Conservation and rehousing of the Vernon MacAndrew Photographic Archive at Dartmouth Museum is gathering pace, with 750 slides now conserved and rehoused from a collection of approximately 4,500 glass-mounted positives, including some 2,200 in colour, received by donation from Alec and Sue Smith in December 2025.
Generous grants from The National Archives’ Archives Revealed programme and the Association of Independent Museums (AIM) have funded specialist rehousing materials. Ten volunteers recruited locally have been trained by Sarah Allen of Lux & Livre, with archival advice from Rachel Diddams. The cataloguing design, using PastPerfect Web Edition, is preserving MacAndrew’s original arrangement, still evident in the cabinets and drawers in which his collection survived. Some of the newspaper used to cushion the slides dates from 1939–40.
MacAndrew (1880–1940) began using Autochrome Lumière in Spain around 1909. The surviving collection suggests that he subsequently moved principally to the Agfa Colour Plate in the early 1920s, then to Finlay Colour from 1929 and Dufaycolor from 1935. The archive is therefore unusual in containing relatively large numbers of examples of each of these rare processes. Despite these technological changes, the standard 3¼-inch lantern slide remained his principal format for organising and presenting photographs. Even Dufaycolor film was mounted between glass for projection.
With the passage of time, the documentation that originally accompanied the archive has been lost. We are therefore piecing together MacAndrew’s photographic practice from the surviving photographs and their physical characteristics, alongside what we know of the chronology and events of his life. Our understanding will inevitably evolve as more of the collection is examined, so these are very much our first findings and interpretations.
An important part of our work is identifying the photographic processes through microscopic examination of their colour screens. We are using relatively inexpensive Jiusion USB microscopes mounted on rack-and-pinion stands. These allow us to distinguish the random mosaics of Autochrome and Agfa from the regular geometric grids of Finlay/Paget and the much finer grid of Dufaycolor.
One unresolved identification question concerns the earlier Paget process. Both Paget and Finlay Colour derived from the work of Clare Livingstone Finlay and employed the same basic separate-screen technology, although the later Finlay Colour used a slightly finer grid. We have surviving Paget packaging, suggesting that MacAndrew may have experimented with the process, but no securely identified examples so far. By contrast, numerous slides are marked ‘FIN’ in his handwriting. Our microscopes lack a calibrated measurement facility to compare grid dimensions reliably, so more precise measurement will be needed to establish whether any slides dated from the 1920s, and clearly not Autochrome or Agfa are Paget.
Our initial observations also reveal some striking differences in condition. MacAndrew’s early Autochromes are generally reasonably well preserved, retaining good colours and detail, whereas many Agfa plates have darkened substantially. Both used irregular mosaics of dyed organic particles, but Autochrome employed potato starch whereas Agfa used a different gum-based material. Whether these differences in manufacture help explain their contrasting survival is an intriguing question. Deterioration may reflect chemical changes during prolonged storage as well as historic light exposure.
The Finlay transparencies examined are generally in good condition and show strong colours. Many of the Dufaycolor examples also retain bright, even vivid, colours.
Perhaps surprisingly, despite nearly ninety years in their original storage cabinets, and having moved around the country with different (though mainly unknown) owners, relatively few of the glass plates examined are cracked or broken. Surface dirt and fingerprints are widespread but are being successfully cleaned by trained volunteers, while occasional moisture ingress is responding well to specialist treatment by Sarah Allen of Lux & Livre.
These are preliminary observations from the first 750 slides, not conclusions about the entire collection. Nevertheless, the archive offers an unusual opportunity to compare the survival of successive early colour processes through the work of one photographer across a wide variety of subjects and climatic conditions. A large proportion of the photographs were also made in maritime environments, posing particular challenges for MacAndrew and making his achievement all the more remarkable.
The Dartmouth Museum team would welcome hearing about the experience of other conservation teams. Please contact Jonathan Turner at vicechair2@dartmouthmuseum.org.
Images: all Vernon MacAndrew / Dartmouth Museum. (Top): microscope and screen for examining slides; (top, left); MacAndrew slides as received; (top, right): J-Class Regatta, circa 1930 Yacht Astra Agfa Color glass plate (7,8 x 7,2 cm); (lower, right): examining a slide with the digital microscope; (lower, left): shells.
