05/10/2026
If ebooks had ever really become what it briefly seemed they might, Le***an Home Movie Project (LHMP) could put one together on le****ns as mothers in our collections. There's the 1930s & 40s footage shot by le****ns who became accidental mothers, sometimes voluntarily, sometimes tragically not. Our Loraine Sumner Collection is a prime example there. It's amazing footage and particularly when you realize the obstacles Loraine, who shot it, faced down. And our Ruth Storm Collection which includes super-cute footage of once filmmaker, now potter Sheila McLaughlin who donated that founding collection. Then there's heartbreaking (but also adorable) footage of le***an mothers who were only permitted to see their children under supervision or for short periods of time. There's also footage of little boys who weren't always so happy about being born into nuclear families and then raised by two women, and footage with no little boys in it at all, most of that shot on womyn's lands during a time when it was not uncommon for womyn's communities to rule boys out or decree that all males, not matter how young or old, had to be off "the land" by a certain time of day or could only toddle through some sections. In NYC d**e circles, there were several seismic shifts regarding motherhood. Intense debates, community shaking heartbreaks but in the end arguably what counted was that some got pregnant and babies got born. If AI weren't getting so greedy, we might post a few illustrative clips, and we may still but for now, well, never forget, not any of it.
