In her family’s back yard in Cranbrook, BC, Gladys DeWolf and her friends stage an impromptu dance recital, filmed by Gladys’ father, Allan H. DeWolf (1887-1967), a construction engineer and surveyor. This charming sequence is from the Allan H. DeWolf films, which include some of the earliest home movie footage in the BC Archives collection.

DeWolf started shooting movies around 1926, just three years after Eastman Kodak’s 1923 introduction of 16-millimetre film – the first practical motion picture format for amateur use. His films document many aspects of his professional work, as well as family activities, local events, and other scenes of life in the East Kootenay Region from 1926 to 1935.

Home movie collections like the DeWolf’s are valuable archival documents. They provide a unique visual record of family life, travels and activities, often including material that is captured in no other form.

The Allan H. DeWolf films, photographs and textual records were donated to the BC Archives in 1985 by Gladys (DeWolf) Malach and her husband Peter Malach.

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