruba See Themselves" (1978). The latter was delivered (in several versions) to audiences ranging from anthropologists to photographers. Considering the trajectory of his interests during his last years, this was probably the direction that his future work would have taken.

Of special interest in this series are the following items: two research papers by Bruce Jenkins and a handwritten note by Sprague on a lecture by Hollis Frampton, filmmaker; correspondence and biographical notes on C.J. Pansirna (1888-1969), a commercial photographer in Chicago whose interests in documenting ethnic groups may have been an early influence on Sprague; a three-page, photocopied typescript titled "Harold Allen-A Photographic Autobiography"; and several scripts and logs relating to Sprague's film, video and slide productions.

Series two: Personal Library, 1971-1975. Contains books and photographic miscellany by photographers Les Krims and Charles Swedlund. This is probably a small portion of a larger library once owned by Sprague; though there is no evidence of the scope of that collection. There are three books, 1971-1972, by Les Krims. Two of the books by Swedlund are illustrated flip-books. Also included are Swedlund's Do-It-Yourself Portfolio and his Phenakistascope Discs.

Series three: Photographic Materials, 1964-1979. Includes a wide range of black-and-white and color materials-transparencies, positives, negatives, proof sheets, work prints, and fine prints. There are some unidentified photographs in this series. The earliest materials relate to Sprague's geological interests and travels. The bulk of the series begins with his serious study of photography in Chicago around 1968, and continues through his teaching career at Columbia College and Purdue University.

This series has been divided by record types into the following subseries: Negatives and Contacts (1964-1978); Transparencies (1965-1978); and Photographs (circa 1965-1979).

Series four: Audio-visual Materials, 1968-1978. Includes 16 mm. and super 8 mm. films, 1/2 in. helical scan black-and-white videotapes, 1/4 in. reel-to-reel audiotapes, and 1/8 in. audiocassettes. This series encompasses nearly every project Sprague undertook during the period 1968-1978. Included are final edited pieces which represent the culmination of the project, original camera footage, various work prints, and audiotapes. The clips vary in length from a few seconds to one hour and include fifty-two 16 mm. films, sixteen super 8 mm. films, thirty-three 1/2 in. reel-to-reel videotapes, twenty-six 1/4 in. reel-to-reel audiotapes, and ten 1/8 in. audiocassettes.

Sprague's earlier work, 1968-1973, consists of three film projects. The most noteworthy of these, Oink won an honorable mention at the First International Erotic Film Festival, San Francisco (1970). Beginning in 1973, Sprague began utilizing several moving picture formats. The bulk of this series represents projects undertaken between 1973 and 1978 and includes both film and video productions on fraternity life at Purdue University, the Mr. and Miss Nude America Contest, a blues band on Maxwell Street (Chicago), and Nigerian and Peruvian culture.

Audio-visual materials have been separated into film and video projects, and then arranged chronologically. Audiotapes which pertain to a particular project have been kept with that project. Otherwise, the tapes have been arranged chronologically.