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Contact information: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm77055277
Collection material in English
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The papers of Lewis Varick Frissell, explorer and cinematographer, were given to the Library of Congress by his sister, Toni Frissell, in 1975.
The Lewis Varick Frissell Papers were processed in 1977 by David Van Tassell and expanded in 1985 by David Mathisen. The finding aid was revised in 2012. The finding aid was updated in 2024 by Maria Farmer as part of a division-wide remediation project by the Inclusive Description Working Group.
Some photographs have been transferred to the Library’s Prints and Photographs Division where they are identified as part of these papers.
The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of Lewis Varick Frissell is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).
The papers of Lewis Varick Frissell are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Lewis Varick Frissell Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of Lewis Varick Frissell (who was known throughout his life as Varick Frissell) span the years 1917-1970, with the greatest portion of the material dated 1925-1931. The diary, correspondence, writings, and business papers of these years reflect a short but intense career of arctic exploration, writing, and documentary and feature film making. Earlier papers are Frissell's juvenilia (mostly fiction), and later papers are those of his family. The collection is organized by type of material.
Frissell's expedition to the Unknown River region of Labrador in 1925 resulted in his identification of the Lower Twin Falls and in the first photograph of the Grand Falls on the Hamilton River (now Churchill River and Falls). The journey is documented in the diary, correspondence, and articles in the collection. This and subsequent explorations in Labrador earned Frissell election as a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society and as a member of the Explorer's Club.
Much of the general correspondence and most of the business papers, as well as the scripts and related papers in the collection, pertain to the two feature films produced by Frissell.
In addition to the papers related to motion pictures, the writings contain numerous articles on Labrador and the Arctic, reflecting Frissell's interest in the promotion and development of the region. Other writings include Frissell's fictional pieces and his poetry.
The largest sequence of general correspondence is between Frissell and Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell and his philanthropic organization, the International Grenfell Association. Grenfell, with whom Frissell had stayed on his first and on many later visits to the North, was a well-known medical missionary to the Inuit people of Labrador. Other prominent correspondents are Robert Joseph Flaherty, the noted documentarist, and George Allan England, whose story "Vikings of the Ice" Frissell adapted for
Family correspondence in the papers contains letters to and from Frissell and his father, Lewis Fox Frissell, regarding Frissell's plans for and experiences on his northern journeys. A large portion of the correspondence of Frissell's father relates to the search for Frissell that was instituted during the spring of 1931, after the ship on which he was retaking some scenes for
The much later, 1965-1970, correspondence of Toni Frissell in the family correspondence reflects her attempts to ascertain and publicize the facts of her brother's career. Several of these letters contain enclosures that are copies of Frissell's correspondence with his lawyers and with the Royal Geographic Society.
This collection is arranged alphabetically by type of material.
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm77055277