-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: NEH Grant to Preserve Nitrate Negatives in the AGSL Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2012 13:57:32 -0700 From: Jon Jablonski <[log in to unmask]> Reply-To: [log in to unmask] To: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship <[log in to unmask]> Lovely! I wanna see photos of the cold storage!!! On 8/10/2012 1:47 PM, Angela R Cope wrote: > *SAVING AND SHARING THE AGS LIBRARY’S HISTORIC NITRATE* > *NEGATIVE IMAGES* > > *An NEH-Funded Project* > > *American Geographical Society Library* > *University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries* > > In 2010 the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) generously > funded a two-year project to preserve and provide access to the American > Geographical Society Library's seventy thousand nitrate negatives. These > invaluable images span every continent with the exception of Antarctica > and document a global range of peoples, cultures, and landscapes as seen > through the eyes of geographers, adventurers and professional photo > journalists. > > > The AGS Library is the former research library of the American > Geographical Society (AGS), which was founded in the early 1850s to > promote the collection of geographical information and to establish and > maintain a library with a collection of maps, charts and instruments. > Through the years, the AGS Library succeeding in building a > distinguished photographic collection, with images dating from the > mid-nineteenth century to the present, which included a sizable number > of nitrate negatives. Cellulose nitrate film, introduced in 1889, was an > important innovation in photography and was popular for well over half a > century. It is, however, a volatile and flammable material, and it was > clear that the AGSL’s deteriorating negatives required immediate attention. > > > The NEH-funded project enabled the AGS Library to rehouse, scan, create > metadata for, publish online and provide cold storage for these historic > images. > > > To view the results of this project please go to : > > http://www4.uwm.edu/libraries/digilib/NEHgrant/ > -- Jon Jablonski Map & Imagery Laboratory Davidson Library UC Santa Barbara