Marion Stokes, an independent archivist, was ahead of her time. The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, native dedicated her life to meticulously documenting the evolution of news media since its inception, collecting over 70,000 VHS tapes of daytime news, sitcoms, documentaries, and more.
Stokes’s recording archive was formed in 1979, starting with the Iranian Hostage Crisis at the dawn of the twenty-four-hour news cycle. She began recording television 24 hours a day, a practice that would go on for close to 30 years. As highlighted by Indiana University, Stokes believed passionately in illuminating the truth behind media narratives. During the Iranian Hostage Crisis, she observed rapid shifts in storylines. Her archive not only exposed the manipulation inherent in media reports but also preserved newscasts that mainstream outlets have since erased.
In Recorder , a 2020 documentary that delved into the fascinating story of librarian and news journalist Stokes’s son, Michael Metelits, she said she was driven by a profound interest in how media mirrors and shapes society. This fascination compelled her not only to record primary news cycles spanning decades meticulously but also to preserve them against the threat of historical erasure.
“We’d be out at dinner, and we’d have to rush home to swap tapes,” recalled Michael, according to a video created by Zeitgeist Films, reshared on the Some Place In The Middle Movie Instagram account on July 13.
Marion recorded on over 71,000 VHS tapes, “capturing revolutions, lies, wars, triumphs, catastrophes, bloopers, talk shows, and commercials that tell us who we were, and show how television shaped the world of today,” the Recorder website noted.
Preserved by the Internet Archive , a non-profit organization dedicated to building a digital library of Internet sites and cultural artifacts, Stokes amassed a collection that included audio recordings, movies, TV segments, and her own television programs. During the 1960s and 1970s, she hosted Input , a panel discussion program on Philadelphia’s WCAU-TV10 that aired on Sunday mornings, focusing on politics and social issues. Stokes’s mission extended far beyond mere documentation; she sought to empower marginalized communities by democratizing access to information.
In 1968, Stokes convened a panel discussion titled The Anatomy Of Violenc e, featuring Mattie Humphrey from the North Philadelphia Community Center, Lloyd P. Wells of the Chestnut Hill Community Association, and other panelists to explore the roots of violence in communities. That same year, she facilitated an insightful discussion on Black reparations. Her archive also includes recordings such as President Reagan’s address on the Challenger disaster in 1986, capturing the tragic events just 73 seconds into the Space Shuttle Challenger’s STS-51L mission.
Stokes continued documenting significant events until her passing in 2012, including extensive footage related to the Sandy Hook massacre. Following her death, WNYC reported that her family faced the daunting task of managing her nine residences and three storage locations filled with recordings. Stokes’s collection featured decades-old Apple computers, a testament to her early investment in technology stocks, which funded her ambitious archival endeavors, according to historians.
Aside from her archival pursuits, Marion Stokes was deeply engaged in community activism throughout her life.
A graduate of Girls High School, Stokes served as a member of the Philadelphia chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee and actively campaigned for the integration of Girard College for Boys, her obituary noted . She co-organized five buses from Philadelphia to the March on Washington and was a founding member of the Women’s Board. Her commitment to political activism underscored her dedication to social justice and equality.
In the comments section of Some Place In The Middle Movie, fans commended Stokes for incredible work.“This was a big project by dedicated historians that has lost a lot of money. None of it has made any profit, and none of it is being used to make any money. This is about history,” wrote one user. “However, if it’s ever turned into something monetizable, her estate should absolutely be entitled to the lion’s share. But that’s not their focus. She was doing this for humanity and was already a wealthy woman.”
Another user penned, “What a beautiful mind. Librarians are the keepers.”
A third user wrote, “She knew before anyone that information is going to be everything in the future.”
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