National Film Preservation Foundation Awards Third Preservation Grant to the Waring Historical Library
September 4, 2014
Robert P. Walton, MD, PhD’s groundbreaking cannabis research film to be preserved
CHARLESTON, SC – The Waring Historical Library was awarded a basic preservation grant in the amount of $1,510 through the National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) to preserve the film, Cannabis and Opiate Experiments.
Filmed in the mid to late 1950s by Dr. Robert P. Walton, professor and chairman of the Department of Pharmacology from 1942 to 1971, the film documents the effects of cannabis and various opiates on the cardiovascular system of dogs and cats.
Dr. Walton did extensive research on the medicinal value of cannabis or marijuana during his tenure at the University of Mississippi before joining the MUSC Department of Pharmacology in 1942. In 1938 he wrote a book titled, Marihuana, America’s New Drug Problem. A Sociological Question with its Basic Explanation Dependent on Biologic and Medical Principles that is still referenced in the many issues surrounding the drug debate today.
The film will be digitized and made available online through MEDICA, the institutional repository and digital archives of the Medical University of South Carolina. MEDICA was created to provide access to current research of MUSC faculty and students, as well as the historical archival collections held at MUSC’s Waring Historical Library and University Archives.
The Waring Historical Library is one of 35 institutions to receive funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation during its summer 2014 grant cycle.
For more information about this announcement, please contact Ms. Brooke Fox, MUSC University Archivist at 843-792-6477 or[email protected].
