16mm home movies of Oak Park and Downtown Chicago shot between 1929 and 1930. Features footage of Museum Campus and other important landmarks, while also documenting Beryl Simon's stay at Fair Oaks Avenue with a friend.

The Dan Dinello Collection consists of 16mm prints and DVDs of films directed by Chicago-based experimental filmmaker Dan Dinello. The films were all independently produced, financed through a mixture of grants, personal funds, and money raised by the filmmaker's friends and supporters. The collection includes fictional narrative and experimental films made between 1977 and 1997. Many of the films were created in collaboration with artists in Chicago, and focus on telling the stories of society's outliers. While the works are concerned with expressing socio-political issues, they also share a dark sense of humor. Included in the collection are the films Shock Asylum (1996), Wheels of Fury (1997), and Rock Lobster (1980).

The Ferd Isserman collection consists of 16mm home movies shot primarily in Chicago from the early 1930s through the late 1960s. Documenting leisure time, trips and holidays, highlights from the collection include family visits to the Chicago World’s Fair (A Century of Progress International Exposition) in 1933-34; a legion marching band and USO dedication in Chicago during WWII; the Republican National Convention in Chicago in 1932; the 20th Miss America pageant held at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ in 1946; a trip to San Francisco and Los Angeles in 1946-47; and Thanksgiving celebrations in the 1930s, 1940s and 1968.

The Franklin McMahon collection consists primarily of audio recordings of significant political and social events from the 1960s, 70s and 80s. These recordings include interviews, political speeches, and environmental audio captured on location at Democratic and Republican National Conventions in the 1960s and 70s. McMahon’s subjects include Richard and Pat Nixon, Walter Cronkite, Jane Fonda, Abby Hoffman, Studs Terkel, Jesse Jackson, Ralph Nader, Hubert Humphrey, Ted Kennedy and Edmund Muskie. Capturing reflections on the major political events and socio-cultural issues of the time, including the Vietnam War and Women’s Liberation Movement, McMahon’s audio recordings provide a rich, acoustic record of a tumultuous period in American history. The collection also contains a few films, including one on the “Chicago Seven” conspiracy trial.