It doesn't look good for chemical photography. In recent years, one of the major supply manufacturers went out of business, another was bought by employees and converted to specialty and 'art' photography supplies. Does it have to be a photographic negative? Perhaps good microfilm would serve. Stephen Van Buren University Archivist and Special Collections Librarian BL241/Box 2115 North Campus Drive Brookings, SD 57007 605-688-4906 -----Original Message----- From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lynne Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2005 8:57 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: No Negative A resident who lived in our town in the late 1920's sent us some original photos of his still-standing historic house here. He asked that they be returned after copying them. I scanned them at a high resolution and saved them to a CD. In light of the ongoing debates about digitizing images and ever-changing technology, however, I also took them to two photo shops in town and asked that negatives be made of them -- so we always have something in hand. I was startled when both places said they don't make negatives anymore and that they just scan the images too. They did note, though, that if I brought the CD to them, they could print the images with whatever technology they have that produces longer-lasting images than those from our ink-jet printer. Is this true everywhere? Are negatives now unavailable and useless? We have many negatives in our collection already and I foresee having to jump in and start digitizing those images. Is this true of slides, too? Thanks! Lynne ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes). ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).