Edith Dunham Foster (March 21, 1864 â€" May 8, 1950) was an American
educational filmmaker who served as the editor of the Motion Picture
Community Bureau, which furnished nearly all of the films seen by
American armed forces during World War I.Edith Dunham was born on
March 21, 1864, in Geneseo, Illinois. She married William Horton
Foster on May 20, 1885 in Geneseo.Foster, who became interested in
cinema through her involvement with the General Federation of Women's
Clubs, worked as an editor and programmer for the Motion Picture
Community Bureau. Her son Warren Dunham Foster was the Bureau's
president. During World War I, the Bureau supplied the YMCA War Work
Council and the Committee on Training Camp Activities with nine
million feet of film a week used in the United States and two million
feet of film a week used abroad. The films were watched by soldiers
from the United States and its allies worldwide. Foster oversaw the
development of a projecting machine that put pictures on the ceiling
so that injured soldiers could watch films from their hospital cots.
After the war Foster continued working with her son, a patent attorney
and an inventor, on the production of educational films and the
invention of motion picture apparatus.Foster co-created the
Educational Film Catalog with Ruth Ellen Gould Dolese.
educational filmmaker who served as the editor of the Motion Picture
Community Bureau, which furnished nearly all of the films seen by
American armed forces during World War I.Edith Dunham was born on
March 21, 1864, in Geneseo, Illinois. She married William Horton
Foster on May 20, 1885 in Geneseo.Foster, who became interested in
cinema through her involvement with the General Federation of Women's
Clubs, worked as an editor and programmer for the Motion Picture
Community Bureau. Her son Warren Dunham Foster was the Bureau's
president. During World War I, the Bureau supplied the YMCA War Work
Council and the Committee on Training Camp Activities with nine
million feet of film a week used in the United States and two million
feet of film a week used abroad. The films were watched by soldiers
from the United States and its allies worldwide. Foster oversaw the
development of a projecting machine that put pictures on the ceiling
so that injured soldiers could watch films from their hospital cots.
After the war Foster continued working with her son, a patent attorney
and an inventor, on the production of educational films and the
invention of motion picture apparatus.Foster co-created the
Educational Film Catalog with Ruth Ellen Gould Dolese.
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