Historic Photograph Preservation Initiative

FAIN: PG-51853-13

Appalachian Mountain Club (Boston, MA 02129-3740)
Rebecca Maxwell Fullerton (Project Director: May 2012 to July 2015)

The purchase of archival quality rehousing supplies for the club's still image photographic collection consisting of 2,000 black-and-white and color prints and 5,000 color slides that document mountaineering, environmental history, and conservation movements. The earliest images are fragile albumen, cyanotype, and silver gelatin developed-out prints dating from the 1870s through the 1950s, while the Kodachrome and Ektachrome slides range from the 1930s to 2010. The images have been used in print publications and by documentary filmmakers.

The Historic Photograph Preservation Initiative of the Appalachian Mountain Club Library & Archives will focus on our photographic print and slide collections. These materials range from our earliest albumen prints produced as early as the 1870s, up to documentary slide photographs taken in the first decades of the 21st century. These images document over 130 years of the wilderness experience in this country, and visually record the history of the nation's oldest outdoor recreation and conservation organization. Our specific goal within this project is to stabilize and appropriately house images determined to be in greatest need of immediate preservation. In addition to preservation work, education and training in photograph preservation and handling will be sought by AMC's Library & Archives staff.