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While doing research for CineMuseum's Mack Sennett collection I learned that the longtime owner of the Educational film library, author, archivist and historian Maurice H. Zouary, died on June 7, 2010 at the age of 88. His passing in 2010 appears to have gone undocumented in newsgroups until now.

In 2001, The Vitaphone Project reported that Zouary was selling his library of over 335 two-reel Educational short subjects. (Zouary had already donated his collection of DeForest Phonofilm masters to LOC in the 1960’s.) My former business partner and I made several serious attempts to purchase the library -- as did other noted preservationists -- but those efforts proved unsuccessful. Thankfully, IIRC, the bulk of his collection is safe in the hands of LOC.

-- Paul E. Gierucki

Wow, it would be great to see a list of the Educationals he had and I wonder if those wound up at the LOC and what's their condition.

I have a complete listing of the Zouary / Movietronic holdings but it is in the form of a large paper catalog. I will try to scan and OCR it when I am through with this current batch of projects. Spare time is a luxury as of late.

Oh, really Paul, don't do it. I just thought the LOC might have something handy which would list it.

Most of Zouary's prints can be seen in LC's online catalog. The ones I've seen are 16mm Atlas TV prints in very rough shape. In addition, many of the two-reelers have been cut to 13 minutes to allow two shorts to be shown in a 30-minute time slot allowing for commecials. This was the case with the two Lloyd Hamilton talkies I viewed a couple of months ago: Ex-Plumber and Polished Ivory. Just go to the search engine at loc.gov and key in Zouary and see what comes up.

Thanks Rob!