African Violets

Date: circa 1952
Cfa collection: John Nash Ott Collection
Notes: Ott shot his time-lapse plant footage in his Winnetka greenhouse. He installed automatic temperature, humidity, and irrigation systems to help with growing different species of plants, and outfitted his greenhouse with automatic photofloods, iron window shutters, and an army of Bell & Howell “Filmo Model 70” 16mm cameras mounted on dolleys. The nerve center of all of this was an elaborate setup of switch panels and controls connected to a timer. Ott’s automatic greenhouse was called “ingenious” by American Cinematographer in 1947.
Subjects: Plants; Time; Flowers
Places: North America > United States > Illinois > Winnetka
Film notes: The version of the film streamable on this page combines scans of this film's separate A-roll and B-roll.
Cfa elements: A and B Rolls (Positive), 32 feet; 700 feet
Cfa records: https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objects/36370; https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objects/36054