Name/Title
The Care of and arrangement of Picture collectionScope and Content
Nov. 5, 1955
The State Historical Society of Wisconsin
Madison, Wis.
NOTES ON THE CARE AND ARRANGEMENT OF PICTURE COLLECTIONS
Almost every organization automatically becomes the owner of pictures relating to its own interest, to a degree which may vary from a few framed items which decorate the walls of its office to an extensive record such as a systematic local survey. These pictures are real assets, especially if the organization is the focal point for some particular group interest to which others are likely to turn in the expectation of receiving informed replies. We urge that such pictures, whether they are paintings or blueprints, historic photographs or mere personal snapshots, be preserved, cared for and made accessible. This function is often recognized and the State Historical Society of Wisconsin is fairly frequently asked for technical suggestions on how a gradually accumulating collection of pictures may be set up and maintained. These pages are intended as a partial answer to a generalized situation.
Elaborate picture collections, using museum and library methods, are of course expensive and require a regular staff, a continuing program, and quarters, but this is no more necessary than it is for the individual owner of an interesting private collection of objects or a private bookshelf to maintain a "system'. One can operate very simply. Let me urge (if I may use the personal pronoun) that energies be spent on (a) making an effort to gather materials, which is generally fun, (b) determining in some detail and recording in writing the facts concerning each item: identification
Extended Description: Nov. 5, 1955
The State Historical Society of Wisconsin
Madison, Wis.
NOTES ON THE CARE AND ARRANGEMENT OF PICTURE COLLECTIONS
Almost every organization automatically becomes the owner of pictures relating to its own interest, to a degree which may vary from a few framed items which decorate the walls of its office to an extensive record such as a systematic local survey. These pictures are real assets, especially if the organization is the focal point for some particular group interest to which others are likely to turn in the expectation of receiving informed replies. We urge that such pictures, whether they are paintings or blueprints, historic photographs or mere personal snapshots, be preserved, cared for and made accessible. This function is often recognized and the State Historical Society of Wisconsin is fairly frequently asked for technical suggestions on how a gradually accumulating collection of pictures may be set up and maintained. These pages are intended as a partial answer to a generalized situation.
Elaborate picture collections, using museum and library methods, are of course expensive and require a regular staff, a continuing program, and quarters, but this is no more necessary than it is for the individual owner of an interesting private collection of objects or a private bookshelf to maintain a "system'. One can operate very simply. Let me urge (if I may use the personal pronoun) that energies be spent on (a) making an effort to gather materials, which is generally fun, (b) determining in some detail and recording in writing the facts concerning each item: identification of persons and events, locations and dates, facts bearing on the significance of whatever is represented, source, including name of the photographer or artist, and accurate reference to any relevant publication, and (c) caring for at least the valuable items so that they do not become lost, torn, stained or separated from their context. It is a perhaps unfortunate fact that most "cataloging' and 'arranging' has to be done over, sometimes repeatedly, as the collection evolves toward professional standards. But this is work rather than 'fun" and my suggestion is that it be minimized. Just try not to do anything which will make such a task more difficult or impossible if and when it is seriously undertaken at some later stage.
Provide a brief general description
But writing an account of a collection, even a small one, is something else, and this I urge, infrequent though the practice is. If you have anything which could be termed a "special collection" of pictures, write out a page or two of description of it and have carbon copies available to inform anyone who may be interested. This is the first and most essential step in making a collection useful. If you are a "focal point", and your material isn't actually secret, you will want to have some answer when an inquiry on available materials on that point is being circulated.
Applications
You doubtless have already found that a collection of pictures is useful in a number of ways. First, probably, to speak of principles, is the distinction and pride which attaches to ownership of a historically valuable picture: the original sketch for something, the only known portrait from life of a distinguished person in his youth, the only print which anyone thought to save of the group portrait made on some notable occasion years ago, the germ of what became a great industry, a spot as it was in the beginning, some casual snapshot, now resurrected, properly enlarged and reprinted, so that it conveys to the appreciative the humor or the intimacy which is requisite to real understanding.
Next, and practically, pictures can be framed and hung to decorate and make more attractive offices or other rooms, with or without other displays, where they convey to visitors, perhaps only subtly, certain desirable traditions, serve to stimulate conversation and are an aid to hospitality.
More extensively, pictures are useful to draw on in the preparation of an organization's own publications, such as a handbook or leaflet, a guide, promotional literature or a bulletin. And pictures should be available for "public relations", to give to the press as required, or as courtesies as instinct indicates. Combined with objects, photostats, models or any other types of display material, pictures can be made into exhibits, ever growing in ingenuity and application. Educational possibilities are unlimited, through the media just mentioned or in connection with television, which with increasing frequency focuses a camera on a still picture to supplement the action on a set, or, in collaboration with institutions, through temporary loans.
Finally, and this is the aspect which most concerns historical societies, pictures form a permanent record upon which research can be based. Pictures from a variety of sources, perhaps scattered all over the country, and perhaps including your collection, are sought to incorporate in major exhibitions and to illustrate forthcoming books and articles. As this is written, I have on my desk requests for help in locating pictures useful in connection with a centennial of the undertaking profession, with a textbook on municipal government, with a historical treatment of Chippewa County, with a history of the labor movement, with a general program on the achievements of women in Wisconsin. And there are similar matters every week. A large collection, or rather a selectively intensive one, will often be the starting point of a book or program, where a researcher uses the picture for the initial determination of content, and this, we think is the most desirable situation of all.
Framed pictures
A small collection, or choice selections, can be framed and kept on the walls. Familiarity and memory will serve as a locator. But typewrite the facts about each picture, as suggested above, in a paragraph or two, and attach this slip to the back. Retain good and suitable old frames, but reframe any which lack taste. Good discarded, frames which can be recut to proportion are fairly easy to obtain (the museum of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin has available a large quantity for sale by the piece at bargain prices - Adv.), and re-cutting and glazing are easy for one handy with tools, if a miter box and framing vise are on hand. You may wish to use special non-reflecting glass distributed by Frank J. Oehlschlaeger, 107 East Oak St., Chicago, Ill. Just tack the picture to the back with a spot of glue in the top corners - do not paste down all over. The bother of cutting mats can be avoided by attaching the print to a plain piece of mat board of the proper proportion. Most photographs can safely be trimmed to the margins, but do not trim the margins from old prints, such as lithographs; use cut out mats for these. Avoid homemade labels on the fronts of the framed pictures. If there are more framed pictures than the walls will accommodate, a rack to hold them on edge can be built to fit in a storage area or closet and the pictures can have small gummed number-bearing labels on the edges of the frames. A filed typed list to identify and locate the pictures by number should suffice as a finding aid.
Lesser photographs, clippings, etc. not suitable for framing can, in this simplest "system", go in the existing correspondence file or information file which we assume every office has, under names of correspondents or projects or other suitable headings.
Simple filing
Something more may be needed, however. As a collection grows, there should be some definite place to keep pictures as they are received. There are many methods of handling. In the effort to be practical, I suggest the following specific method because it can be operated very simply but lends itself to further elaboration, perhaps applied to only part of the collection, when more time to spend on it becomes available. One dangerous procedure, on which many picture files flounder, is to establish a standard operating procedure, in terms of the most desirable effect, at some moment when there is someone on hand to do the work and commit the file to that method, requiring, for instance, classification; later the person who was working on it leaves, the practice is too time-consuming to be absorbed by others who are busy and pictures are henceforth stored without indexing, etc. Such is the origin of a mess.
A primary consideration is that if your pictures are to stand on edge, upright, they should be supported by a mount of some kind or they will become damaged; but if they lie flat, they need not be mounted, and mounting, which costs time and money, is necessary only for the more valuable items. Vertical files, moreover, are essentially a device for rapidly finding single items whose location is predetermined by a word or number. The usual picture collection activity, except in a big agency or busy public relations office, works at no such speed, and if material in quantity is to be withdrawn for leisurely and only occasional selection, the vertical file is probably not the best method.
Shelving
We suggest flat boxes which will rest on shelves. Shelves wider than the usual bookshelves will be needed, but they are easily built and adapted to any available space, in connection with bookshelves or above floor space needed for some other purposes. The boxes which we recommend are Fibredex storage cases of metal-edge heavy construction, with separate cover and one side of the lower compartment scored to open down. Metal-edge construction provides strength for durability and avoids adhesive which, in terms of a long period of years, is what
attracts silverfish and other destructive vermin. These boxes are manufactured from stock dies in various sizes by the Hollinger Corporation, 3834 South Four Mile Run, Arlington, Va. (Adv.) They are widely used by libraries and archives. The catch is that the manufacturers make them up only to a minimum order of 250 boxes. These boxes measure 18 3/8 x 14 3/8 x 1 7/8 and each will hold 50 to 200 pictures of a size up to 14 x 18, depending on the mount stock or inner folders, if any. The same firm manufactures boxes of the same quality in other sizes and also boxes to hold material upright. Those interested could write to the company for a size and price list. A varied collection may require different sizes. There are some possibilities in several organizations whose problem is similar combining their orders.
But of course any boxes can be used (though with correspondingly varied result). Uniformity is desirable. Boxes of less durable construction are stocked by the Forsberg Paper Box Co., 2107 Fordem Ave., Madison, Wis. These paper-cornered boxes can be cloth-cornered at a slight extra cost. The same firm stocks other sizes, or will manufacture to specifications any size, weight and corner material desired. Smaller boxes can be procured for collections of postcards, stereographs and the like. Similar stock or custom-made boxes are doubtless available from other trade suppliers.
Protection
Material in the boxes can be loose and unmounted if nearly appropriate in size. A convenient method of affording some temporary protection is to use ordinary letter folders, with the tabs cut off and tack the picture at the top corners inside the folder. Small items may, singly or in groups, be put in larger envelopes. Fragile items should be mounted. Really valuable prints, rare original photographs, original drawings and sketches are most properly put in cut-out mats and the surface protected by tissue paper or clear cellulose acetate (not just any clear plastic, some of which is harmful). Paper which comes in contact with the pictures, if intended for permanent protection, should be chosen with care. The residual sulphur used in making common sulphite papers is harmful to photographs over a period of years. State Historical Society of Wisconsin's material in boxes is placed, mounted or unmounted, in folders of 100% rope manila paper, which is chemically pure and very long-lasting. But it is difficult to locate in the market. Ours was obtained from the Riegel Paper Corporation, 260 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y.
An alternative storage method uses heavy file envelopes either in filing cabinets or in uniform boxes which fit on shelves. The State Historical Society of Wisconsin uses both methods. The best envelopes for this purpose are cut so as to expand from a quarter to two inches and are provided with a long flap and a tie string. Ordinary mailing envelopes wear out quickly and are unsatisfactory. Our envelopes, selected after a survey of the field, are of 150-pound manila stock, 9 1/2 x 11 3/4, non-expanding, made by the Safety Envelope Manufacturing Co., 709 West Juneau Ave., Milwaukee 1, Wis., and cost, in fairly large quantities, $37.65 per thousand. Better but more expensive filing envelopes are obtainable from the Smead Manufacturing Co. of Hastings, Minn.
Mounting
The facts of photograph collecting are such that much identifying information is customarily written on the backs of pictures and if the pictures are to be mounted, that information must first be transcribed. It may therefore be difficult to commit a collection to mounting for physical filing purposes without also assuming an editorial commitment; for if information is to be transcribed for caption or label purposes, it must be cast in some uniform pattern, and much information which is lacking will have to be "researched" and supplied, particularly if the captions are used, with or without extra headings, to determine file position.
Again, the collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin uses several approaches, mounts only part of its collection and is carefully planned to avoid an interconnected series of operations so that a big job, for which there may at the moment be no time, is necessary before some unit of material can be brought under control. This consideration partly explains our preference for boxes and envelopes.
There are several methods of mounting, the best of which require special equipment and all of which take time and skill. Pictures which are to lie flat in folders need only be tipped to a mount in the corners, but material for vertical interfiling must adhere over the entire surface or it will be damaged. Professional wet mounting can be made virtually flat, but this operation is much more difficult than it sounds and amateur wet mounting is rarely successful. The best method is dry mounting with thermoplastic sheets such as Kodak dry mounting tissue applied with a special press. This can be done with an ordinary flat-iron but this method is less dependable. The State Historical Society of Wisconsin dry-mounts large or valuable items which are to lie flat on 100% rag paper backing (we use Dreadnaught Ledger, 36 lb. weight); items to stand independently in metal filing cabinets on Riegel (see address above) jute tag, weight 444M 22 1/2 x 28 1/2; and Sorex (manufactured by Sorg Paper Co., Middletown, Ohio) weight 150/500 24 x 36, a light stock, is used for items to be bound in albums so that the leaves can be turned. We also dry-mount large prints on unbleached linen, using a thermoplastic called Parafilm (manufactured by the Marathon Corporation, Rothschild, Wis.) instead of Kodak dry mounting tissue which does not seem to work well on cloth. Unmounted photographs which are curled may be made to lie flat by soaking in cold water and then for 15 minutes, after they are limp, in a solution of equal parts of common glycerine, denatured alcohol and cold water; or commercially available flatterers may be used.
In any case never use rubber cement or any rubber compound as an adhesive for anything valuable or intended to be permanent; in due course of several years a prominent yellow stain appears on the face of whatever has been so mounted. Avoid also all scotch tape and similar easy-to-use pressure adhesives, which as they dry out leave stains. And do not leave rubber bands in contact with valuable pictures for the same reason. "Gummed photo-album corners" and sheets slit diagonally so that pictures can be inserted by the corners are strictly non-professional. Our advice, in other words, is to mount properly or not at all. A very considerable part of our own project time is spent in remounting and undoing damage done before we received the material in question. If you write on the backs of photographs, by the way, lay a single print at a time face down on a sheet of glass and write on the back with a soft pencil, so as not to ruin the print surface.
Arrangement
I have deliberately written in some detail about the physical aspects of picture files because I believe that is essence of the problem. I am not a believer in standard systems of arrangement. On the general subject of "classification" there is a vast and complicated literature, most of it of purely theoretical interest excepting, perhaps, in the .scientific fields where "classification" has some sound foundation. My advice is to avoid all this.
"Arrangement", as I prefer to call it, is almost entirely a matter of familiarity with the material and its possibilities and of common sense. A workable arrangement of picture material takes about the same capacity as a coverage of the same ground in writing and will correspondingly vary from application to a collection analogous to a leaflet to treatment of one as detailed as a definitive treatise. To write intelligently, you have to see the subject as a whole, outline it and give it substance.
To "arrange" a picture collection, make an outline of its general scope, covering what it is now and what you want it to become or think it will become. Taking a community as an example, a preliminary outline might look something like this:
1 Early maps and views
4 Older street scenes and general views
7 Special collection A
9 Special collection B
20 Stereographs
22 Postcards
25 Residences
30 Persons and families, A-E
33 " F-L
36 " M-R
39 " S-Z
50 Social affairs
52 Special album C
55 Political affairs
57 Campaign placards, ballots, etc.
60 Churches and religious affairs
63 Schools
66 Other public affairs
70 Business and professions, general
72 Tannery D, operations
74 Factory E, operations and personnel
77 Institutions
80 Celebrations
83 Sports
85 Surrounding countryside
87 Fishing
90 Farms
Any outline which makes sense will serve. There is no need to copy an existing one. Establish what seems to be good logic.
Number boxes or envelopes from 1 to 99 leaving open numbers where you anticipate growth. Put the relevant material, in as good physical condition as time permits, mounted or unmounted, in the proper container. Get a small band numbering stamp and stamp the container number on the back of each item which belongs in that unit. As one box or envelope becomes full add another alongside it. If unit numbers close up, assign fractional numbers to put the container in the best position with reference to what precedes or follows it, for example 39.5 for 39 1/2, and so forth. Stamp only the backs of pictures where, in the event of rearrangement or change, numbers can be crossed out and new numbers stamped below. My own feeling is that it is best to put no data on the front of mounts, but to keep it all on the back, in this kind of an arrangement, for the same reason that alteration and extension is then easier. Front labels, if used at all, should be uniform and final; on the back, information can be phrased informally. The actual logic of sequence does not, in the long run, matter very much with this nonscientific material. Just type a list of the container numbers and their general assigned headings and post one copy at the shelves and keep other copies available for reference and use in adding new material. The units are easily removed to some place where one can sit and select the desired items.
We suggest that special collections or albums which have an interest in the circumstances of their origin should not be separated, but retained as units and receive a shelving number in the regular series to give them positions most appropriate to their general character.
Negative files
If the photographs, or some of them, have corresponding negatives, the films or plates can be kept in file boxes of appropriate size which can also receive a container unit number and be shelved with the picture containers. Keep negatives in the standard manila jackets made for this purpose which are of chemically suitable paper, and sealed with harmless adhesive down the edge rather than down the center (to meet U.S. Government specification GP-641). Proper jackets are obtainable in various standard sizes from Eastman Kodak stores. Do not use cheap paper or ordinary envelopes or your negatives will in time deteriorate and develop streaks. Keep each sheet of film in a separate jacket.
Films of the period 1890-1930 are very likely to be nitrate base film which is less stable than "safety" or acetate base film, now almost universal. Deteriorated nitrate film packed together, as when a quantity of sheets are together in the same envelope or as in the case of motion picture film rolled up in a can, presents a fire hazard. But while it is highly inflammable, there is no danger in nitrate film which is not deteriorated and is kept in separate jackets in a cool place.
Number each jacket serially: 1, 2, 3 etc. If there are several series, as, for instance, when several collections of negatives which have already been numbered are acquired, precede the serial numbers by a letter code to differentiate them. Always retain original negative numbers as they are the principal specification for a particular picture; do not renumber negatives received from other sources in your own series. In the State Historical Society of Wisconsin file there are several dozen different series. A particular negative is stamped WHi 8x10 F41-585 (i.e. the national code for "Wis. Hist. Soc."; size, Frank Feiker of Cassville, his original negative no. 585) or WHi 4x5 X3-4867 (Wis. Hist. Soc., size, our own miscellaneous copy negative no. 4867). Also write the serial number (the code part is not necessary) with a pen and India ink in the margin of the emulsion side of each film. Mark the negative number on the back of each corresponding photoprint.
If those organizations which are initiating negative files and establishing series, as just described, will allow the State Historical Society to assign the code symbols, so as to coordinate this method of identification, it will greatly help to get a general network of collections in operation. In such an event, please correspond with us and we can provide a fuller explanation.
Keep it simple
If you are trying to keep things simple and the collection is not vast this much, as a matter of housekeeping, will serve to make a, collection useful. My suggestion is that an index be avoided if possible. If an index refers to location, the locations have to be permanent, or the index has to be changed if the locations change. Permanent location, as already indicated, involves identification research before filing, infinitely more work and various complications. Improvements in the arrangement become difficult. If cards are filed under more than one heading, there has to be a key or list of "tracings" to show where the cards are filed, so that they may be retrieved for alteration of the location numbers, a further complication. Moreover, card indexes usually do not accomplish, for pictures, that degree of "making things easy to find" which is anticipated. You have to see the pictures themselves for all intelligent picture uses, unless you are already familiar with the particular picture in question. And anyone experienced in the matter knows the extent to which so-called "cross-referencing" is an illusion, at best a superficial aid. So do not expect such a "system" as I have described to allow precision searching.
Precision location over the whole range of a corpus of material involves logical and mathematical factors approachable only by punched card systems of analysis or electronic devices such as the Minicard system in course of development for the U. S. Air Force or the researchers of Dr. Luhn of IBM. The amount of time which has been spent over the years by devoted and unpaid or underpaid helpers in indexing the unindexable, only to have the work eventually discarded, is appalling.
Generally, even when people state what picture they want, they really mean to cite some picture which they do know, without reference to the ones they don't know about; and when they have an opportunity to look over a quantity for selection, they are likely to find something new to them which they like better. And this you cannot do from cards.
So, get the material, interesting, good and historically valid material; find out all you can about it, for related data adds to the meaning of a picture; make it physically easy for people to look over large sections of the collection; and don't attempt more than can be consistently continued, because if you start a good thing, it will grow rapidly.
Paul Vanderbilt
Curator, Photographic Collections
State Historical Society of Wisconsin
Madison, Wis.
November 5, 1955Acquisition
Accession
2015.0500Source or Donor
Waupun Heritage MuseumAcquisition Method
Donation
