We have over 6,000 negatives, mostly from a photography studio here from 1897 to 1951. We also have several storage boxes of prints by the same photographers from several sources. We keep the two separate for two primary reasons: First, all of the negatives belonged to the photographer and can really be considered the original work. The great majority are glass and need to stored in special 4-fold folders to protect the glass and the gelatine-silver layer attached to it. Once in the folders they are then stored in clamshell boxes designed for the purpose. So far with have between 1/2 and 1/3 so stored. The others are in the original boxes with notes by the photographer as to the subject/person in the photo. The prints have come from four sources primarily and are not necessarily are from the same photographer. Prints should be stored flat with interleafing tissue while the glass negatives stand on their edges vertically. We also have !,000 + gelative negatives from the 1930-40s. They can be stored in a different manner than the glass negs. Ironically, many of them are in worse shape. For 30-35 years they were stored in the basement of our court house. Some were on the bottom layer, on the basement floor. The glass negs on the bottom got cracked by the weight of the ones on top. The gel negs soaked up the water, mildewed, and stuck together. More of them are flaking and peeling also. As far as the handling for research purposes, that is a valid reason for the separation, but since we have so many, we are planning to scan the negatives into PastPerfect so visitors can view them that way and not handle either print nor negative. Good luck, Mary Kirby Historic Upshur Museum [log in to unmask] On Wed, 16 Jul 2003 11:06:03 -0700 Leslie Karp <[log in to unmask]> writes: > If you have photographs in your collection, do you store the prints > and > the negatives together? Why or why not? > Thanks, > Leslie Karp > Temecula Valley Museum > > ========================================================= > 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). > ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! ========================================================= 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).