Greg Wilsbacher earned his PhD in English Literature (medieval literature and literary theory) from Indiana University-Bloomington and has an MLIS from the University of South Carolina. He began working with archival film collections in 2004 and has since that time curated the Libraries’ Fox Movietone News Collection as well as other newsreel, historical and military collections at Moving Image Research Collections.   

His research activity includes the materiality of motion picture film, the technical evolution of optical sound systems, as well as newsreel and military cinematography. Most recently he has begun exploring the development of artificial intelligence tools as aids to documenting and accessing archival media content. 

He led an interdisciplinary team funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities in the development of AEO-light 2, open-source software that produces high-quality audio from scanned images of optical tracks and is currently leading the development of another NEH-funded project, Virtual Bench, an open-source application to enhance remote access to archival film elements.

Support for Research

Greg can assist with:

• Fox Movietone News Collection
• United States Marine Corps Film Repository
• media technology history
• moving image preservation and archiving
• histories of newsreel and military cinematography

Select Grant Projects Awarded

• “Virtual bench: A Hybrid Research and Computation Platform for Digital Surrogates of Motion Picture Films,” National Endowment for the Humanities, Preservation and Access Research and Development Grant. Award to develop deep learning algorithms and high-performance computing platforms to aid in the preservation and access of archival films. $349,106. 2022-2024. Role: PI.
• Association of Recoded Sound Collections [ARSC] Research Grant. Stipend to underwrite expenses to conduct research into the Case Research Lab Collections at the Cayuga Museum of History and Art, Auburn, NY. $1,000. 2021. Role: PI.
• “Image Analysis Algorithms for Digital Surrogates of Historical Motion Picture Film,” UofSC Office of the Vice President for Research, Aspire-II track. $99,456. 2020-2021. Role: PI.
• “AEO-Light 2.0: An Open-Source Application for the Image-Based Reproduction of Optical Film Sound,” National Endowment for the Humanities, Preservation and Access Research and Development Grant. (PI). Award to continue development of AEO-Light software. $222,146. 2015-2016. Role: PI.
• “A Frontier Post,” National Film Preservation Foundation. (PI). Award to restore and make accessible 1925 newsreel footage of the 10th Cavalry (aka the Buffalo Soldiers). $15,000. 2011. Role: PI.
• “It’s in the Can! Re-Housing the Fox Movietone News Collection at the University of South Carolina.” National Endowment for the Humanities, Stabilization of the Humanities Grant. (PI). Award to assess and rehouse all films in the Fox Movietone News Collection. $93,500. 2005-2006. Role: PI.

Select Publications

• Alternate tracks: Photophone and the film industry’s conversion to sound. (2023). Film History, 35(1), 61-103. https://dx.doi.org/10.2979/fih.2023.a911557
• Historic Iwo Jima footage shows individual Marines amid the larger battle. (2020, February 13). The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/historic-iwo-jima-footage-shows-individual-marines-amid-the-larger-battle-130991
• The great war and the shaping of the American newsreel. (2018). In M. Cooper, S. B. Levavy, R. Melnick, & M. Williams (Eds.), Rediscovering U.S. Newsfilm: Cinema, Television and the Archive. New York, NY: Routledge.
• Movietonews, Inc.: A researcher’s guide. (2018). In M. Cooper, S. B. Levavy, R. Melnick, & M. Williams (Eds.), Rediscovering U.S. Newsfilm: Cinema, Television and the Archive. New York, NY: Routledge.
• The technical literature of electric synchronized film sound. (2015). Velvet Light Trap, 76, 53-54.
• Alterity in the archive. (2012). Velvet Light Trap, 70, 61.
• Forgotten history? The value of newsreel libraries. (2009, January 30). The Chronicle Review, B12-13.
• Lumiansky’s paradox: Ethics, aesthetics, and Chaucer’s Prioress’s tale. (2005). College Literature, 34(2), 1-28. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lit.2005.0066
• Culture wars? All’s not quiet on the Langland front. (2001). The Yearbook of Langland Studies, 15, 196-201.
• Anachronistic responsibility (A proposal): Ethics, history, and Piers Plowman. (1999). Exemplaria, 11(2), 363-398. https://doi.org/10.1179/exm.1999.11.2.363