Edith Dunham Foster

Edith Dunham Foster
Edith Dunham Foster
Born	Edith Dunham; March 21, 1864; Geneseo, Illinois, US
Died	May 8, 1950; Hackensack, New Jersey, US
Occupation	educational filmmaker

Edith Dunham Foster (March 21, 1864 – May 8, 1950) was an American educational filmmaker who served as the editor of the Motion Picture Community Bureau, which furnished nearly all of the films seen by American armed forces during World War I.

Biography

Edith Dunham was born on March 21, 1864, in Geneseo, Illinois. She married William Horton Foster on May 20, 1885, in Geneseo.

Foster, who became interested in cinema through her involvement with the General Federation of Women's Clubs,[1] worked as an editor and programmer for the Motion Picture Community Bureau.[2] Her son Warren Dunham Foster was the Bureau's president.[3] During World War I, the Bureau supplied the YMCA War Work Council and the Committee on Training Camp Activities with nine million feet of film a week used in the United States and two million feet of film a week used abroad. The films were watched by soldiers from the United States and its allies worldwide. Foster oversaw the development of a projecting machine that put pictures on the ceiling so that injured soldiers could watch films from their hospital cots.[4] After the war Foster continued working with her son, a patent attorney and an inventor, on the production of educational films and the invention of motion picture apparatus.

Foster co-created the Educational Film Catalog with Ruth Ellen Gould Dolese.[5]

Foster died on May 8, 1950, in Hackensack, New Jersey.

References

Chalmers Publishing Company (June 17, 1916). Moving Picture World. New York The Museum of Modern Art Library. New York, Chalmers Publishing Company. pp. 2014-2015.
Johnson, Martin L. (2017). "The Theater or the Schoolhouse?: The Social Center, the Model Picture Show, and the Logic of Counterattractions". Film History: An International Journal. 29 (4): 1–31. doi:10.2979/filmhistory.29.4.01. ISSN 1553-3905. S2CID 192341464.
The Green Book Magazine. Story-Press association. June 1920. p. 45.
"Mrs. W. H. Foster, Film Pioneer, 86: Leader in Educational Motion Pictures is Dead - Furnished Movies to A.E.F.". The New York Times. May 10, 1950. p. 30.
"Kith and Kin: How Ruth Ellen Gould Dolese and Edith Dunham Foster Created the Educational Film Catalog". Eye (in Dutch). 2019-04-15. Retrieved 2019-05-27.

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[1] Chalmers Publishing Company (June 17, 1916). Moving Picture World. New York The Museum of Modern Art Library. New York, Chalmers Publishing Company. pp. 2014-2015.

[2] Johnson, Martin L. (2017). "The Theater or the Schoolhouse?: The Social Center, the Model Picture Show, and the Logic of Counterattractions". Film History: An International Journal. 29 (4): 1–31. doi:10.2979/filmhistory.29.4.01. ISSN 1553-3905. S2CID 192341464.

[3] The Green Book Magazine. Story-Press association. June 1920. p. 45.

[4] "Mrs. W. H. Foster, Film Pioneer, 86: Leader in Educational Motion Pictures is Dead - Furnished Movies to A.E.F.". The New York Times. May 10, 1950. p. 30.

[5] "Kith and Kin: How Ruth Ellen Gould Dolese and Edith Dunham Foster Created the Educational Film Catalog". Eye (in Dutch). 2019-04-15. Retrieved 2019-05-27.