Film Preservation and Restoration

Marshall University Herd Humanities Program presents: Film Preservation and Restoration, Courtney Holschuh, Library of Congress Archives Technician

On October 22, at 7:30 p.m., at the Encova Auditorium in the Brad D. Smith Center for Business and Innovation, Courtney Holschuh, archives technician at the Library of Congress, will deliver the Fall 2026 Herd Humanities lecture. The event is free and open to all and refreshments will be served.

Holschuh will deliver a presentation on film preservation and restoration, and she will show clips from numerous films that have been restored at the Library of Congress. Holschuh specializes in nitrate film, the original substance of filmmaking, and she cares for the nation's 145,000 reels of nitrate film.

She recently won a Librarian of Congress award for coordinating and completing a large-scale nitrate decomposition inspection; for her role in the discovery, restoration, and publicity of the 1897 Gugusse and the Automaton, the first movie featuring a robot; and for leading the clean-up of a nitrate vault after a water incursion in December 2025.