From 1979 until her death in 2012, this Philadelphia librarian and activist undertook one of the most ambitious archiving projects ever attempted: recording television broadcasts around the clock for 35 years. Marion was motivated by a deep conviction that television news formed the first draft of history, and she feared that without diligent preservation, important context and truth could be lost or rewritten. Using up to eight videotape recorders at a time, she recorded major news channels, talk shows, and local programming, diligently swapping out VHS tapes every six hours. This effort structured her entire daily life and required careful planning from her and her family. Over time, her collection ballooned to approximately 71,000 VHS tapes, totaling more than 300,000 hours of footage spanning three decades. The archive captures everything from major world events to everyday news coverage and the changing tone of TV media. After her passing, her massive collection was donated to the Internet Archive, where it's being digitized for future generations to study how history was presented on screen. Sometimes the most important work happens quietly, one tape at a time, by people who understand that history is worth preserving.
marionstokes #tvarchive #preservinghistory
