Housing Broken and Irregularly Sized Glass Plate Negatives

Purpose

Photographic materials on glass supports are prone to cracking, braking, and flaking emulsion. With large collections, treatment may not always be an option. For this reason, proper housing and implementation of preventive conservation methods are the only viable solution to prolong the longevity of the collections. While the National Archives’ recommendation of housing negatives individually in paper sleeves sounds straightforward, non-standard sizes, broken plates, and the need to maintain association with original envelope enclosures or groupings can complicate the process.

Authors

Basia Nosek
Conservation Technician
Northwestern University Libraries
Northwestern University
1970 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL. 60628
847.491.7607
basia.nosek@northwestern.edu

Susan Russick
Special Collections Conservator
Northwestern University Libraries
Northwestern University
1970 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL. 60628
847.491.3840
susan-russick@northwestern.edu

Photo Credits: Northwestern University Libraries

Publication: 2017

Description

National Archives’ website provides general recommendations for the housing of glass format photographs. These methods were used to modify standard enclosures for irregularly sized or broken materials and to maintain association with original housings.

Materials, Tools & Supplies

Four-flap enclosures made of medium to heavy weight paper which passes the PAT test (Photographic Activity Test)
Sleeves
Blue/gray storage boxes with handles
Corrugated blue board
Volara® (1/4 inch)
2-ply white mat board
4-ply white mat board
3M 415 double sided tape
Ethafoam
Book ties
Knife
Cutting mat
Ruler
Teflon folder

Construction

Four-Flap Sleeves

Figure 1: If pre-fabricated four-flap sleeves are not available for your objects, create a jig of 20 pt. board and hand cut for custom sizes.
Figure 2: Pre-fold the four-flap sleeves.

Figure 1: Cutting out 4-flaps using a jig

Figure 2: Pre-creasing a 4-flap enclosures using a jig

Custom Four-flap Inside of Standard Size

Figure 3: Preparing a custom four-flap that accommodates smaller objects.
Figure 4: Stiffen standard four-flap with 2-ply board and attach smaller custom four-flap.
Figure 5: When there are multiples of the same size, a small padded box may be created with the same exterior dimensions as the standard housing.

Figure 3: Custom 4-flap prior to being attached to a stander size enclosure

Figure 4: Standard 4-flap with 2 ply board stiffener with attach custom 4-flap

Figure 5: An enclosure that accommodates small sizes

Retrofit Standard Sized Four-flap

Figure 6 & 7: Stiffen the four-flap in at the base to provide uniform support for irregularly sized, or shaped, negatives and fragments. Stiffener is shown in green and the fill is shown in blue. Add fill to upper and outer margins so that the negative sits flush with the bottom of the four-flap.

Figure 6: 4-flap, stiffener, and fill

Figure 7: Outline of the stiffener and fill

Figure 8: A close-up view of the 2-ply stiffener and a 4-ply fill.

Figure 8: Close-up of the 4-flap, stiffener, and fill

Figure 9: 2-ply mat board was an appropriate stiffener for broken and irregular negatives. 4-ply mat board was great for fill as it was the same thickness as most of our negatives.

Figure 9: 4-flaps containing broken pieces of a slide

Figure 10, 11, 12: Tip: One rectangular piece of 4-ply can be cut to use as fills for two halves of a broken negative.

Figure 10: Broken slide with a fill

Figure 11: Outlined stiffener and fill

Figure 12: Blocked out fill

Book Ties and Labeling

Figure 13, 14, 15: We ensured that multiple pieces remained appropriately paired by using book ties and labeling directly on the sleeves.

Figure 13: Two pieces of a broken slide housed separately

Figure 14: Two broken pieces tied with a book tie

Figure 15: Broken slides inside a box

Figure 16 & 17: In collections where every negative had an original sleeve that needed to be retained we used a “sleeve within a sleeve” method. This entailed having the negative, in its four-flap, and the original envelope to be placed in a second sleeve together. The second sleeve was of a standard size and was able to accommodate many dimension of negatives and original housings.

Figure 17: Associated materials and housing

Figure 16: Associated materials that were housed together

Figure 18 & 19: An example of the before and after housing. These items arrived in their original boxes. Dividers were used to retain those groups.

Figure 19: Housing solution for negative boxes

Figure 18: Original housing of negative boxes

Figure 20: When possible, original boxes were separately housed in the same standard sized containers as the negatives.
Figure 21 & 22: Tip: If original housings are to be withdrawn from the collection, photograph them first.

Figure 20: Housing solution for original boxes

Figure 21: Original Housing, negative boxes