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The Organization, Preservation
and Use of Performance Images in Theatrical Photographic
Collections
Richard M Buck (New
York)
Documentation et Art de
l'Acteur
Records and Images of the Art of the Performer
18ème Congrès
International, Stockholm 3-7 septembre 1990 / 18th
International Congress, Stockholm 3-7 September 1990
Editor: Barbro Stribolt (Drottningholms Teatermuseum).
Stockholm : 1992, p. 103-106
Photographic images are
collected and organized in many ways. Performing arts
archives that hold small collections of a specific nature
may decide, and have the funds, to copy all of their
images onto slides or some other convenient format such
as optical disc, and catalog them by subject, title
and/or the name of the person or persons in the
photograph. The original is then needed only for purposes
of copying for use in publication and can be safely
preserved in an acid-free container in darkness under
ideal conditions of temperature and humidity control.
Alas, this is not possible in the case of large archives
with limited funding. The Billy Rose Theatre Collection
of The New York Public Library at Lincoln Center has over
2 million photographs, and the collection is constantly
growing. The items in the photograph collection range
from early tintypes and cabinet photographs from the
mid-nineteenth century to the latest publicity photos
from films that have opened commercially in New York last
month.
Almost all of these hundreds of thousands of photographs
arrive in the Theatre Collection as gifts from
individuals, estates, or such theatrical entities as
press offices, production companies or
"regional" theatres. They come in various
states and conditions, some being carefully arranged and
indexed, while others have been tossed into plastic bags
along with assorted press releases, theatre programmes,
and old clippings. In addition to this constant flow,
there are at least four major collections of
international importance that are cataloged as separate
entities.
The Theatre Collection is the official repository for the
still book collection of Universal Pictures, an archive
of immense size and usefulness which grows constantly,
while the earlier stills from the silent period and the
early days of the talkies have begun to curl and
deteriorate in their bindings.
There are several major collections of theatre
photographs. The White Studio collection covers the
Broadway theatre from 1904 to 1936; the Vandamm Studio
collection overlaps the White in the early years. The
Vandamm Studio coverages begins in 1919 with the
Bruguiere Studio photographs, which were purchased by
Florence Vandamm when she opened her studio in the 1920s,
and continues until 1961.
The Library purchased the entire Vandamm Studio archive,
including the rights to reproduction, when the studio
closed. The Friedman-Abeles Collection, which the Library
has acquired bit by bit in various ways over a period of
years, covers the mid-1950s to the late 1970s, and fills
many of the gaps in the Vandamm coverage of the Broadway
theatre.
These collections are cataloged and stored as separate
entities and they are listed by title of production or
name of subject (if not a production photo) in the
Theatre Collection's catalog on non-book materials. None
of these collections or any of the items in the general
photograph collections are yet cataloged into a data
base.
The significance of the Vandamm Studio collection to
theatrical research is so great that it was chosen some
years ago by Chadwyck-Healey as a microfiche project for
commercial sale. The entire collection of 26,000
production photographs and 1,000 personality or
"head" shots was published on fiche in 1981,
and is available for $3,900 for which The New York Public
Library receives a small royalty on each sale.
The White Studio collection is equally significant since
it covers the great period of the American operetta, the
Broadway revue (including most of the Ziegfield Follies),
and many visits to the United States of important
companies such as the D'Oyly Carte Opera and the Moscow
Art Theatre. Because so much preservation work needs to
be done on the White photograph positives before they can
be fiched, we have not been able to interest
Chadwyck-Healey or any other commercial vendor in making
them available on fiche.
Meanwhile, the collection of over 60,000 negatives
continues to deteriorate for lack of funds to preserve
it. I recently determined that the cost of copying the
entire collection, including the negatives and the 6,800
key sheets would be nearly $1,000,000. Each key sheet
alone will cost about $30 to clean and copy, a total of
slightly over $200 000. Not all of the productions
photographed by the White Studio are represented on the
key sheets, but enough of them are so that even to have
the cleaned and copied key sheets fiched and made
commercially available would be a significant addition to
the study of American theatrical history.
Meanwhile, the key sheets are chipping and cracking each
time that they are handled. and the 8 by 10 inch
negatives are deteriorating to dust if on nitrate stock
and fusing or emulsifying if on the early acetate stock.
Several early productions for which there are no key
sheets are totally lost. The situation for the rest of
the more than one million photographs is somewhat, if not
all that much, better.
All of the photographic images that arrive in the Theatre
Collection in the many ways that I have described are
identified as to the name of the work, which production
is represented and which cast members are in the
photograph. This information, once determined, is placed
on the verso of each item. There are cases in which all
of the needed information cannot be determined, even with
a staff very knowledgeable in all periods of modem
theatrical history and with the use of all of the
reference materials available in the Theatre Collection.
Specialist users of the Collection are often called upon
to help identity items from among the more obscure
photographs.
All of the photographs are checked to see whether or not
they are duplicates, and if not, they are added to the
already existing file on the production or person. A new
file is made and cataloged for each new title or
"personality" added. The files are arranged on
the shelves in the Theatre Collection stacks in strict
alphabetical order by size. For the past several years,
new items have been placed in acid-free containers, and
replacement of the acidic containers on the pre-existing
items is nearly complete. Sadly, by the time the need for
the use of acid-tree containers were realized in the
1970s, many of the positives. and negatives when they
existed, had begun to deteriorate.
These alphabetical files are listed in the non-book
catalog of the Theatre Collection under the title of the
production or the name of a person or theatrical subject.
If a negative exists, it is filed along with the positive
in a separate acid-free envelope, but there is not always
an indication of the existence of the negative in the
catalog. The user of the Theatre Collection does not see
the hundreds of feet of shelves upon which these files
rest; he or she sees only the card in the catalog and the
boxes or envelopes retrieved when call slips are turned
in at the service window. While examining the file, the
user can find out whether or not a negative exists.
The existence of a negative can be very important if the
user is requesting a glossy reproduction of a photograph.
If there is a negative, the photo reproduction charge is
less than half of what it would be otherwise. If a
negative must be made, the Library retains it so that the
cost to the next user is greatly reduced. At the present
time, the total cost per item for the production of a
black and white 8 by 10 inch positive when no negative
exists averages $30 and it is about six weeks after
payment is received before the new positive is mailed to
the user. The publication fee is additional.
Much use is made of the photograph collections by
students and other users who do not need to make
publishable copies. For this use, of course, there is no
charge at all unless the user needs a quick electrostatic
copy for reference use. These copies are made on-site by
the Library's Reprographic Service at 25 or 45 cents per
shot, depending on the size of the original.
From what I have said, I am sure that you realize that
the only way to know what images are available in the
Billy Rose Theatre Collection and in what condition is to
visit in person. This is indeed the case, with the
exception of those potential users who have access to the
Vandamm Studio collection of microfiche or to a copy of
the non-book catalog of the Theatre Collection, published
by the G.K. Hall Company of Boston in 30 volumes in 1976.
This catalog of photographed cards from the non-book
materials catalog is useful as far as it goes, but some
cards were omitted or have been revised, much material
has been added, and perhaps some items lost, since it was
published.
Telephoning, telefaxing, and writing are not really
satisfactory because we cannot make selections for the
user from the voluminous possibilities available,
especially for purposes of publication. Quick-copy
electrostatic copies can be mailed to a user from which
to make selections, but in many cases the quality is not
good enough to determine how well the real copy will look
in a publication. In addition, in those cases in which a
large number of items are needed, and the user cannot
make a personal visit to the Library, we strongly
recommend that a local free-lance researcher be employed
by the user to make the choices. We can supply a
suggested list of such researchers.
Turning once again to the problem of preservation, there
are lessons that other archives can learn from us:
Quickly, if you have not already done so, find the means
to place your precious images into acid-free containers,
then keep them in a properly controlled environment. If
possible, have them copied on to some easily indexable
micro-imagery source, such as CD ROM or laser disc, that
will then be commercially marketable and make some
version of your collections available on a wider basis.
Finally, maintain a master negative file for the
production of publishable copies, also in a controlled
environment.
I have not dwelt here on the ultimate use of the
photographic images - the reproduction in published works
or in documentary films or videotapes. This was discussed
at considerable length two years ago in Mannheim, and
should be appearing in print in the near future. I will
say, however, that we at The New York Public Library have
moved a little further in answering the questions of
publication fees for multiple use and for world rights in
flat or moving images.
A study committee of highlevel New York Public Library
administrative staff is now examining the whole issue and
will be deliberating for some months into the future. I
predict that we will conclude that our basic fee for
one-time use should be increased slightly, and that we
should establish a scale of fees that will include a fee
for all rights in the English language and one for world
rights in all languages. In addition, we should establish
a flat fee for use of "x" number of feet of
film or videotape in documentaries, to which should be
added a studio copying charge comparable to the
Reprographic Services charge for make flat copies. All of
these use fees will continue to be based on
administrative cost-recovery, and are not and will not be
imposed to make additional income for The New York Public
Library.
I hope to be able to report on our new fee structure for
the use of photographic images and film or tape footage
at the SIBMAS Congress two years from now.
I have brought a limited number of copies of the Vandamm
Studio collection handlist published by Chadwyck-Healey
to accompany the microfiche edition. It is an invaluable
key to the entire collection and would be useful to a
potential user even without the fiche. If any copies are
still available at $10 each from Chadwyck-Healey, I
suggest that anyone interested might try writing to the
Cambridge address which is 20 Newmarket Road, Cambridge,
UK C85 8OT.
Also I have brought along some electrostatic copies of
some of the White Studio key sheets in a
"before" and "after" condition so
that you can see what the $30 worth of cleaning and
copying per sheet has accomplished. So far we have had
the funds to do only a few samples. I hope that the
astounding result will help us to obtain the funding to
do the entire set of 6 800. Then perhaps a
commercial vendor will be interested in fiching them and
making them available worldwide.
18th Congress
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