An intern searching through old boxes on Long Island, New York, discovered a piece of film history that had been missing for almost a century and was believed to be gone forever.
The 16-millimeter film is thought to be the only surviving copy of The Heart of Lincoln, a silent film that chronicles the Civil War era in America and the life of President Abraham Lincoln. The Library of Congress named the Universal motion picture from 1915 as one of 7,000 silent films thought to be permanently lost.
Francis Ford, the older brother of the renowned Hollywood filmmaker John Ford, who won a record four Academy Awards for Best Director and would go on to produce his own film about Lincoln decades later, served as both the film’s director and its star.
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Eliot Kissileff, a film archivist, was able to digitize and clean the film, ensuring its preservation.
Kissilef remarked, “I suppose it was just fortunate that the cans were sealed and had not decomposed.”
In 2024, summer intern Dan Martin discovered the film, which was in exceptionally good condition for its age, at Lauro’s Historic Films Archive in Greenport, New York. The video was one of many that had been unwatched for decades in the boxes of old movies that had been donated to the repository.
“This is about the most rewarding outcome you can have sifting through those old film cans for someone going to school for film preservation,” said Martin of Jamesport.
Joe Lauro, the company’s owner, had rusty film cases covering the walls of his office, and among them were the film’s five reels.
With a stunned expression on his face, he continued, “Joe, I really think we’ve got something special here.” Lauro intends to repair the movie and add music so that viewers in the contemporary era might enjoy a bit of cinematic history.
According to Lauro, over 70% of silent films are no longer made. It’s one of the puzzle pieces that has been discovered. The mystery of American film’s disappearance.
Martin’s revelation, on the other hand, reminds us that no intern’s duty is too minor.
“To finish my internship on this positive note was really satisfying,” Martin remarked. This kind of movie shows that the history of cinema is still being written.