Preservation of the Logan Museum of Anthropology's Photography Collection

FAIN: PG-51881-13

Beloit College (Beloit, WI 53511-5595)
Nicolette B. Meister (Project Director: May 2012 to September 2014)

Hiring a consultant to assess the still image collection containing 15,000 prints, slides, and negatives; develop a long-term preservation plan; and conduct a hands-on workshop on image preservation for the museum staff and museum studies students. This photographic collection documents archaeological and ethnographic field research conducted by Beloit faculty and students since 1919 in North America, Mexico, and New Guinea under the auspices of the Logan Museum of Anthropology.

Beloit College's Logan Museum of Anthropology plans to conduct a preservation assessment of the museum's historically significant photograph collection and to provide a workshop on the care of photographs for Beloit College staff and museum studies students. The project will build on a 2002 Conservation Assessment Project general survey of the museum's ethnographic and archaeological collections. The workshop and resulting long-range preservation plan will help the museum upgrade the care and preservation of and facilitate access to this important collection. The collection contains over 15,000 prints, slides, and negatives that document museum history, record the evolution of the discipline of anthropology, and show how collections have been used in teaching and learning in diverse humanities fields.