AIC-PMG Winter Meeting 2025

Light Continental Breakfast Available

Fifty years is a long time in the relatively short history of photograph conservation. This presentation begins with the rediscovery of the matte collodion process and the then current belief that most issues seen in photograph prints were caused by poor fixing or washing. Since then, much has been experienced; and this will be this conservator’s focus – which immersion techniques have gone well, when have there been issues, and how can potential problems be identified ahead of time. While gelatin photographs make up the majority of examples, other processes will be included other processes will be included as well.

“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.' So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there."

Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

In April and September 2024, the "Taller de Conservación y Preservación de Fotografía" at Finca Vigía, Cuba, marked the latest in a series of trainings, following previous efforts by Monque Fisher and Walter Newman of the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC).

Finca Vigía, Ernest Hemingway's residence in Cuba, attracts over 100,000 visitors annually, making it one of the most popular cultural sites in the country. The estate serves as an important diplomatic bridge between the United States and Cuba, fostering collaboration in preservation efforts and cultural exchange. Through initiatives led by the Finca Vigía Foundation, a Boston based organization dedicated to preserving Hemingway's legacy, the site has become a symbol of shared heritage and a platform for building mutual understanding between the two nations. Under the guidance of NEDCC, the Foundation has built a state-of-the-art conservation lab that is however faced with significant challenges, including the country’s frequent electricity and water limitations. The lab commonly has at least one conservator on staff.

Sponsored by the US Embassy in Havana and made possible by the Finca Vigía Foundation, spearheaded by Executive Director Mary-Jo Adams, this two-session workshop focused on hands-on, practical conservation techniques, conducted in the participants’ native Spanish to maximize engagement and effectiveness. All workshop materials, including a specially developed conservation kit, had to be hand-carried after obtaining export permission from the Department of Commerce and other US government agencies as well as cleared through stringent Cuban customs checks, underscoring the logistical hurdles. There is a severe limitation of access to conservation supplies in the country. The level of knowledge in photograph conservation of participants could not be anticipated although it was understood that they would be mostly trained conservators. These hands-on sessions covered essential topics such as the evolution of photographic processes, emergency preparedness, and interventive treatments, requiring participants to engage directly with the tools and techniques provided.

The workshops are part of the ongoing efforts of the Finca Vigía Foundation to preserve Ernest Hemingway’s legacy.

This presentation will focus on the pedagogical strategies and materials developed for these workshops, emphasizing the innovative solutions required to overcome the unique challenges of training in Cuba.

Photograph collections connect humanity. These holdings are universal and treasured across geographic, religious, and societal divides.

As nations worldwide struggle with escalating natural disasters, armed conflict, economic collapse, illiteracy, and other crises, the need to work together to preserve our world’s photographic heritage is clear and immediate. While we vigilantly document, treat, and care for these collections, photograph conservators must also lead, collaborate, transform, advocate, and fundraise……

Individuals seeking support for new and existing photographic preservation initiatives must be alert to changes in the philanthropic environment. We must pay attention to the aims of funders and develop pioneering proposals that connect to their mission. While foundations are guided by educational goals and vision, individuals give to causes they feel passionate about – or institutions to which they are closely connected. And for our private practitioners, we must pursue for-profit/non-profit partnerships or sponsored opportunities that enable financial access to 501(c)3 entities.

We must find resonance and connect our work to global societal concerns. We should connect with established regional partners and not operate in isolation

In doing so, each of us must build our skills and refine our vision. AIC-PMG members offer experience in national and global outreach and collaborative initiatives.

Our message must be unified and consistent. And our work, collaborative.

We must highlight our stories, preservation challenges and solutions, celebrate success and keep donors engaged. As we work to preserve photographic collections we must emphasize the central role of arts and culture in inspiring change and promoting unity.

This presentation will center on the lessons learned in fundraising for the preservation of photographic materials and the education and training of emerging conservators and collection care professionals globally.

In doing so, the author will provide practical guidelines learned following decades of rewarding work in institutional advancement / development – relevant for both institutions and sole proprietors and connected to outcomes from Held in Trust.

The following topics will be addressed:

Documenting Need, Relevance. and Addressing WHY?

Connecting to Funders Goals and Opportunities

Funding Sources and Strategies

• Government grants (local and national)
• Global or local foundations
• Corporations
• Professional organizations
• Established programs for collections preservation
• Online platforms
• Advanced research fellowships & partnerships
• Special events
• Individual donors
• Project Specifics and Proposal Guidelines & Tips

Lessons Learned in Aggregate

• Identify a spectrum of funding needs. Pursue many.
• Build a culture of philanthropy.
• Tell stories.
• Seek spendable and endowment funding. And matching support too.
• Inform and involve decision makers regularly. Share success.
• Involve the public. Engage communities broadly. Seek volunteers.
• Be a part of the solution.
• Collaborate globally. Connect to societal needs.
• Share your passion; it is contagious.
• Take risks. Do not be shy.
• Ask for support with enthusiasm and conviction.
• Lead.
• Prepare clear/transparent budgets.
• Pursue multi-phased preservation initiatives with pilot projects based on collection assessment and need.
• Celebrate accomplishments and clearly articulate next steps.

Lunch will be a light buffet served at the venue

PMG officers will lead a business meeting for members.

The M+ Museum is striving to establish new guidelines to direct the decision-making process for the conservation of photographs during acquisitions and throughout the conservation of legacy works, with a particular emphasis on reproduction awareness.

The goal is to fully comprehend each photograph as a unique work of art while taking into account the opinions of various museum stakeholders. It also aims to provide advice and negotiate on the best long-term collection care strategies for the museum and whether reproduction could aid in preservation.

This presentation will draw attention to certain crucial areas: The first step is to establish descriptive terminology for different types of reproductions that acknowledge stakeholders, nomenclature, and budgets. Second, diligent work on setting up a procedure for evaluating the collection's values and allocating stakeholders to those attributions, including the combination of the museum's artist questionnaire with the photographic information record. Thirdly, incorporating this work into the museum's overall guidelines, procedures, policies, and standards.

In order to comprehend the collection and recommend the best conservation measures, the work is being developed in cooperation with the registration, curatorial, and collections database teams under the (color) photographic committee. This presentation will provide an overview of the work done over the past two years, our starting point, preliminary case studies, and ongoing work.

The Wayside, a historic home in Concord, Massachusetts, is renowned for being the residence of several prominent 19th-century authors, including Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Margaret Sidney (Harriet Lothrop). In 1965, the house became part of Minute Man National Historical Park, marking the first literary site acquired by the National Park Service.

This presentation will focus on the ongoing efforts to preserve and conserve the collection of photographs permanently displayed in the house.

The walls of The Wayside are adorned with artwork, documents, and family photographs, many of which have been on display since their original placement by the owners. In 2023, a project was launched to address the conservation of framed paper artifacts on display. A team of paper and photograph conservator, along with object conservators, working through CCI Industrial Services, LLC, was contracted by the National Park Service for this task. The conservation work took place at the Historic Architecture, Conservation, and Engineering Center in Lowell, MA.

This presentation will delve into the decision-making processes behind the conservation efforts, considering the unique qualities of the artwork, its contextual significance, and the specific requirements of preserving it within a historic house setting. The collaborative efforts between conservators, curators, and National Park Service Project Inspectors will be a key focus.

The aim of the talk is to introduce the collection and highlight the factors specific to The Wayside that influenced the conservation approach. The presentation will be accompanied by images of the house and examples of the treatments undertaken.

Break

In May 1839, Mungo Ponton, a Scotsman, reported on the light sensitivity of dichromate salts and described a photographic method based on dichromate salts, stating that the process offered a cheap substitution for silver. There are very few examples of his process that exist. There was almost no discussion of Ponton’s process, until Alphonse Poitevan and others began using dichromates in carbon printing and photomechanical printing. Indeed some histories erroneously cite Ponton as the an inventor of photomechanical printing. This paper is a discussion of Ponton’s process with an example of his process from 1840 and a discussion of why examples are rare. It includes analysis of photogenic drawings made using Ponton’s method, as well as a consideration of what might appear as fading is actually a transition to stability.

This study explores the impact of two major technological innovations from the late 1830s - electrotyping and photography - on the development of reproduction processes. Electrotyping, invented by German physicist Moritz Hermann von Jacobi in 1838 (1), revolutionized the production and reproduction of printing plates. One year later, in 1839, Louis Jacques Daguerre's pioneering photographic process, based on the photosensitivity of halides on silver-coated copper plates, marked the birth of photography (2). This research is significant as it explores how the relatively not so well known combination of electrotyping and photography contributed to the development of photomechanical and photochemical reproduction processes. Vienna, in particular, holds a special place in this narrative due to the pioneering efforts of Joseph Berres and other local photography enthusiasts in the early 1840s. Their work was instrumental in advancing these techniques, which enabled the production of prints from daguerreotypes. Despite its limited application at the time, this innovative approach marked a critical moment in the evolution of photographic reproduction.

This study is part of the Heritage Science project PHELETYPIA (3), which focuses on the surface morphology and elemental composition of historical daguerreotypes. Analytical techniques, including scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX) and micro-X-ray fluorescence (µXRF) scanning, were employed to study the ageing and corrosion features of daguerreotypes. These techniques also provided insights into how nanoparticles store image information. Moreover, the research included the production of new daguerreotypes under controlled conditions, allowing for a comparison of historical and contemporary samples. This comparative analysis aims to better interpret the aging and light-damaged characteristics of historical daguerreotypes.

Moreover, we conducted chemical and electrochemical etching experiments on the daguerreotypes we produced according to historical procedures. Two electrochemical techniques were used: the potentiostatic three-electrode method and the galvanostatic two-electrode method. These techniques allowed precise etching of daguerreotype plates, which we subsequently used for printing. The durability and mechanical properties of the etched plates, as well as the quality of the prints they produced, were thoroughly investigated.

The results demonstrate that the combination of electrotyping and photography laid the foundation for modern reproduction techniques, and that comparative studies of historical and contemporary daguerreotypes can provide valuable insights into early photographic processes. The research has contemporary relevance, offering valuable information for conservators and historians working with early photographic objects. This study should make it easier and more accurate to identify prints made from etched daguerreotypes or their electroformed copies.

Additionally, this study contributes to the ongoing development of conservation practices, helping to refine methods for identifying and preserving early photographic objects. By contextualising the historical importance of these innovations and providing new analytical data, this research enhances our knowledge of early photographic processes and their specifics. The collaboration between the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia and TU Wien, Austria further underscores the significance of this research, as it highlights the interdisciplinary effort to revive these historical processes, bridging expertise and resources across institutions.



References:

1. Jacobi MH von. Die Galvanoplastik : oder das Verfahren cohärentes Kupfer in Platten oder nach sonst gegebenen Formen, unmittelbar aus Kupferauflösungen, auf galvanischem Wege zu produciren ; nach dem auf Befehl des Gouvernements in russischer Sprache bekannt gemachten Originale. Petersburg [u.a.]: Eggers [u.a.]; 1840.

2. Daguerre LJM. Historique et Description des Procedes du Daguerreotype et du Diormama. Frères S, editor. Paris: Delloye Libraire; 1839. 79 p.

3. Ljubic Tobisch V, Artaker A, Kautek W. PHELETYPIA. Project PHELETYPIA “The impact of early photography and electrotyping media on the creation of images and contemporary art" (Heritage 2020-060 PHELETYPIA) by the Heritage Science Austria grant program of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. 2023.