A Positive Approach to Negatives: Preserving Photographs via Microfilm Technology

Special Collections and Archives at George Mason University (GMU) is one of many American archives responsible for a large collection of photographic negatives facing deterioration. At particular risk recently at GMU's Fenwick Library was the Library of Congress Federal Theatre Project (FTP) Collection. What follows is a discussion of GMU's experience in preserving the extensive volume of negatives in this collection and contracting with a firm that operates a LogEtronic camera, a photo-reduction mechanism capable of producing microfilm directly from photographic negatives. The Library of Congress FTP Collection has been on permanent loan from the Library of Congress (LC) since 1974. The Federal Theatre Project, one of the four Works Progress Administration (WPA) emergency relief programs during the Great Depression, provided work for unemployed theatre people. The collection consists mainly of the records of 3,129 theatrical productions and includes playscripts, set and costume designs, photographs, posters, production bulletins, playbills, research material, technical drawings, music, and some administrative material. The photographs represent a visual record of the casts, sets, costumes, personnel, and theaters of the FTP productions. The 9,000 negatives, predominantly on safety film and ranging in size from four by five inches to five by seven inches, with a handful of 35mm, were deteriorating alarmingly as they reached their fiftieth year in 1985. Neither GMU's library nor LC could undertake financially the task of duplicating the materials. Further, LC, as a federal agency, could not seek grant money from another federal agency such as the National Endowment for the Humanities or the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), seemingly the most promising sources for assistance. Therefore, GMU's Special Collections and Archives, with the support of LC, began the search for grant funding for a microfilm project. During a telephone inquiry to NHPRC, a grants analyst suggested that the microfilming be accomplished using a LogEtronic camera. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) was already experiencing success in the use of a LogEtronic camera that conformed to its preservation standards. The camera, operational there since about 1978, was used for various purposes: to duplicate photographs that would be prohibitively expensive to reproduce through traditional means, to provide copies for researchers in order to avoid excessive handling of originals, to salvage images in deteriorating negatives, and to copy parts of large aerial imagery. Next, a representative from a company in nearby Maryland made a site visit, with examples of deteriorating negatives (before) and microfiche copies (after), demonstrating visually what the LogEtronic camera was capable of doing—not only copying the negative, but indeed enhancing it in the duplicate microfiche. It was especially evident that the image of even the deteriorated negatives could be enhanced and preserved by this method. Unfortunately, during the time it took to write the grant proposal the company went out of business. We were told about another company, then called Eikon Radiographics, now