Women in Focus

The Overend sisters, Letitia (1880-1977) and Naomi (1900-1993), were famed in Dublin for many reasons beyond their filmmaking. Born into relative privilege, both women were deeply involved in various philanthropic and charitable causes throughout their lives. They were also well known for their love of vintage cars and for their Jersey cattle herd, which they kept on their Airfield farm.

Their films and filmmaking, on the other hand, have received little attention with the exception of Kasandra O’Connell’s (2021) examination of the Overend film collection held at the Irish Film Archive in Dublin.

Letitia Overend, the oldest of the two by 20 years, was born in Dublin 15 July 1880 and had an upbringing rich in social activities, sports and hobbies. Her family moved to Airfield House (now Airfield Estate) in Dundrum, Dublin in 1884 (Hayes, 2009), a home which both Letitia and Naomi helped to develop and expand over time. Letitia and Naomi were hands on in the running of their farm (Joyce, 2014; O’Riordan, 2015).

 
Letitia joined the St John Ambulance Brigade in 1913 and was trained in First Aid. Eventually becoming Chief Superintended of the Irish Nursing Division, she stayed a member of the organisation until her death in 1977 (Sunday Independent, 30 Jan 1972, p. 12).

Under the Irish Red Cross Society, she volunteered at the “emergency hospitals’ supplies depot on Merrion Square” during the Second World War (Hayes, 2009). She was involved in the Dublin-based Children’s Sunshine Home, which helped rehabilitate children with rickets (Hayes, 2009). She also helped in fundraising for the Blind Asylum (Yvette, Campbell, 2020).

Letitia received awards and recognition for this work, gaining the status as “dame of justice of the Order of St John of Jerusalem” in 1955 and receiving an honorary degree from Trinity College Dublin for her work (Irish Examiner, 30 Jun 1961, p. 11).

 
Being born into privilege, Letitia also enjoyed the benefits of her upbringing by travelling around the world extensively and often filming the various locations and people she encountered. She featured in the press as much for her philanthropic and volunteer work as her lifestyle and hobbies, with newspapers reporting on her tea parties and other high society events (Sunday Independent, 6 Jul 1952, p. 4).

She was most famous for her love of her vintage Rolls Royce. Both Letitia and Naomi learned car maintenance, unusual for women at the time and despite Letitia’s report that her father would not “hear of women driving” (Sunday Independent, 30 Jan 1972, p. 12). It was Letitia’s mother who bought her the Rolls Royce in London following her father’s death. Letitia and Naomi went on to become popular members of various automobile clubs and took part in vintage car rallies (Campbell, 2020).

Letitia was very much a local celebrity. She could be found on Irish national radio making appeals for equipment for the St. John Ambulance (Irish Press, 16 Aug 1958, p. 12), RTÉ television being interviewed about her 1927 Rolls Royce and her maintenance of it (Airfield Estate, 2019) and featured, along with her car, in a US promotional film for CBS in 1971 reportedly watch by 40 million viewers (Sunday Independent, 30 Jan 1972, p. 12).

Naomi Overend was born 19 August 1900 in Dublin and died 24 October 1993 at the family home in Airfield. Her life was similar to Letitia’s in many respects including her independence, enthusiasm for foreign travel and exploring, and her love of sports and motoring (Hayes, 2009 O’Connell, 2021). Naomi’s car of choice was a vintage 1936 Austin Tickford (Hayes, 2009).

Naomi also travelled extensively, visiting places like New Zealand and the South Pacific in the 1950s. She was also a keen skier and regularly went on skiing trips to Austria. Naomi was in Kitzbühel in Austria 1938 when the Nazi troops arrived during the Anschluss, capturing the event in photographs (O’Riordan, 2015). She was reported to have an interest in plays, particularly Church of Ireland theatrical productions and supplied local plays with props from her house and farm (Finn, 2019: 267). 

Naomi shared the charitable and philanthropic spirit of her sister. She supported the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals all her life. Naomi was an accountant by trade and managed the Airfield Estate (O’Connell, 2021).

Her fondness for animals extended to her own farm where she maintained the herd of Jersey cattle up until her death (Joyce, 2014). The cattle were regularly entered in, and won, the Royal Dublin Society competitions (Airfield Estate, 2022). Naomi supported her mother in setting up the Women’s National Health Association, and this, in turn, brought Dublin a pasteurised milk depot (Finn, 2019: 261). She was also involved in or organised a variety of public health care initiatives and fundraisers (ibid).

Both sisters were, therefore, quite prolific in their own right, yet, their filmmaking remains obscure. The Irish Film Archive, now custodian of the Overend film collection, offers a rare glimpse into the women, their filmmaking and their interests.

In all, the Overend collection contains 38 films including a selection of promotional and tourist films not shot by the sisters. The sisters’ 16mm films largely cover the 1930s to 1950s period and feature travelogues, home movies, public events and religious rituals. In addition, the Airfield Collection at the OPW-NUI Maynooth Archive and Research Centre at Castletown, with its hugely detailed family archive, offers some hint of the interest both sisters had in filmmaking.

The sisters wrote extensively about their lives in diaries and letters, with some reference to what they filmed and how they filmed it. From what the Irish Film Archive and the Airfield Collection suggest, Letitia and Naomi were already filmmaking in the 1930s, with Letitia being the most regular filmmaker and documenting some of her filmmaking in letters, which she kept an extensive record of.

As O’Connell has noted (2021), the sisters’ filmmaking was enabled by their high economic and social status, since during the 1930s it was prohibitively expensive to engage in filmmaking, especially for women. Filming 16mm film was, of course, technically challenging and expensive.

It is not immediately obvious which of the sisters directed which films in the collection. However, the records in the Airfield Collection, which holds the sisters’ diaries, letters and popular cultural ephemera, provides some ways of identifying the films. In a letter dated 9 August 1935, for example, Letitia writes about filming her round the world tour, which she took with the British Medical Association.

While in Washington DC she says, “I took several cinematograph pictures, and hope for good results, as the view looking towards the Washington column (just like our Wellington) is very fine.” However, she continues by adding that she was not able to film her trip to Hollywood and Paramount Studios since, “alas! Cameras not allowed in” (Letter from Letitia Overend, 9 August 1935).

On this same trip, Letitia writes about developing her craft both in still and moving image cameras. She refers to being happy with some of the pictures and film she has taken, for example, of Melbourne (letter 9 October 1935).

Her filming often evidences an interest in farming practices and livestock as well as industry and labour. In one letter she writes about filming camels near the Arabian Sea and notes the treatment of the animals and how camels are like cattle, something she’s very familiar from her own farming (Letter 7 October 1935). Various letters back and forth between Letitia and her friends refer to Letitia’s filmmaking. When Letitia writes that her camera has broken (Letter to Emily Provis 26 August 1935) Naomi responds that she hopes it is working again (Letter 19 Nov 1935).

Letitia’s interest in film and filmmaking also extended to hosting public exhibition of films. Letitia screened the official BMA tour film on 8 February 1936 at the St John Ambulance address with invited people from various St John Ambulance divisions (Correspondence regarding ‘At Home with the Brigade’, February 1936).

She also screened the film “Round the World” at a fundraiser for the National Council for the Blind (Irish Press, 12 Jun 1936, p. 11) which showed the various countries she visited on her BMA tour. There were around 200 invitees to the event and letters thanking Letitia suggest that attendees enjoyed the film.

Letitia’s filmmaking evidences an eye for framing, composition and narrative and she deploys a range of framing techniques to capture wide landscapes and intimate family scenes. Her film ‘Indian Ocean Cruise Travelogue’ circa 1935, for example, is narratively structured around the launch and docking of a cruise ship and the passing of a full day.

Wide shots capture the ship leaving the bay at the start of the film, with shots of crew at work, passengers settling into the leisure activities and preparations underway for the trip. The film’s penultimate scene is of a sunset and with the ship approaching a dock and passengers disembarking.

Letitia’s films of home life also show a concern with composition and portraiture. In a film titled ‘Showjumping Event and Overend Sisters at Airfield Playing with Dog’, Letitia holds the camera frame on a woman, capturing her almost in still until the woman laughs and takes a pull of a cigarette almost in the style of a Hollywood star.

Further shots of Naomi and this same unidentified woman in their garden are clearly choreographed, with the women facing towards camera and walking left of frame, as the camera follows them. Throughout several shots, the women stay turned towards the camera and in frame, suggesting a shared understanding of film space.

 
Naomi’s films are harder to trace and to identify within the collection. While she features in some of them (thus suggesting Letitia as the filmmaker), there are less films with Letitia in front of camera, which might imply that Naomi was the filmmaker.

The Airfield Collection has some letters in which Naomi describes filming her sports activities. For example, in a diary entry dated 24 February 1936 (File 1819) Naomi writes about a blizzard taking place on the Friday with 9-14mm of snow falling. She then describes a few days later going up to a hut and coming “down with Kodak & …to nursery slopes.” This film does not appear to be part of the Irish Film Archive’s Overend collection. Like Letitia, Naomi also filmed her travels and in one lengthy letter to Letitia dated 27 March 1934, she describes what seems to be some of her first filmmaking undertakings. 

Written while travelling in Lahore, she writes that:

I went to Kodak here yesterday … [T]hey were awfully efficient & I got a new roll of cine film from them as was now out. I’m so interested in what the man told you about taking pictures & will try & get close ups. It is not very easy here but might manage. I saw most of them on a projector camera we were lent. The lamp was only 200 as against our 750 Watt. Some on the way out here suffered from under exposure, but would be better with a good light. (Letter from Naomi Overend to Letitia Overend 27 March 1934) 

Commenting on the quality of her films she writes in this same letter:

The Khyber quite good I thought…Aeroplanes, took a bit but too like their background but I believe this is always likely to happen … some nice ones of the squadron taking off. I have sent all the last to be done & sent to me at Bombay where I join the ships. I was so frightened when we began for fear all would be bad & so relieved that some look nice! And I was really pleased when I saw the Khyber. … My last day at Risalpur I went up the Malakand Pass with her. We had no permit to go on to Chakdara or indeed beyond Darqai but got to Malakand alright. It was very cloudy so I don’t expect too much of the shots I got there.

The letter implies that both sisters were interested in the act of filming itself and not just documenting holidays and events. The reference to speaking to someone about how to shoot also indicates that they sought out knowledge and expertise about filmmaking. That Naomi reflects in detail on her filmmaking and engages her sister in the discussion gives us insight into the sisters as filmmaking enthusiasts.

It is, perhaps, somewhat fitting, if not frustrating, that the films are attributed to both sisters rather than individually, since they were so inter-connected in their lives. Neither sister married and this fact, coupled with their love of travel and the mobility afforded by cars, has been read by some as an expression of their independence and freedom, something not always available to women, including those from well-to-do families (Campbell, 2020).

This independence, however, was also connected to a strong bond between them and it may be the case that the best way to understand their authorship is as co-creative and collective rather than individual. 

Selected Filmography

Roll 5 – Indian Ocean Travelogue (1935) Overend Family Collection. Irish Film Archive, Dublin.

Roll 18 – Home and Garden Scenes (1938) Overend Family Collection. Irish Film Archive, Dublin.

Roll 22 – Greece Travelogue (1938). Overend Family Collection. Irish Film Archive, Dublin.

Roll 24 – Rural Travelogue & Airfield Scenes (No date) Overend Family Collection. Irish Film Archive, Dublin.

Roll 26 – Wedding Footage (1938) Overend Family Collection. Irish Film Archive, Dublin.

Roll 27 – Parade of Queen’s Guard at Buckingham Palace (1939) No date. Overend Family Collection. Irish Film Archive, Dublin.

Bibliography

Airfield Estate YouTube Channel. 2019. Letitia Overend & Her 1927 Rolls Royce. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5nSNCpeF5Y [accessed 24 Nov 2022]

Airfield Estate, 2022. Airfield Dromartin Jersey Herd. Airfield.ie [Online] Available at: https://www.airfield.ie/stories_news/heritage-jersey-herd/ [accessed 24 Nov 2022]

Anonymous. 1936. Wireless for the Blind. Irish Press. 12 Jun, p. 11. 

Anonymous. 1958. Appeal for St. John Ambulance. Irish Press. 16 Aug, p. 12.

Anonymous. 1961. Honorary Degrees Conferred. Irish Examiner. 30 Jun, p. 11.

Campbell, Yvette. 2020. Document of the Day – Home is Where the Heart is at Airfield. Maynooth University Library Treasures. [Online] Available at: https://mulibrarytreasures.wordpress.com/tag/letitia-and-naomi/ [accessed 24 Nov 2022]

Correspondence concerning event ‘At Home in the Brigade Hall’ held on February 8th 1936. File 2587, Airfield Collection OPW-NUI Maynooth Archive and Research Centre at Castletown House, Celbridge, Co. Kildare. 

Correspondence from Letitia Overend to multiple people regarding British Medical Association tour. File 3322, Airfield Collection OPW-NUI Maynooth Archive and Research Centre at Castletown House, Celbridge, Co. Kildare. 

Finn, Clodagh. 2019. Through Her Eyes: A New History of Ireland in 21 Women. Dublin: Gill. 

Hayes, Cathy. 2009. Overend, Letitia Lily Anne Letham. Dictionary of Irish Biography. [Online] Available at: https://www.dib.ie/biography/overend-letitia-lily-anne-letham-a7152#co-subject-A [accessed 24 Nov 202]

Joyce, Carol. 2014. The Airfield Archive at the OPW-NUI Maynooth Archive and Research Centre at Castletown. ARAI Summer Newsletter [Online]. Available at: https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/12349/1/ARA_I_Summer_2014_newsletter_copy.pdf [accessed 24 Nov 2022]

Letter from Letitia Overend to Emily Provis 26th August 1935. File 3323, Airfield Collection OPW-NUI Maynooth Archive and Research Centre at Castletown House, Celbridge, Co. Kildare.

Letter from Letitia Overend while ‘En route near Kansas’, 9th August 1935. File 3322 Airfield Collection OPW-NUI Maynooth Archive and Research Centre at Castletown House, Celbridge, Co. Kildare.

Letter from Letitia Overend while in the Arabian Sea, 7th October 1935. File 3322, Airfield Collection OPW-NUI Maynooth Archive and Research Centre at Castletown House, Celbridge, Co. Kildare. 

Letter from Naomi Overend to Letitia Overend, 19th Nov 1935. File 3331, Airfield Collection OPW-NUI Maynooth Archive and Research Centre at Castletown House, Celbridge, Co. Kildare.

McKeever, Careena. 1972. Letitia and the film-star Ghost. Sunday Independent. 30 Jan, p. 12. 

O’Connell, Kasandra. 2021. Archivally absent? Female filmmakers in the IFI Irish Film Archive. Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, Issue 20, pp. 12-27.

 
O’Riordon, Maeve. 2015. Lives Less Ordinary: The Women of Airfield. [Online] Available at: https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/sites/default/files/filefield_paths/Lives%20Less%20Ordinary%20The%20Women%20of%20Airfield.pdf [accessed 24 Nov 2022].

Overend Family Collection, Circa. 1930s. Roll 13: Indian Ocean Cruise Travelogue. URN AF4633.  Irish Film Archive. 

Overend Family Collection. 1936 (Stock date). Roll 19: Showjumping Event and Overend Sisters at Airfield Playing with Dog. URN AF4647. Irish Film Archive.