>My very small local history museum has the negatives from a studio which
>existed here from 1897 to 1951 or so. Up to this point I have been
>accessioning 8 X 10 and 5 X 7 glass negatives and we are out to 3500+
>items in the Hays Studio Collection. Now we are encountering 5 X 7 film
>negatives some of which are very badly damaged from standing in water
>when stored in the basement of our courthouse before this museum existed.
>
>Mary Kirby
>Historic Upshur Museum
>Gilmer TX

============

Nov 8, 2002

Mary,

The day may be coming, perhaps not too far in the future, when
computers will be able to take those images and make them whole
again.  My suggestion is to keep the lot, accessioned as a lot or not
(no use in messing with individual negatives at this point), and
store them in away in a safe place, properly identified as to
provenance, collection, etc., of course.  Let those who come along in
20 or 100 years, who have capabilities we can only dream of now, make
the images into displayable items.  They'll bless you for keeping
them.

I'm reminded of the time, back in the '70s, when I visited a major
library and was going through their newspaper collection.  They had a
run of the New York Herald from 1866 until sometime in the 20th
century.  Knowing the paper had started in 1835, and thinking it
strange they had the paper starting just at the end of the Civil War,
I asked about the earlier issues.  "Oh, we had those but threw them
out.  We thought these would be more useful."  The look on my face
must have been something to see, because she immediately likened as
how maybe they shouldn't have done that.  How right she was.

-Jim
--
Jim Lyons

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http://www.jimlyons.com

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