The National Geographic Society Archives holds the largest collection of early color photography in the United States: over 15,000 glass plate autochromes, Agfachromes, Dufaycolor, Finlaycolor photographs. The collection includes not only natural color photographs from Greenland to Japan, but also several notable color photographic “firsts.” The majority of the collection is currently undigitized and unpublished.

This presentation discusses the process of taking the National Geographic Society's ideas for digitizing these unique cultural heritage objects from “what-if?” to creating a fully-funded federal grant project to conserve and digitize the entire collection in partnership with DTCH and the Center for Conservation of Art and Historic Artifacts (CCAHA).

Featured Speakers
Julie McVey | National Geographic Society
Julie is a digital archivist and the manager of the National Geographic Society's Digital Preservation Archive. She holds an MA in American history and an MLIS in archives and digital curation from the University of Maryland. She spearheads the NGS Library + Archives efforts to digitize their collection of unpublished photographs, scientific research grants, maps, and other documents for public access. She is a board member of Digital Cultural Heritage DC and her professional interests include exploring the latest in digital preservation technology and methods, post-custodial archival practices, and expanding archival access through technology.

Sara Manco | National Geographic Society
Sara is the Senior Photo Archivist at the Library & Archives at the National Geographic Society and Project Director for the Early Color Photography Conservation and Digitization Project. She holds an M.A. in Photographic Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University. Her duties include overseeing a photographic and art collection of nearly twelve million objects, performing basic conservation and preservation techniques on a wide variety of photographic materials, and working with researchers to find archival photos for a wide variety of projects. She is also a key member of the Digital Preservation Archive team and works to select photographic collections for digitization, as well as to develop processing and handling policies and procedures for the project.

свернуть