The climate-controlled vaults in the George Eastman House archive and the Louis B. Mayer Conservation Center are home to the Motion Picture Department’s collection of over 24,000 films.

But there is one shelving unit that holds important moving images in a non-film format: analog tape.

The department holds over 200 videocassettes in varying standards, with most of them in the obsolete three-quarter-inch (or “U-Matic”) format. The tapes contain things such as television recordings from the 1970s to the 1980s, interviews with filmmakers and actors, archival footage, and early video transfers of films from the collection. While not ultimately as critical to the collection as film material, there is still an urgent need to examine the content on these tapes and digitally preserve what is deemed important.

This urgency stems largely from risks to the physical materials themselves; most of the tapes are at least twenty years old and suffer from increasing levels of decay due to the shedding of the magnetic oxide recording layer on the surface of the tapes over time. Also, the obsolete broadcast-quality decks required to play the cassettes are becoming scarce and more difficult to properly maintain. Time, technology, and the looming potential for a zombie apocalypse are therefore driving the need to preserve the analog tapes.

The students of the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation are assisting with this ongoing project. As part of their training in digital preservation, students are using the video capture equipment in the department’s digital lab to convert many of these tapes into lossless digital video files. These “digital masters” will then be tagged with metadata, cataloged, and stored in the vaults on archival-quality LTO-5 tapes.

One interesting subset of tapes – the original BetaMax cassettes of Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation raw footage – are on extended loan to George Eastman House by the filmmakers and have recently been digitally preserved. This process will be examined more in an upcoming post by the Selznick students who preserved the materials.

The new school year is in full swing, and this year we have nine new students in the Motion Picture Department, learning the finer details in archiving and preservation. One of the greatest prides of The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation is the ‘hands-on’ experience given to each student during their time at George Eastman House.  Even if the student has never handled film before, or comes to us with years of experience, it is important to always start with the basics.  Recently three of our new students, Almudena Escobar Lopez, Amber Bertin and Shannon Fitzpatrick were able to sit down on a work bench and begin their student careers with nitrate motion picture film. Each of the students were given various elements from the collection to inspect, catalog, label, and of course, each found unique conservation issues to address during the inspection process.

Almudena Escobar Lopez is attending the Master’s Program in conjunction with the University of Rochester.  Originally from Ourense (Galicia) Spain, Almudena started her first week of archival studies cleaning film with a slight mold problem.  Using the approved cleaner and taking proper care the area she was working, Almundena cleaned the edges of her film and the inside of the film cans to reduce the mold spores stored with the film.

While it may look like a lot of films needing inspection, Amber Bertin was able to meet the tasks assigned with inspection of a duplicate negative and part of a fine grain master.  Her detailed work help clear up one record incorrectly marked from the wrong country!  A native of Houston, Texas, Amber is also enrolled in the Master’s Program here at George Eastman House.

Shannon Fitzpatrick, our Master’s student from San Antonio, Texas found quite a problem in two of her reels-mechanical damage.  This film has been torn previously by a machine or from poor handling, and in this case, it was never correctly repaired.  Shannon began by peeling off the old tape, cleaning the damaged area, and applying new tape correctly to prevent further damage.  Although the frames will never be perfect, they are greatly improved.

The Nitrate Vaults currently houses more than 23,000 reels of nitrate film, making it necessary to have clear and concise records for each and every element.  Learning and understanding the location and retrieval system is important to prevent misplaced reels or lost paperwork.  At the end of the first week, these three students were able to pull and retrieve materials, continuing the conservation process for the rest of the Selznick School class as they too will be spending time over the next few weeks here in the Nitrate Vaults.

Found our Selznick students databasing and archiving old German posters today! Really quite beautiful.

The following is a note from PPCM graduate student, Ross Knapper.

I’d like to share my experience from the PPCM program, as an intern and explore just a few of the many interesting objects in the vast Eastman House collection. The following is a small group of cat photographs. They are a great example of the incredible diversity available in the collection and not only show a variety of photographic processes and formats, but also illustrate a range of the different ways photographs have been used.

With something as simple as the subject of cats there are albumen cabinet cards, stereographs, and cdv’s; collotype prints; collodion POP; gelatin silver prints; gelatin glass negatives; photomechanical reproduction, and three color carbro prints, with uses ranging from advertising photographs by Nickolas Muray; postcards; Kodak amateur photographs and vernacular images; taxidermy photographs such as the album by Luis Soler Pujol; and a photograph from Eadweard Muybridge’s Animal Locomotion series.

The goal at the PPCM program is to educate ourselves with photographic materials and processes along with photographic history and the social and cultural conditions of its production and reception, so that we can better understand, care for, and manage photographic collections. As even this very small, seemingly casual group of photographs shows, Eastman House provides an incredible opportunity for this type of research and education.

Enjoy the show!

McCall Magazine, Homemaking Cover, Cat & Kittens Date: 1942? Photo Credit: Nickolas Muray Property of: George Eastman House Parents Magazine, Girl with Cat Date: ca. 1945? Photo Credit: Nickolas Muray Property of: George Eastman House

Cats and Kittens Date: ca. 1900 Photo Credit: William M. Van der Weyde Property of: George Eastman House

Taxidermy cat with visible skeletal structure Date: ca. 1920? Photo Credit: Luis Soler Pujol Property of: George Eastman House

Cat; trotting; change to gallop From the series: Animal Locomotion Date: ca. 1884-1887 Photo Credit: Eadweard J. Muybridge Property of: George Eastman House

Ruined interior, Great Chicago Fire, image of cat montaged into foreground Date: 1871? Photo Credit: J.H. Abbott Property of: George Eastman House

Cat watching bird in cage Date: ca.1880 Photo Credit: Art Photo & View Co. Property of: George Eastman House

Cat family being photographed Date: ca. 1920 Photo Credit: Max Kunzli Property of: George Eastman House

Eastman House’s graduate program in Photographic Preservation and Collections Management (PPCM) is offered in conjunction with Ryerson University.

A note from graduate student, Heather Westfall

In the fall of 2010 I began the MA degree program in Photographic Preservation and Collections Management with Ryerson University in conjunction with George Eastman House. One of the most enjoyable parts of my experience as a student in this program was my second year at George Eastman House. The staff was very helpful and friendly throughout my experience, and I can only encourage any prospective students who are interested in any of the courses offered at the museum. The courses are taught by the staff of the Department of Photographs, including senior curator Alison Nordström, and assistant curators Jamie Allen and Jessica Johnston.

Much of what I learned from studying at George Eastman House came from seeing and studying real photographic prints, not reproductions. This is particularly important when it comes to learning how to identify a photographic process to understand fully how a photograph is created. The George Eastman House collection is a wonderful resource for a student because the range of photographic processes over the entire history of photography that it contains; I was able to see examples of any process or technique I was curious about. All of our lectures on photographic processes or the history of photography were supplemented with examples from the collection, and in some cases allowed me to see a technique in person for the first time. While studying the photographs in the George Eastman House collection, we were given assignments to apply the skills that we had learned through the lectures, including those by Rachel Stuhlman, head librarian and curator of rare books, Mark Osterman, the Museum’s process historian and Joe Struble, the archivist of the photograph collection. We were able to apply these skills directly to the collection itself, working with collection items rather than a practice item.

In many cases we were given the task of cataloguing the object and creating housings to protect and store the photographs. I truly felt that I was working on something that helped the museum. During my time at George Eastman House I learned so much more then I had thought possible in nine months. The photograph collection and library are wonderful resources, and I cannot thank the staff enough for always being available to answer my questions and show me new things. A part of me wishes that I did not have to leave, but I know I will be back one day as an active professional in the field to research and learn from the collection.
-Heather Westfall