The fonds consists of records that document multiple facets of Marsden’s life and work, including freelance photography, film production, his work as Alberta Film Commissioner, and several hobbies such as woodworking, sailing, and aviation.
The freelance photography records include prints and negatives of Marsden’s work, including commissions and landscape stills. These records also include clippings of Marsden’s published work, correspondence related to his photography business, and awards.
The film production records include scripts, production stills, and masters from several productions such as The Naked Flame, Okan (a Glenbow Foundation documentary on the Siksika Sun Dance), and Wings of Chance.
The Film Industry Development records include correspondence with film producers across Canada and the United States, information files, reports on the Alberta film industry, and production stills and/or video copies of films shot in Alberta (including Unforgiven and Heaven and Earth).
Marsden’s personal records include flight logs, photographs of woodworking projects (including sailboats and planes), plane-building project diaries, scrapbooks (including family histories and photographs dating from 1904), a high school yearbook, and files related to the writing and publication of Big Screen Country: Making Movies in Alberta.
Marsden, William