By Caitlin Eckard

So I have learned how to work with a new type of technology for this project as well. Yay for more things to put on my resume! The collection has several negatives, but no prints to go with them. I have been photographing the negatives using a backlight mount with a camera mounted above to capture the negative’s image. Obviously, these will have to go back and be edited some, but I think this is a great way to save the image. Eventually, ATHS will be able to make prints from the negatives, but right now we are just trying to digitize everything.

The only problem with the backlight is the temperature. It can get pretty hot, and usually it is only good for about a couple hours use. However, photographing these negatives goes really quickly. We also came across some glass negatives this week! I was excited, because I have never seen them up close. I feel a lot of progress has been made on this collection since I began the project. It is nice to see empty file cabinets, and the photos correctly sorted. I am scanning/ photographing about 1200 photos/ negatives every three days. After the photos are taken care of, it will be on to some of the films in the collection, which I would like to work with since I have no previous experience doing so.