When L. Arthur Lassman read about Harmony celebrating its bicentennial in September 2004, he knew he had something unique to bring to the party.

In 1949, Mr. Lassman, of O'Hara, produced two short films about the Emma Farm Camp which he thought would be perfect to include.

Every summer from 1922 to 1972, the camp hosted thousands of Jewish families from Pittsburgh. The 25-acre site lies in Jackson, across Connoquenessing Creek from Harmony, and now houses the Indian Brave Campground.

The problem with Mr. Lassman's documentaries was they were shot on 8mm film and the sound was recorded on a wire spool, a procedure using thin steel wire, a common recording method before the 1960s.

Harmony council President Jeff Smith said he was thrilled when Mr. Lassman approached him with the films, but that he was unable to find anyone who could digitize them.

Last year, the Rauh Jewish Archives of the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center was able to get it done, and Mr. Lassman showed the films this month to about 50 people in Harmony Museum.

"When Art Lassman showed me the films he had made, I knew that they should be preserved in a format accessible to viewers today," said Susan Melnick, archivist for the Rauh archives. "The equipment he had used in recording and projection is not generally available for use today."

Mr. Lassman worked with the film lab so the project was done to his specifications, Ms. Melnick said. He provided the archives with detailed documentation of the history of the films, which adds considerably to the archival value of the project, she said.

"The films provide us with a sense of the camp in the early 1950s that simply could not be conveyed by our many photographs and documents," she said. "These films tell us about the experience of being at the Emma Kaufmann Camp in Harmony and much more, besides."

When he was in Harmony to show the films, Mr. Lassman toured the camp site.

"A lot of the trees that were there are all gone now," he said. "It's a little sad to see what's gone."

Mr. Lassman made the movies as promotional tools for the camp after he was approached with the idea by a member of the camp's board.

While making the films, he had to time each scene with a stopwatch so he knew how much background music would be needed. He selected and recorded the music from 78 rpm records he owned.

The original films are in a controlled storage area, Ms. Melnick said, and visitors to the history center in the Strip District can view the DVDs if they make prior arrangements.