Walkling Family Collection

SummaryThe Walkling Family Collection contains 14 reels of amateur 16 mm. film. This collection consists of the home movies of Adolph Augustus and Marian Ware Walkling and their children, Richard and Robert. Primarily shot by Adolph Walkling, the film includes footage of family celebrations and a vacation to Ottawa, Illinois. Also significant is the inclusion of a reel of scenes from the family's visit to the Chicago World's Fair, Century of Progress International Exposition, in 1933 or 1934. The collection contains gardening and yard work at the Walkling family's home in Cynwyd, PA. While family members, including the children, are sometimes depicted, the main focus of this part of the footage is the progress of the gardening and landscaping projects. Family members, as well as hired workers, build a fence and plant trees, shrubs, and grass. Scenes of the garden, house, and surrounding neighborhood present the result of the gardening projects. The collection provides a view of how a family invested in and controlled their home environment in the late 1930s. The film contains footage of hired workers, including crews from two Philadelphia area businesses, the Cyclone Fence Company (Philadelphia, PA) and John Albrecht Nurseries (Narberth, PA).

Biographical/Historical NotesAdolph Augustus Walkling was born in 1895 in Ottawa, Illinois. He graduated from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1917, and eventually became a professor of surgery there. His wife, Marian Ware, was born in Salem, New Jersey, in 1897. She graduated from Swarthmore College in 1919. The couple married in 1923, and had two children, Richard and Robert. The family lived in the Philadelphia area and built a home in Cynwyd, PA, in 1937. Adolph Walkling died in 1966. Marian Ware Walkling died in 1975.

RepositoryNortheast Historic Film

AvailabilityThe Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Reproduction and UseAuthorization to reuse and/or reproduce must be obtained from Northeast Historic Film. See http://oldfilm.org/content/stock-footage-licensing for more information.