Photographs: Negatives, 19th-21st centuries
| Oberlin College Archives
Arrangement
Subgroup I. Glass Plate Negatives, ca. 1860s-1920s (10.67 l.f.)
Series 1. People, ca. 1860s-1920s, n.d. (6.27 l.f.)
Series 2. Buildings, 1871-1910s, n.d. (2.2 l.f.)
Series 3. Subjects, ca. 1880s-1918, n.d. (2.2 l.f.)
Series 4. T.J. Rice Glass Plate Negatives, 1860s, 1917-18, n.d. (0.8 l.f.)
Subgroup II. Arthur Ludwig and Arthur Ewing Princehorn Negatives,
Interpositives, and Contact Prints, 1910, 1917-1966, 1990s, n.d. (34.46 l.f.)
Series 1. Glass Plate Negatives, 1910, 1917, 1920, 1926-27, 1930-32, n.d.
(0.2 l.f.)
Series 2. Sheet Film Negatives, 1917-1966 (30.66 l.f.)
Series 3. Interpositives and Copy Negatives, 1990s (2.6 l.f.)
Series 4. Modern Contact Prints from Negatives, ca. 1960s-90s (0.8 l.f.)
Series 5. Negative Logs, 1917-66, n.d. (0.2 l.f.)
Subseries 1. General College Photography, 1917-66
Subseries 2. Medieval Architecture Photography for Clarence Ward, 1932
Subgroup III. Film Negatives (General Collection), ca. 1920s to early 2000s
(21.85 l.f.)
Series 1. Negatives (originals and copies) used by Archives for
Reproductions, ca. 1920s-2000s (7.15 l.f.)
Series 2. Negatives from the Office of Communications in
Accession 1996/22, 1958-1975 (7.0 l.f.)
Series 3. Negatives from the Office of Communications in
2009 Accessions, ca. 1939-41, 1950s, 1961, 1966,
1970s-2000s (4.2 l.f.)
Series 4. Contact Sheets for Negatives in Series 2 and 3,
1988-1990s (2.5 l.f.)
Forms of Material (links to similar genres) Administrative InformationNegatives can be found in many other record groups throughout this repository, both institutional and personal. See especially the T.J. Rice Papers, RG 30/297, and the A.L. and A.E. Princehorn Collection, RG 30/416.
Significant numbers of glass plate negatives can be found in the following record groups:
Botany Department Records, RG 9/15
Department of Geology Records, RG 9/33
Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association Records, RG 15
Crisp Photographic Collection, RG 30/295
Henry Francis Dart Papers, RG 30/161
Edith Bunker Davis Papers, RG 30/232
Karl F. Geiser Papers, RG 30/241
Max Hubacher Photographs, RG 30/446
James Caldwell McCullough Papers, RG 30/53
Erwin H. Richards Papers, RG 30/271
Lloyd William and Esther Bliss Taylor Papers, RG 30/97
PROCESSING AND PRESERVATION NOTE
The dates of production for the categories below are general use dates, not collection dates. All but the film negatives in good condition are restricted from handling by patrons. Most of the glass plate negatives have corresponding prints in the general photographs collection, although it is difficult to pinpoint exactly which ones without extensive research.
Wet Plate Collodion Glass Negatives (1851-ca. 1885)
These are the earliest negatives in the collection, and few in number. The process required on the spot coating of the glass, exposure and development by the photographer within about 15 minutes, requiring exceptional expertise. The wet and dry plate negatives are intermixed in the same subgroup and within series.
Gelatin Dry Plate Negatives (ca. 1878-ca. 1925)
The glass negatives collection is primarily made up of dry plate negatives, which could be purchased pre-coated and stored until needed. There is overlap between the use of gelatin dry plates and sheet film negatives between the 1900s and the 1920s here at Oberlin College.
Cellulose Nitrate Film Negatives (ca. 1889-ca. 1950)
In the early 1990s, Archives identified nitrate negatives in the collections and sought to reduce the hazards of storing them (off-gassing, decomposition, flammability). The staff embarked on a strategy for copying and printing nitrate negatives, after which they were destroyed. A list of high-priority negatives was made that justified the cost of interpositive generation. The Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland, which had a wet darkroom and a professional photographer, were already doing this work for their own negatives. Archives contracted with WRHS to make contact prints from their nitrate negatives, and to make contact interpositives, listed in this finding guide in Subgroup II, Series 3 and 4. The corresponding nitrate negatives were destroyed.
Lower priority nitrate negatives, primarily portraits of graduating classes, remain in the collection. These were scanned during the late 2000s and early 2010s by student assistants, although this project was not completed. Repositories today typically place their nitrate and other highly vulnerable negatives in cold storage rather than destroying them. However, cold storage space must be used for high priority materials, particularly moving picture film.
Cellulose Acetate Sheet Film Negatives (ca. 1925-2000s and possibly later)
While early acetate negatives are not flammable, they release harmful gases and acetic acid, and the film base contracts until the images are unreadable. As with nitrate negatives, cold temperatures will slow the process of deterioration. Archives staff identified a small number of seriously deteriorated Safety negatives, probably in the early 1990s, and saved them in a box in room 420A. These were “discovered” in 2017. Negatives from this box that retained some image integrity were scanned, printed, and then discarded in May 2018. The remaining acetate negatives will need to be tested for acidity and condition, and kept in cold storage. Nearly all of the remaining Princehorn sheet film negatives are acetate film base. Other collections besides RG 32/6 also contain acetate negatives, and possibly nitrate.
Polyester Sheet and Roll Film Negatives (1955-present)
Polyester film was developed for sheet and roll films in 1955 and is still in production, although less commonly used since the ascendance of digital photography.
In 1996, the Office of Communications transferred seventeen linear feet of photographic materials and related ephemera. The negatives in this accession, 1996/022, included glass plates, color slides, 35mm film negative strips, contact sheets and negative logs. The bulk of these were 35mm film negative strips dating from 1958 to 1970. These were sleeved and arranged in date order in the 1990s, but no index was prepared. In 2018 the negative sleeves were removed from hang folders and boxed.
In 2009, the Office of Communications moved to their present offices. Two accessions from that office in 2009 included a substantial amount of photographic material, including 35mm negative strips. These were sleeved and arranged into the categories set up for the print collection, in folders and boxes in 32/6. Additional smaller lots of negatives continue to be received from offices on campus and from private donors.
Of the negatives in this record group, the polyester film negatives are the most stable and can be handled by patrons with gloves, with care. Most of these have been sleeved and can be placed on the light table for viewing in the reading room.
Source Consulted
Maria Fernanda Valverde, Photographic Negatives, Nature and Evolution of Processes, 2nd edition (PDF booklet), © 2005. Advanced Residency Program in Photograph Conservation sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The George Eastman House, and the Image Permanence Institute. Accessed from https://www.imagepermanenceinstitute.org/webfm_send/302, 7/10/2018.
By Anne Cuyler Salsich, Associate Archivist, 7/10/2018
The negatives are arranged into three subgroups: Glass plate negatives; photographic materials (including some glass plate) by College photographers Arthur Ludwig and Arthur Ewing Princehorn; and the general collection of film negatives. See the Processing and Preservation Note (in Administrative Information) for background on the categories of negatives and the general history of their production.
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
Subgroup I. Glass Plate Negatives, ca. 1860s-1920s (10.67 l.f.)
The glass plate negatives were produced between roughly 1860 and 1930 by several different photographers. Oberlin photographer T.J. Rice (1854-1944) is a name found on many of the original negative sleeves (see his personal papers under record group number 30/297). Rice operated a photography studio in Oberlin from 1894 to 1937. Several photographers came in and out of Oberlin during these years; some negatives in this subgroup were likely produced by others besides Rice.
The glass plate negatives are in a number of sizes, primarily 4 x 5, 5 x 7, 6.5 x 8.5, and 8 x 10 inches.
In 1917, Oberlin College hired a former student and employee with the Glen Island Museum of Natural History, Arthur Ludwig Princehorn (1870-1931), as its first official photographer with a studio on campus. Princehorn had been doing photography assignments for the College before that for several years, but not as a salaried employee. He and his wife had returned to Oberlin in 1905. Beginning in 1917, Princehorn documented his work for the College, and his negatives were kept in date order. Only a small number of his gelatin dry plate negatives remain with the rest of his output of negatives in Subgroup II, but there are Princehorn glass negatives in this subgroup as well, as they were found.
Series 1. People, ca. 1860s-1920s, n.d. (6.27 l.f.)
These are individual and group portraits of college administrators, faculty, staff, and their families, as well as students and community members. There is a series of portraits of college students and personnel who served in World War I. Of note are portraits of members of a Native American family named Smith. Earlier portraits of College personnel can be found in the daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and class albums.
Series 2. Buildings, 1871-1910s, n.d. (2.2 l.f.)
The college commissioned a great deal of photography of buildings on campus throughout its history. The glass plate negatives represent some of the earliest images of campus, but there are photographic prints of buildings and views from the 1860s that predate the negatives of buildings in this series.
Series 3. Subjects, ca. 1880s-1918, n.d. (2.0 l.f.)
The subjects series holds a variety of images of the College and the Oberlin community. Photographic prints in the general photographs collection, some of which are earlier, represent these subjects as well.
Series 4. T.J. Rice Glass Plate Negatives, 1860s, 1917-18, n.d. (0.8 l.f.)
This small series holds glass plate negatives by T.J. Rice found in boxes separate from the other glass negatives. Thomas Jefferson Rice purchased the photography studio on West College Street in Oberlin from photographer L.W. Upton in 1894. He offered his services in the Oberlin area from 1894 to 1937. There are two portraits of Native Americans in this series. Other glass negatives by T.J. Rice can be found in the other series in this subgroup. For T.J. Rice’s photographic record books, see his personal paper collection, RG 30/297.
Subgroup II. Princehorn Negatives and Modern Interpositives, 1910, 1917-ca. 90s (34.46 l.f.)
Arthur Ludwig Princehorn used gelatin dry plate and sheet film negatives until his death in 1931. He was succeeded by his son, Arthur Ewing Princehorn (1904-2001), who had been his father’s assistant since 1929. The collection by father and son for the College is primarily in sheet film format, with a small number in glass plates. It is well documented by the photographers in the form of a hand-written log that has been transcribed into type.
The negatives Arthur Ewing produced for Professor Clarence Ward of French medieval cathedrals in 1932 were gifted to the National Gallery of Art by Professor Ward. Arthur Ewing Princehorn retired from the College in 1966. His personal paper group (RG 30/416) contains many of his photographic prints; however, most of his output can be found in the general photographs collection.
Series 1. Glass Plate Negatives, 1910, 1917, 1920, 1926-27, 1930-32, n.d. (0.2 l.f.)
Only a small number of glass plate negatives by Arthur Ludwig Princehorn remain in this subgroup, although his work may be represented in the general glass pate negatives in Subgroup I. These comprise group portraits, college and town buildings, and various subjects having to do with the college. Considering that sheet film had been available since 1889, A.L. Princehorn’s use of glass negatives this late reflects his preference for the media for certain assignments.
Series 2. Sheet Film Negatives, 1917-1966 (30.66 l.f.)
The bulk of this series consists of Kodak Safety negatives. The cellulose nitrate film negatives were separated out by Archives staff in the 1990s. To mitigate the hazards of keeping cellulose nitrate negatives, Archives partnered with the Western Reserve Historical Society (WRHS) to copy high-priority nitrate negatives as interpositives and copy negatives before discarding the originals. The WRHS photographic department did the wet darkroom work under contract. In the 2000s, the remaining nitrate negatives were scanned, then destroyed. However, some nitrate negatives remain that have yet to be duplicated. The Kodak Safety negatives, which represent the bulk, remain in the collection. These negatives were taken by the Princehorns. Their negative log resides in this series.
Series 3. Interpositives and Copy Negatives, 1990s (2.6 l.f.)
This series holds the interpositives and copy negatives generated by WRHS from negatives in Series 2.
Series 4. Modern Contact Prints from Original Negatives, ca. 1960s-90s (0.8 l.f.)
The first and second College Archivists had a number of contact prints made in wet darkrooms from original negatives dating from 1917.
Series 5. Negatives Logs, 1917-66, n.d. (0.2 l.f.)
An invaluable source, these negative logs were made by both father and son Princehorns, beginning in 1917 and ending with Arthur Ewing Princehorn’s retirement in 1966. Subseries 1 contains negative logs for negatives produced for the college in general. The original logs are handwritten. Archives staff transcribed them by typewriter into a typed list with box numbers. Subseries 2 holds a list of numbered photographs/negatives made of medieval architecture by A.E. Princehorn in Europe for Professor Clarence Ward in 1932. The negatives were donated by Ward to the National Gallery of Art. This list is also available in the Clarence Ward Papers.
Subgroup III. Film Negatives (General Collection), 1920s to early 2000s (17.65 l.f.)
Series 1. Film Negatives (originals and copies) used by Archives for Reproductions, ca. 1920s-2000s (7.15 l.f.)
The negatives in this series are primarily in 4 x 5-inch format, used by the Archives for making reproduction prints from the 1960s to the early 2000s. These are primarily copy negatives, and one glass plate negative was found in the series (removed 2018). All of the negatives were assigned numbers from 1-4338 and described on a FileMaker Pro database (some numbers in the sequence were not assigned). They are housed in 13 boxes, with one box holding sizes larger than 4 x 5. An additional box holds index cards with additional information. These materials were heavily used until digital technology replaced the use of wet darkroom laboratories for making reproductions.
Series 2. Film Negatives from the Office of Communications in Accession 1996/22, 1958-1975 (7.0 l.f.)
The negatives in this accession were created by and for the Office of Communications between 1958 and 1975. They are black and white and color, in 35mm and larger sheet film formats. The negative numbers on the sleeves correspond to hand-written negative logs kept by the photographers. These should be used prior to accessing the negatives. The contents will be entered on a spreadsheet by Archives staff and printed for access. The logs recorded the time and costs expended on each assignment; this information will not be included on the spreadsheet. The negative numbers preceded by A through C were for general subjects; R numbers were used for faculty and staff negatives, some with prints. In 2018-2019 the sleeved negatives were removed from file cabinets and boxed in year order.
Series 3. Film Negatives from the Office of Communications in 2009 Accessions, ca. 1939-41, 1950s, 1961, 1966, 1970s-2000s (4.2 l.f.)
The materials in these accessions were transferred in 2009, when the Office of Communications moved to new offices. The negatives are primarily in 35mm and 61mm, with early images in assorted formats. The major portion of this series dates from the 1980s to the early 2000s.
Series 4. Contact Sheets for Negatives in Subgroup III, Series 2 and 3, ca. 1970s-early 2000s (2.5 l.f.)
The contact sheets are arranged by negative number, and cover performances, athletics, College personnel and students, the Conservatory, buildings, and other subjects typically covered in the college’s photography.