glass negatives, glass slides

Hello everyone,

I found some old glass negatives and some glass slides in my grandparents garage. Does anyone have

suggestions on how i would clean them safely? I didnt know if I should use anything to harsh like

chemicals, I wouldnt want to damage them. honestly, I'm almost afraid to take them out of the box, Ive

broken 2 already. haha. Anyways, any sugestions you guys have would help me a lot.

Thanks for reading.

You could try a test on one of the broken ones.

 

Try brushing off dust with a lens cleaning brush. Then a few minutes (probably less than five minutes) soak in clean water in a tray, after which you rinse under a gentle stream of running water. Try to let the dust and dirt just run off gently from the surface, don't scrub the emulsion side. You should even be careful of the non-emulsion side, so as not to scratch it.

 

If the plate was properly fixed to begin with, the emulsion should be hard enough to withstand this sort of thing, but wear and tear over the years in storage is a wild-card factor.

 

So you might want to end off with a minute or two in hardening archival fixer, followed by hypo clearing agent (like Permawash) and a short wash. (Try to keep the plate(s) out of the stream of running water -- in other words, keep the "direct hit" of running water onto the emulsion to a minimum. If you have an archival washer, or tray siphon, use it.)

 

Tilt the plate up at an angle to air dry.

 

Basically, just follow regular archival processing procedure for fixing and washing, with a little extra "respect" to the old emulsion.

 

Try this on one piece of one of the broken plates. If, after air drying, the emulsion comes off easily, of course then there's a problem. But I'll bet that's unlikely.

 

Even the broken plates can probably be salvaged. You could make copy negs by contact printing onto graphic arts film -- treat the film like you'd treat regular printing paper. If you can't find direct copying film, you can make positives from the plates to film and then, as necessary, contact print the films onto other pieces of film. Or just scan (or have scanned) the plates or films.

 

Sounds like a terrific find! Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

When I used to assist a wildlife foundation, we found a collection of glass slides in a deceased gentleman's garage and didn't know anything about the slides, but we knew the man had been a botanist. So we telephoned a local museum and a national botanical society...both of which helped in cleaning and evaluating the slides, which we eventually auctioned off. In another rather famous case, a group of glass slides were found in the late 1980s in an attic in the Dakotas...nobody knew anthing about them, so the family contacted a local museum, which determined that they were taken by Armstrong Custer (yes, the famous Gen. Custer) when he was a surveyor in the Dakotas. They were eventually purchased by the state and duplicated into 35mm slides for purchase by the general public. My point is simply this...if you think the slides may be valuable, contact known experts before you potentially destroy the slides.

I've done quite a bit of work restoring 4 X 5 glass negatives shot in the 1890s and found that scanning them on a flatbed scanner at fairly high resolution and repairing them in Photoshop did a fine job. I did nothing to the plates before scanning, other than a light dusting.

 

Some of the results may be seen here: http://www.photo.net/photodb/presentation.tcl?presentation_id=273230

Books that I have read on old photographs invariably caution against using aqueous solutions on old gelatin photographic materials. (The coating on the glass plate holding the silver is probably gelatin, just like the coating on the plastic used today.) There are several ways in which old photographs deteriorate so that they become easily damaged by water. Of course, you can use a soft brush. Then there are commercial emulsion cleaners such as PEC-12. Kodak recommends Isopropyl Alcohol of 98% purity or higher (avoid the usual type at drugstores because it contains too much water). Kodak has a publication with good advice: http://www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/products/techInfo/cis145/cis145.shtml

 

The advice to experiment on an unimportant one is excellent.

 

Also, you should ensure good storage conditions: heat and humidity are bad.

Get Kodak's book, "Conservation of Photographs." CAT 193 5725. It contains sections on identifying the emulsion on various glass plates and then the proper way to clean them.

Do you know if they are wet-plate negatives that were coated in the field or silver-coated by a factory?

 

Contact The George Eastman House and they can put you in touch with a photographic conservator who can give you advice that should help.

I found this in an article on how the Mira lloyd Dock collection was preserved at Penn State University

Digitization Process - Scanning & Storing the Slides: this is just the cleaning advice

 

This is a short guide describing the steps and materials needed to take glass lantern slides and: clean them for scanning, scan them into tiff and jpeg formats, and preserve them for storage afterwards.

 

Materials needed:

 

White cotton gloves

Acid free film cleaner

Professional photo wipes

3' X 4' sheet of fabric (fleece or velvet)

Small square of foam padding

Small horse hair brush

Acid free slide sleeves

Acid free storage boxes

 

 

Step one: Cleaning

 

The slides should be cleaned twice?before and after scanning?using Rexton Anti-static Film Cleaner and Premier Professional Photowipes. The first cleaning will remove long built-up dirt and grime, making the slides suitable for scanning. The second cleaning will eliminate any fingerprints, smudges or dust picked up during the scanning process.

 

Set up a padded work area. We purchased a yard or so of low-pile/low-lint fleece and folded it once to make a forgiving staging area for cleaning. It allows the cleaner to safely set out a few slides at a time, and protects a slide if accidentally dropped. Lay the fabric sheet out on a clean and clear work area, ideally one that will not be disturbed for a lengthy (3-4 hour) length of time.

 

Set the cleaner/wipes/slides on the side of the table without any fabric.

 

Place the square of foam padding under the fabric closest to you, this will be your work area for cleaning, this was if you slip and drop one of the slides it will not break upon impact. Wear the cotton gloves and carefully remove the first slide from its box, try to only pick it up by the edges.

 

Take a moment to inspect each side if the slide, noting areas with substantial amounts of dirt build up. Be warned that a certain amount of filth may be caught in between the slides of glass (dust/mold/etc.) and will be impossible to clean. With practice you will be able to tell which particles of dirt may and may not be removed. Pour a small amount of film cleaner on the photo wipe and proceed to clean the front of the slide using small circular motions. Be careful not rub too abrasively against the edges of the slides, as the tape/paper coating/labels may have deteriorated with age, thus making them brittle and easily removed. If the glass is cracked or broken be careful not to get any cleaner inside the slide. Now apply the film cleaner to an unblemished section of the photo wipe and proceed to clean the back of the slide in the same fashion.

Place the clean slide on the top left hand corner of the fabric, face down. If the slide has an accompanying tag/sheet/label place that to the slides left. Only clean as many slides in one sitting as you think you will finish scanning, that way dust will not build up on the slides overnight. If you do let them sit, brush them off before scanning. Leave the gloves on during the scanning process, so you do not dirty the slides with fingerprints and oils from your hands.

 

Tip: While both fleece and velvet have a similar non-abrasive surface, Fleece has a slight tendency to shed. Simply give the slides a good brushing before placing them on the scanner.

 

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I recently acquired what I think is a 1937 glass negative of Daniel Beard and Lord Baden Powell, the founders of Boy Scouts in the USA. The negative is signed by both of them. I believe the negative came out of Daniel Beard's estate but have no provenance. Is there any way of verifying the glass negative s original? Is it possible to copy a photograph and make a new glass negative?

 

Very curious!

 

Alex

I inherited some glass slides of St. Louis businesses. They were from a silent movie house in St. Louis, MO from the early to mid 1900's. The edges are bound with paper, so I know not to submerge them and will try the cleaning techniques on this site. My question is: How to find their value? These are slides shown during intermissions and, along with my great grandmother's slide for clairvoyant readings and seances, are others for Pevely Dairy, Sunset Ford, Urseline Academy (and other schools), etc. Is there a website or book someone can refer me to? Thanks in advance.

<p>I just started scanning and printing a collection of 100 4x5 glass negatives and have found out that scanning at 600 dpi works very well for this. The resulting images have been very easy to restore with Photoshop, even though the negatives looked to be in bad condition. The prints are remarkably sharp.<br>

I am looking for information on producing images on glass nageative, since I have a camera that uses that format.</p>