Digitization of Cellulose Nitrate Negatives in the AGSL Photography Collection
National Endowment for the Humanities Grant

Susan Peschel (foreground), photographic collections librarian at AGSL, holds up one of thousands of images on nitrate negatives that the library will digitize with the NEH grant, while Krystyna Matusiak, digital collections librarian at the UWM Libraries, looks at some of the images put online during a pilot project. Photo by Alan Magayne-Roshak

The American Geographical Society Library received a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Grant to fund the reformatting and preservation of its large collection of cellulose nitrate photographic negatives. The negatives are an important part of the AGSL photography collection making up about 57,000 of the approximately 440,000 images. This valuable collection in the AGSL, one of America’s oldest, largest, and most distinguished geographical research libraries, is a significant aspect of the million plus objects in the AGS Library. The project will enable staff to safely scan nitrate negatives, create metadata, safely re-house, and store the AGSL’s 57,000 images. The ultimate goal of the project is to provide universal Internet access to these images, which will be a formidable addition to the AGSL Digital Photo Archive already on-line. The project and collections are further described in the UWM News report "Grant to support AGSL photo archive."

Project Staff include:

Chris Baruth, AGS Library Curator and NEH Grant Project Director
Susan Peschel, AGS Library Photographic Collections Librarian and NEH Grant Photographic Collections Coordinator
Krytyna Matusiak, UWM Libraries Digital Librarian and NEH Grant Metadata Coordinator
Tamara Johnston, NEH Grant Coordinator
Eleanor Bednarek, NEH Grant Metadata Specialist
Tim Blomquist, NEH Grant Project Assistant
Emily Zegers, NEH Grant Project Assistant

Comments or questions for the AGSL? Send them to agsl@uwm.edu or call (414) 229-6282.