Open Forum

Hello wonderful colleagues!

I am entering a set of these family photos into our CMS and I am wondering what the type of photograph this is? According to the donor, the photos are from 1914 to 1938. Half of them have deckled edges while the other half are straight edged. Thanks in advance!

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Bonnie Seymour
Registrar and Assistant Curator
The Parthenon Museum
Nashville TN
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The example you showed is a fiber-base gelatin silver print. It looks like a typical B+W photofinishing print of the era. It also appears to be ferrotyped which is typical of that era of photofinishing. The fading and brown discoloration indicates that they would have had a more neutral black image when they were first made. The brown discoloration is not indicative of toning, but rather the opposite. Sepia toning causes an image color shift to brown and makes the image impervious to fading. The conversion of the image from silver to silver sulfide in toning creates silver sulfide image particles that don't chemically react with pollutants in the way that pure silver does. Fading and discoloration can be a very useful clue with gelatin silver prints.

best,
Gawain

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Gawain Weaver
Photograph Conservator
San Francisco Bay Area
studio 415.446.9138
cell 415.717.0264
http://gawainweaver.com/
http://www.twocatdigital.com/
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-29-2022 01:13 PM
From: Bonnie Seymour
Subject: type of photo

Hello wonderful colleagues!

I am entering a set of these family photos into our CMS and I am wondering what the type of photograph this is? According to the donor, the photos are from 1914 to 1938. Half of them have deckled edges while the other half are straight edged. Thanks in advance!

------------------------------
Bonnie Seymour
Registrar and Assistant Curator
The Parthenon Museum
Nashville TN
------------------------------