Negative log books
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Curtis, Edward S., 1868-1952
setName: label: See more items in
content: Edward S. Curtis papers and photographs
label: See more items in
content: Edward S. Curtis papers and photographs / Series 9: Photographs
physdesc: label: Extent
content: .5 Linear feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1895-circa 1916
label: Date
content: undated
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.2010-28, Subseries 9.1
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: This sub-series comprise two ledgers used for logging negatives, possibly used by Curtis's Seattle studio from the 1890s to about 1916. The contents primarily list NAI photographs; however, logbook 1 includes other photographic series as well, including Curtis's Harriman Alaska Expedition photographs, photographs made in and around Seattle, Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush (some of which Asahel Curtis may have made), and a Mount Rainier series. 

Logbook 1 mostly records Curtis's standard 6" x 8" negatives, although there is also a "Kodak Series" listed which would have comprised smaller nitrate negatives. Logbook 2 records 14" x 17" and larger negatives. Most if not all of the large negatives are enlargements from the 6" x 8" negatives, and both books cross-reference these. Both logbooks have annotations and marginalia, corrections, and cross-outs, and though Curtis's handwriting does appear in both, most of the entries are in hands other than his. There are multiple numbering schema; however, the letter "x" precedes all of the  NAI  numbers. Photographs made after about 1916 are not recorded in logbook 1.

The first page of logbook 1 has an alphabetical list of tribes and their corresponding negative number range. The letter "T" appears next to most of the NAI photographs and indicates that a transparency was made. A date appears next to some of the negative numbers; this indicates the copyright date of the photograph. Occasionally there will also be a note indicating the NAI volume in which the photograph appears. 

The two logbooks have been transcribed into a spreadsheet, which is available upon request.