The Franklin County Historical and Museum Society's Historic Photographic Preservation and Access Project is a continuing effort to identify, preserve, and create greater access to the Society's large collection of historic photographic prints and negatives. The photographic prints collection is currently being indexed and filed in a single location, to provide greater utility to researchers. A new phase of the project involves the rehousing and digitizing of the photographic negative collection, a large portion of which is comprised of acetate and glass plate negatives from the Robideau Studio of Malone. This phase is being funded, in part, by grants from the New York Council on the Arts (NYSCA) and the New York State Senate. Volunteers are working to upgrade a basement room in the House of History to be a 'photo vault' in which the negatives will be properly housed, once digitized. The digitization project, which will stretch over the course of several years, aims to provide greater access to the images at the same time as reducing the handling of the fragile negatives in order to better preserve them.
The collection to be preserved and digitized is a large body (approx. 238,700 items) of photographic negatives and prints from the 19th and 20th centuries. This collection represents the definitive collection of historic images in the county, most of which are virtually inaccessible due to their fragile state and existence solely as negatives. The images include portraits, commercial buildings, railroad scenes, community events, school groups, residential streetscapes, etc., documenting both famous and obscure residents of the county alike.
A smaller body of materials will be the first subset targeted for digitization and rehousing. It consists only of the glass plate negatives, numbering approx. 2200. As the emulsion side of these materials continues to fade and no contact print is available, there is a danger of losing the images altogether. By scanning the negatives and creating an online interface, the images will be accessible to the public for research and reprints made available for purchase.
Additional sources of funding and new volunteers are always needed for this project. Please contact the museum director at: 518-483-2750 with your contribution of time and/or resources.
