Tony Richards writes on Instqgram... Deep in the uncatalogued depths of The John Rylands Library sits original photographic plates of the vast collections. These are 12x16 inch plates of a Persian Manuscript, but the box labels I found of interest. R W Thomas & Co Limited, Dry Plate Factory. Originally a chemist, R.W. Thomas began to specialise in photographic goods in the 1850s. Later, the company began to produce dry plates, including one of the first nonhalation plates. These, if I remember rightly, mention nonhalation somewhere elsewhere on the packaging.
The Imaging Archive Project will start in January 2024. We aim to eventually catalogue, clean, digitise, rehouse, and create metadata of the full collection for investigation and comparison when linked to recent digital capture versions of the original works.
#johnrylandslibrary #librartspecailcollections #library #heritageimaging #digitisation #collectionsmanagement #photoconservation #metadatahttp
https://www.instagram.com/p/C1FI-SAoC_L/?igshid=YzZhZTZiNWI3Nw%3D%3D
Comments
Thanks for posting this Michael.
Just to note this is a non funded project led by the Imaging Team. Work will be carried out when we have capacity and as part of the MA course placements.
The collections in the basement of the Library have been ignored for many years. Ranging from microfiche, magic lantern slides, glass plates in all sizes and early film. Interestingly the later media of the collections ie transparencies up to 10x8 had already been catalogued, digitised and rehoused. Its the earlist material that is at risk.
We also hope to utilise machine learning and AI later in the workflow to identify the images against born digital modern images from our vast data bank of the collections.
Thank you.
Tony
Thanks, Tony. If you need any assistance with dating packaging, plate manufacturers, etc, do let me know. Happy to support this initiative.