The Unique Challenges of a Photographic Collection Marc Boulay Photographic Archivist University of...
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The Unique Challenges of a Photographic Collection
Marc BoulayPhotographic ArchivistUniversity of St Andrews
North Street, looking West [St Andrews] Thomas Rodger, ca.1860
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Presentation Overview
• About our collection
• What we do
• Challenges of a photographic collection
• Our aspirations and Emu
• A few photographs
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1839 – Photography is invented
British French
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Photographic History & St Andrews
• 1840s – Photography comes to St Andrews
• W.H.F. Talbot
• Sir David Brewster
David BrewsterBy Thomas Rodger, ca.1854
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University of St Andrews Library Photographic Collection
• Collection takes shape in 1970s
• 700,000 original photographs
• 130,000 digital images
• 65,000 images online
The Sphinx and Great Pyramid.Francis Frith, 1857
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Collection Care and Access
• Special Collections Department
• Facilities, environmental conditions
• Staff responsibilities: – Research
– Cataloguing
– Preventative conservation
– Supervision
– Education & training
• Community resource for consultation, research, viewing
• Supporting academic research
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Rights and Commercial Use
• Rights and permissions as primary income
• Existing workflows were slow
• Make technology work FOR us
• E-commerce
• Small staff
.... dwindling resources
……….Time to invest!
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Why Emu?
• Multiple databases needed centralising
• Streamlining workflow and infrastructure
• Increasing commercial potential
• Building on 15 years of research
• Required a DAMS solution
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Access - Relationships - Knowledge
• Cultural heritage is not located IN objects… it results from the EXCHANGE OF IDEAS about them.
– Access is crucial
– If they don’t know it’s there, what’s the point?
• Knowledge is establishing relationships between different types of data and info
….This is why we’ve chosen EMu
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Scott Monument, Edinburgh.1843
The Unique Challenges…
• Historically marginalised
• No established home
• Not museum objects
• Not written documents
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Miss Margaret McCandlish. Salted paper print, 1843-1845 McCulloch's Tomb, Greyfriars.
Salted paper print, 1843-1845
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Sir [Robert] Lambert Playfair. Albumen print, 1865
Unidentified Woman.Albumen print, ca. 1865
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Scientific and botanical specimens ca. 1900s
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Muybridge…..100 plates…Lost and found!
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Photography would do for visual information what the printing press did for the written word
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An Inherently Reproducible Medium
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Our Hierarchy Using Catalogue Records
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How Accession Lots Relate to Catalogue Records
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Often Overlooked Key Access Points
• Multiple dates ….Capture date / Print date
• Multiple authors / creators / assoc. parties …photographer, printer, publisher, sitter / subject
• Distinguishing Format / Medium / Dimensions
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RAF [Leuchars].George Middlemass Cowie, September 1948
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Digitisation and Cataloguing as a Tool …Not an End
• Access, dialogue, use and momentum are the objective.
• As such….
When considering “Quantity vs Quality ---
…Quantity wins!”
The perfect shouldn’t get in the way
of the possible!
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Motorcycle Races, St Andrews.George Middlemass Cowie, July 1936
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To conclude…
• Please approach us if you’re interested in learning more about what we do
• Although still in the development stage, we look forward to joining the EMu community
• We’d be very interested in learning how others have dealt with photographs
[Lake Como].Bosetti, Bellagio, ca.1880
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Thank You!
Footway near Tay Bridge, Dundee.George Allan Little, ca.1969
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Marc BoulayPhotographic [email protected]
Jane CampbellResearch Cataloguer and Database Administrator
University of St Andrews Library
Photographic Collection
Pamela CranstonPhotographic Research and Preservation Officer