The Promises and Limits of Digitization in the Study of Historic Photographic Processes

Tuesday, September 24, 1:30 - 4:30 PM
Led by Adrienne Lungren, Kappy Mintie, and George Miles

Libraries and archives contain untapped riches of specimen prints bound into 19th and early 20th Century photographic manuals. These prints show the full diversity of a medium in constant development but are rarely catalogued and thus inaccessible to historians and researchers. New work on these hidden collections show how these materials can be quickly and concisely catalogued and how this work generates new insights into photography as both an industrial and creative platform. Additional discussion will focus on the aims of ongoing digitization practices in libraries and archives -- questioning how this work serves to both promote and impede research using photographs in bound volumes. The seminar will demonstrate that digitization and structured data are no substitute for the physical samples. This conversation opens onto questions of redundancy, digitization, and levels of scholarly access with regard to photographic materials within libraries and archives.