As I
mentioned in previous posts, Tim and I worked at Sitka National Historical Park
for the last three weeks. Our project was
to catalog and rehouse a collection of almost 1,000 glass plate photographic negatives
that were recently acquired by the park.
We finished the project this afternoon, and we have to admit that we are
very proud of what we accomplished.
First,
let me give you a little background so you will have a better understanding of
the collection itself. Between 1897 and
1929 E. W. Merrill, who was known in Sitka as the “Father of Pictures,” produced
thousands of photographs. Merrill used
large format cameras to create each negative, most of which were eight-by-ten
inch glass plates, and he sold prints of his work in his shop in Sitka. Appreciation of Merrill’s work has grown in
recent years, not only for the history that he documented, but also for artistic
value of the photographs themselves.
Merrill
is also closely associated with Sitka National Historical Park. He served as the first caretaker of the park
from 1919 to 1922 and was instrumental in selecting appropriate locations for
the totem poles for which the park is famous.
The park was also a favorite subject of Merrill’s, as well as a
background for many of his photographs.
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| A Plaque Honoring E. W. Merrill |
Our job was
to catalog all negatives in the collection and store them in a more appropriate
and archival manner. This involved
removing each negative from its existing sleeve, examining it on a light table,
writing a detailed description of the image itself, assessing the condition of
the plate and placing the negative in a new four-flap envelope that had been
pre-folded and labeled with the catalog number.
All information about the negative was then entered into an extensive computer
database.
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| Removing the Negative from Its Old Sleeve and Examining It on a Light Table |
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| Placing the Negative in a Four-Flap Envelope |
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| Storing the Negatives in New Archival Boxes |
Tim was in charge of cataloging the information in the computer, and I was responsible for handling and rehousing the negatives and formulating an initial description.
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| Cataloging the Data |
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| Entering Every Field |
Did you
know that you have to wear latex or disposable gloves when working with glass
plates? I was a little intimidated to be
dealing with such large and fragile pieces of glass, but I managed to get
through without breaking or even chipping a single plate. The already-broken plates were especially
challenging to deal with. Thank goodness
there weren’t too many of those.
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| I Usually Use Disposable Gloves to Dump the Tanks, Not Handle Glass Negatives! |
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| Broken Plates Were a Bit More Difficult to Handle |
As a
former museum curator for Rocky Mountain National Park, Tim is an expert at
cataloging. It doesn’t really matter
whether the item is a glass negative, a piece of pottery or a legal document,
the procedure is the same, as is the type of information that must be recorded.
This project, however, was a massive one,
and I’m not sure we were quite prepared initially for the amount of work
involved.
Soon after
we started, we realized that we would have less than five minutes to spend on
each negative if we were to finish the project in the original two weeks. When the park’s museum curator indicated that
her priority was quality (a more detailed description) as opposed to quantity
(the number of plates cataloged), we determined that we could finish about two-thirds
of the collection. However, it bothered
us to leave a job unfinished – we’ve always finished every project we’ve
undertaken. Luckily, the staff liked our
work and asked us if we would be willing to stay an additional week. Although that would cut into our time
exploring Alaska, we readily agreed and signed up for a third week.
For us,
one of the challenges was our lack of familiarity with Sitka history and the subject
matter captured in each image. Merrill’s
interests were quite diverse, and he photographed not only people, town scenes
and landscapes, but also dead birds, flowers and museum objects. Merrill was particularly interested in the
local Tlingit people, and there are many photographs of Native individuals,
places and decorative objects.
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| Quite a Diverse Range of Subjects |
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| Images of the Tlingit People Were Some of Our Favorites |
Examining
this amazing collection of photographs gave us an incredible insight into the
history and culture of Sitka during the late nineteenth and early twentieth
century. Although we are still far from
experts on the subject, we learned so much in such a short time and came a long
way in being able to identify what was pictured in each image.
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| Hundreds of Negatives Safely Rehoused in New Boxes |
One of
our favorite parts of the project was working closely with the amazing staff at
Sitka National Historical Park. Mary, the
park superintendent, was a major supporter of the project. Kelsey, the museum curator; Brinnen, the
chief of resources; and Lizzie and Amanda, the museum interns, could not have
been more accommodating or helpful.
Everyone went out of their way to answer our numerous questions and facilitate
our work.
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| Kelsey, Lizzie and Amanda Were Super to Work With |
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| Tim Explains the Database Entries to Brinnen |
The park
even included a mention of us in a Facebook post. That was a first for us!
You might
be wondering how we came up with a gig like this. When Tim retired from the National Park
Service, he decided to seek out short-term consulting projects at different
national parks. Not every park has a
curator, but every park must perform the same type of work and submit the same
yearly reports. Tim typically contacts parks
in areas we might be interested in and submits a proposal. He doesn’t want to work too much – he is
retired after all – but a two-week project every few months is ideal.
Although
Tim is paid for his work, I have been volunteering my time. I have worked with Tim on his last three
projects, each of which required two people to complete the job in the allotted
timeframe. For the most part, we have worked
extremely well together, and we have enjoyed ourselves.
Most
national parks welcome volunteers. Although the most common volunteer position
seems to be campground host or visitor center assistant, other opportunities
are sometimes available. Volunteer.gov
is a great resource for finding openings.
Sitka National Historical Park, for example, often advertises for museum
management volunteers who have the necessary qualifications. Even if you do not see a listing for
something you may be interested in, you may want to contact the park directly if
you have a particular ability that might benefit the park. Each park has a volunteer coordinator who can
provide information. Volunteering can be
a very rewarding experience.
