Rev. S.S. Jones Home Movies: Reel 4: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A home movie featuring footage taken in Oklahoma during the middle and late 1920s by Solomon Sir Jones. It is the fourth in a collection of nine films and consists of a single reel of silent 16mm black-and-white acetate film.

The film begins with shots of portraits of two young men. The next scene shows a street with houses and a smoke stack in the background. A sign in a window advertises a large group baptism and moving picture, perhaps meaning that S.S. Jones will be filming the baptism. The next scene shows a long procession of the people who will be attending and participating in the baptism. Those that will be baptized are wearing white clothing. The scene after the procession shows a church and some men in uniform standing in a line in the street. There is more footage of a different church in a rural area. There is another processing from the door of the church with those attending and participating in the baptism. Similar to the earlier procession, the crowd walks directly in front of the camera.

The next scene shows the people standing on the shore of a small pond. Those that are to be baptized are led out into the water and are baptized by one of the three priests standing in the water. The footage then shows a commercial storefront of a grocery and meat market and store employees bringing products out in front of the store. The footage includes storefronts, signs, and employees for several other businesses: real estate, undertaker and embalmer, barber shop, laundry, and a delicatessen. The next scene shows people leaving a church after a funeral service. The casket is carried out followed by a large crowd from the church. The footage of the funeral includes the graveside service and the casket being lowered into the ground. The last scene briefly shows a large house with a stone wall.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1924-1928
• Directed by: Rev. S. S. Jones, American, 1869 - 1936
• Type: silent films
• Type: home movies
• Type: black-and-white films (visual works)
• Type: 16mm (photographic film size)
• Medium: acetate film
• Dimensions: Duration: 12 Minutes
• Dimensions: Length (Film): 340 Feet
• Place filmed: Oklahoma, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: American South
• Topic: American West
• Topic: Baptist
• Topic: Barbershops
• Topic: Business
• Topic: Communities
• Topic: Funeral customs and rites
• Object number: 2011.79.4.1a
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Naomi Long Madgett
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: No Known Copyright Restrictions Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.