Wednesday, June 16, 2010

day 17: watch me organize

I finished organizing the rest of the pictures and moved onto the most interesting part of the series - glass plate negatives. There are about 40 glass plate negatives that range in size from 4x6, 5x7, and 8x10 that have images of the Riggs family from the early to mid 1800s. They include individual portraits, large groups, and landscapes.

Today I investigated the best methods for processing these fragile negatives. Out of 40 only 4 are cracked or broken. For the majority that are intact Jen will order four-flap envelopes and envelopes to contain them. For the glass that is broken I discovered the best method to process them would be creating a "sink mat". In my research of this method I discovered how complex and involved this process is. It requires a lot of additional materials. Since there are only 4 broken plates, Jen and I decided to process them the same as the intact plates but store them flat instead of on its side. In the finding aid we will also denote the plates in the specific box are broken for researchers to take special care.

Jen will order the supplies I need for the glass plate negatives in July so I can process the plates once everything arrives.

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