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From George Eastman House : Notes On Photographs

return to Research from the Andrew W. Mellon Advanced Residency Program in Photograph Conservation at George Eastman House 1999-2009

Abstract

The primary objective for this study was to develop a more sophisticated understanding of and requisite visual skills to detect coated photographic images from the 1840s to the 1860s. With this information photograph conservators will be better able to detect and distinguish coatings in order to develop preservation and treatment strategies. Three strategies were utilized to investigate the research objectives: consulting historic literature for recipes and commentary, examining historic examples, and creating mock-ups that would replicate, for visual reference, materials and techniques cited in the literature.

Article

The future wiki page for this article. PDF is available via the Index.

Dana Hemmenway was an ARP fellow between 1999 and 2001. This independent study was carried during Hemmenway's time in the ARP. She is currently a Senior Photograph Conservator at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

This work presaged the book, Coatings on Photographs published by the Photographic Materials Group of the American Institute for Conservation in 2005, although this report does not appear that book.