Baas, Philip Collection

SummaryThe collection consists of a total of 3,835 feet of amateur 16mm film, and 100 feet of amateur super 8mm film from the 1930s-1970s, shot primarily by Philip Baas. The films take place in New York City, Brighton Beach, Poughkeepsie, and Norwich, New York; as well as in Tenafly, New Jersey and Fairfield County, Connecticut. They document Philip's time at Columbia University in the 1930s, and later the activities of his family and neighbors in the suburbs of Northern New Jersey. Of particular interest are films taken at the The Poughkeepsie Regatta from 1934-1937, and at the 1940 World's Fair in New York City.

Biographical/Historical Notes

Philip Berend Richard Baas, Jr.  was born on April 1st, 1917 in Brooklyn, NY. His mother Grace Sheridan was a theater actress whose parents, Robert Emmet Sheridan and Mary Emma Sheridan, had been vaudeville performers. His father, Philip Sr., owned a soda company called “Baas Beverages” (formerly Schweickert & Baas, Inc.). 

Philip Baas Jr. was always very interested in technology, and he obtained his first 16mm camera when he was 13 years old. His earliest films were short scripted pieces that he wrote, which were acted out by his parents’ friends at parties. Philip graduated from Columbia University in 1937, where he majored in Engineering and was captain of the rowing team. During college, he visited his uncle Wesley Walker who was a Marine officer in Lakehurst, NJ and had the opportunity to tour the Hindenburg airship when it was moored there.

Philip obtained post-graduate degrees in electrical, mechanical, and aeronautical engineering at New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was an officer in the navy, and worked on the development of helicopters during World War II. In June, 1944 he married Regina McCabe (1923-2015) and they had three children, Philip (Skip), Gigi and Christy. They lived in Philadelphia, Arlington, Virginia, and Warwick, Rhode Island before Philip resigned his commission in the United States Navy. The family then settled in Tenafly, New Jersey where they lived for twenty years. In 1974, the Baas family moved to Norwich, NJ. Philip died a few years later in 1977, at the age of 60.

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