AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROMEPHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE
Lavinia Ciuffa [email protected]
design Maria Sole Fabri
Procedures in the Photographic Archive: the acquisition of historical collections to making them
accessible on the web
Visual Resource Association28th Annual Conference
Atlanta, March 16-21 March, 2010
AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME - PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE
The Mc
The McKim, Mead & White Building In the square, the location of the future Photographic Archive, 1913
The Photographic Archive housed in the Library, 1956-1993
• Alinari - Alinari Picture Imaging Photo Gallery
• Università di Bologna, Archivio Storico - http://www.archiviostorico.unibo.it/fotografico/
• Museo Pigorini - www.pigorini.beniculturali.it
• ICCD (Central Institute for Cataloguing and Conservation) - http://immagini.iccd.beniculturali.it
• Isituto Luce - www.archivioluce.com
• Fondazione Zeri - http://fe.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/catalogo/hp
• Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma - http://www.fotosar.it/
• Polo Fiorentino Museale, Archivio Fotografico - http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/archiviofotografico/
• Musei Capitolini - http://www.museicapitolini.org/mostre_ed_eventi/mostre/(p)/in_archivio
• MAXXI, Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo - http://www.maxxi.beniculturali.it/collezioni_arch.htm
• Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz - http://www.khi.fi.it/it/photothek/
• FotoMuseo Collezione Panini - http://www.fotomuseo.it/
AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME - PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE
Masson Collection
Van Deman Collection Fototeca Unione
Masson Collection
Beato Collection
Masson Collection Fellows’ Work Collection
Vermeule Collection
Parker CollectionBerman Collection
AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME - PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE
From the ’20s through the ’70s the Photo Archive has grown without a specific order ... prints, nitrates, glass plates ... were placed wherever
in the Library
AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME - PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE
AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROMEPHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE
Designer: Cinzia Abbate & Carlo Vigevano Architects
Project manager: Cristina Puglisi (1999)
This is a preliminary investigation based on the information given in the donation proposal
ACQUIRING PROCEDURE
AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME - PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE
Evaluation of the proposal
• Subject Existing holdings / importance / relation to the AAR history
• How many prints have already been published ?
• State of conservation - what is the cost of preserving/maintaining the collection ?
• Will copyrights be transferred ?
• What are the costs of cataloguing ? What are the costs of digitizing ?
• If digital images, are they already available on the web?
• Can donors afford certain expenses?
AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME - PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE
Organizing steps of workflow In-house Outsource
Defining historical context Duplication Inventory IT SupportConservation expertise DigitizationCataloguingSorting images to digitizeStoring digital images
Estimate of costs for material and labor involved
Organizing staff (roles/implementation)
AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME - PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE
Once the donation has been accepted, an important phase of the procedure follows …
… professional survey of the photographic materials
AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME - PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE
Ordering conservation material (sleeves, boxes, folders…)Organizing phases of laborCleaning, repairing, housing, labelling Storing material preserved
Print preservers/paper folders: acid free, lignin-free, pH 8.0-8.5, passed P.A.T.
Negative preservers/sleeves: polypropylene (PP), neutral pH, Melinex (polyester)
AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME - PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE
Space will also be evaluated either for negatives in the climate controlled room and for positives in the consultation room
Centro Berselli - www.centroberselli.it
Alinari - www.alinarifondazione.it
Folia - www.foliarestauro.it
Archivio Segreto Vaticano - asv.vatican.va/it/lab/fotograf.htm
AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME - PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE
www.reteurbs.org
Today URBS is composed of 11 institutional members, chiefly Academies and research Institutes of several nations: Austria, Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. The mission of the network, whose bibliographic holdings are mainly in the humanistic disciplines, is to provide its users with a unified catalogue of specialized libraries in Rome.
• Format USMARC (MARC21)• ISBD (International Standard Bibliographic Description)
Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR2) Vatican Library Cataloguing Rules
Library of Congress Subject Headings Vatican Library Subject Headings (SBAV)http://www.iccd.beniculturali.it/Catalogazione/standardcatalografici/normative/scheda-f
In 1999 the ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) has created the so-called “Scheda F”, a national standard model for data (UNIMARC format) to catalogue images.
AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME - PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE
Copyrights
Pantheon, Rome, 2009 Brad Farwell photographer
Under the Italian law no. 248/2000 “New rules on copyright protection”, the image is protected whichever the instrument used to realize it …
AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME - PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE
Amphiteatrum Flavium, Rome, 2009 Marco Delogu photographer
Amphiteatrum Flavium, Rome, 1970 Fototeca Unione
A difference is made between Creative/Artistic and Non- creative/Documentary images
AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME - PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE
Archives as Places of Memory
Only the integration between the analogue format and the digital format can guarantee the correct conservation of the photographic heritage
The Kunsthistorisches Institute in Florenz has published a document with the Recommendations for the Preservation of Analogue Photographs: http://www.khi.fi.it/pdf/florence_declaration_en.pdf
AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME - PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE
Photographic Archive Staff
Alessandra Capodiferro, Curator
Lavinia Ciuffa, Assistant Curator
Emiliano Di Carlo, Archaeologist - Cataloguer
Giulia Ciccarello, Archaeologist - Cataloguer
Maria Sole Fabri, Art Historian - Conservator
Antonio Palladino and Paola Tirelli, Administration
American Academy in Rome Photographic Archive Via Angelo Masina 5 Rome, Italy
www.aarome.org [email protected]