Lost Films Found! – Allen Hynek’s 3-D Photos

This report by Barry Greenwood, dated May 31, 2020, documents the discovery and subsequent loss of a collection of stereoscopic 3D slides belonging to Dr. J. Allen Hynek, the former scientific advisor to the Air Force's Project Blue Book. The slides were discovered in March 2020 among materials held by the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) in Chicago, which had been stored by Mary Castner. The collection consisted of 73 stereo slides taken between 1962 and 1982, depicting various UFO-related subjects, including sighting locations, conferences, and notable figures in the field. The author notes that the slides were identified as Hynek's by Mark Rodeghier of CUFOS. The report also addresses a long-standing mystery regarding two photographs of a UFO published in Hynek's 1972 book, 'The UFO Experience.' Hynek had claimed to vouch for these photos, which were taken from an aircraft, but provided little detail. Through correspondence with Jacques Vallee and Hynek's sons, Paul and Joel, the author learned that Hynek had originally taken these as stereo pairs, but Kodak returned them as single images, effectively destroying their utility as stereo evidence. The author notes that the relationship between Kodak and Air Force Intelligence at the time remains a point of interest. Tragically, the majority of the discovered slide collection was destroyed in the Woolsey wildfire of November 2018 at the home of Joel Hynek in the Los Angeles area, though some had been digitized prior to the fire. The report concludes with an index of the slides, detailing their subjects and processing dates.