1928 Lawrenceville School Film to be Screened at the New Jersey Archival Film Festival

The Lawrenceville School’s Stephan Archives will publicly debut a student-made film by Harry Robinson Safford, Class of 1930, at the first-ever New Jersey Archival Film Festival on November 1 at Monmouth University. Safford, a native of Houston, Texas, captured snippets of Lawrenceville life on a handheld camera in 1928, creating—perhaps unintentionally—a vivid, visual time capsule of early 20th-century campus life. Admission to the event is free, though seating is limited and reservations are required through Eventbrite.

Recently conserved and digitized by George Blood LLC, Safford’s 11-minute film offers a rare window into Lawrenceville nearly a century ago. The footage highlights the School’s National Historic Landmark campus, designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, with its signature academic and residential buildings arranged around the Circle. Students appear playing baseball, football, golf, and track, interspersed with candid glimpses lighthearted pranks and faculty cameos — among them Pulitzer Prize-winning author and playwright Thornton Wilder (pictured above) and then Headmaster Mather Abbott.

Mather Abbott

The film also reflects Lawrenceville’s community, both past and present. In 1928, students came from across the continental United States and Hawaii, as well as Canada, France, Japan, and Venezuela. Today, that reach extends even further, with Lawrentians representing 34 countries around the world.

Beyond his filmmaking, Safford was a prolific writer who contributed to the School’s literary magazine and yearbook. After Lawrenceville, he attended Yale University, served as Chief Intelligence Officer at the Red River Ordnance Plant in Texarkana, Texas, during World War II, and later became Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Equipment Suppliers Association. 

For more information, contact Lisa M. Gillard H’17, director of public relations, at lgillard@lawrenceville.org.