American Art History Digitallysponsored by the Terra Foundation for American ArtA Measure of Success: An African American Photograph Album from Turn-of-the-Twentieth-Century ConnecticutConservation
by Laura Coyle, with Mirasol Estrada and Allan McLeod
Conservation essay
The photograph album of Allston family and other portraits (1880s–1910) arrived at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in pieces. By describing the treatment path for the album, this essay provides insights into the album’s physical properties and its photographs and the impact its conservation will have on viewers’ understanding of the album’s significance. The essay also shows the way conservators conduct and inform research and provides a model for conservators who work with complicated objects and strive for treatments that strike a balance between providing access to objects, restoring their functionality, and preserving their authenticity.
Laura Coyle is assistant director for cataloguing and digitization at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, where she is coeditor with Michèle Gates Moresi of the photography book series Double Exposure. Before joining the Smithsonian, she was curator of European art at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. She earned a PhD in art history from Princeton University, an MA in art history from Williams College, and a BA from Georgetown University. Her research specialties include modern and contemporary art, the history of photography, and the history of still-life painting.
Email the author: coylel[at]si.edu
Mirasol Estrada is photograph conservator at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. She earned her BA in the conservation and preservation of cultural heritage from the Western School of Conservation (ECRO) in Guadalajara, Mexico. After graduation, she was awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship for the Advanced Residency Program in Photograph Conservation at the George Eastman Museum and the Image Permanence Institute in Rochester, New York. She has worked with fine-art photography collections and photographic archives in Mexico and the United States. Among her projects are the recovery of lost negative film rolls from the Spanish Civil War known as The Mexican Suitcase and the study of the photography practices at the New Bauhaus in Chicago.
Email the author: EstradaM[at]si.edu
Jessica Henze, senior book conservator at the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) in Andover, Massachusetts, first arrived at the center as a summer intern in 2005. She also served as an intern in book conservation at the Carolina Rediviva Library at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, in 2006. Since joining the staff of NEDCC in the fall of 2006, Jessica has served as the National Endowment for the Arts Conservation Intern and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation Conservation Fellow. Jessica earned a diploma in bookbinding from the North Bennet Street School, and a BA in anthropology from the University of New Hampshire. She is a professional associate of the American Institute for Conservation and a member of the Guild of Book Workers.
Email the author: wjhenze[at]nedcc.org
Citation: Laura Coyle and Mirasol Estrada, “The Conservation of the Photograph Album of Allston Family and Other Portraits: Considerations, Collaboration, Treatment, and Impact,” in Laura Coyle, with Mirasol Estrada and Allan McLeod, “A Measure of Success: An African American Photograph Album from Turn-of-the-Twentieth-Century Connecticut,” Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 23, no. 2 (Autumn 2024), https://doi.org/10.29411/ncaw.2024.23.2.24.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License 
unless otherwise noted.
Your browser will either open the file, download it to a folder, or display a dialog with options.
Scholarly Article|Interactive Feature|Conservation|Project Narrative
Conservation essay|Conservation video
The Conservation of the Photograph Album of Allston Family and Other Portraits: Considerations, Collaboration, Treatment, and Impact
by Laura Coyle and Mirasol Estrada
In 2009, the photograph album of Allston family and other portraits became one of the earliest gifts to enter the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). This album, containing thirty portraits—twenty-eight photographs and two halftone prints—and a memorial card, arrived at the museum in pieces and with no documentation (figs. 1, 2). Despite this, the museum’s curators were eager to accept the album into the collection because of the good condition of the portraits inside and because a photograph album with this type of content—late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century African American family portraits, taken mostly in Connecticut but also in Philadelphia; New York City; Washington, DC; and Massachusetts—is rare. The photographs appeared not only to belong together but also to be in the same order they were in when the original compiler inserted them into the album. It was clear, however, that the album needed conservation treatment. Because it was not actively deteriorating and not slated for display at the opening of the museum in 2016, in contrast to thousands of other objects that needed treatment prior to installation for the opening and for later exhibitions, treatment was postponed until 2023, when the museum received federal support for conservation of the album from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the Smithsonian National Collections Program.
The treatment goals were to make it possible to handle, digitize, and display the album more safely and to preserve it for future generations. It was also important to recover the functionality of the album; save as much of its original material and preserve as much of its original appearance as possible; and preserve signs of its use. Conservators working at the museum and on contract planned and performed the work with these goals in mind.[1]
Routine parts of a conservator’s responsibilities include identifying the physical properties of objects and then assessing their condition, recommending safe handling and storage of objects, and proposing and performing conservation treatments. The contribution of the album’s conservators is a major reason for the success of this digital art history project; conservators made it possible to digitize the album safely and effectively, but they also contributed in other ways. Reviewing the steps taken to preserve the album provides additional insights into its physical properties; shows how conservation practice informed research on and documentation of the album; and demonstrates how the conservation treatment will impact the way viewers understand the album’s history and significance.
The Album’s Components and Condition
The album is a complex object made of many kinds of materials. It consists of five components: the photographs and ephemera; the album’s stiff leaves (rigid pages); the textile hinges and spine lining; the binding, including the spine piece; and the cover boards (covers) with leather or a leatherlike covering material. When the album came to the museum, several of the components were damaged: the photographs and album leaves were slightly soiled, the textile spine lining was failing, the spine of the binding was missing, and the covers were detached. Consequently, the book block (also called a text block) of nineteen stiff leaves had broken into several sections.
The album was battered from years of use, but it did exactly what it was supposed to do even as it fell apart: protect the photographs and ephemera inside. However, with the covers detached, it could no longer provide such good protection. It was important to treat the album to avoid further deterioration and damage to it or its contents caused by handling and to allow it to function again like an album, with a working spine and attached cover boards.
The Path to Treatment
The goals for treatment were clear, but before proposing a treatment plan it was essential to understand the physical properties of the album. Conservators treating complex objects like this must look at them holistically to ensure that solving a problem for one part of an object does not create a problem for a different part. Treatment of this album required conservators with specializations in two fields: photograph conservation and book conservation. Like all conservators, they needed a broad and deep understanding of the object to be preserved, including its history and significance, in order to design a treatment plan that would allow it to tell its story while preserving it for generations to come. In the case of this album, the conservators needed to become familiar with the history and purpose of photography albums as well as the photographic processes one would expect to find in an album of this period. The conservators also benefited from other information they learned about the photographs and the album. This knowledge, gained in the early stage of the conservation process, proved to be of great assistance not only to the conservators but also to those documenting and interpreting the album and its photographs.
Photograph Albums
Photograph albums are essentially bound volumes designed to display and store photographs in an organized manner. Albums like the one in the NMAAHC had been present in homes since as early as the 1860s. However, it is not common to find complete albums from the nineteenth century in museum, library, and archival collections, in part because photography and book dealers commonly dismantle them and sell the photographs individually but also because many albums remain in private hands. The album of Allston family and other portraits provides an opportunity to preserve a rare African American family-photograph album and study the way African Americans around the turn of the twentieth century used photography to shape their images and identities.[2] Historical research and a consideration of the physical attributes of the album and its photographs led to a dating of the album from the 1880s to around 1910, a period coinciding with a rapid evolution in photography. An album from this period provides important insights into the history of nineteenth-century photography and the ways in which photography has been closely connected to the formulation and expression of Black identity.
The first patent for a photograph album was registered in the United States in 1861; by 1873, there were already more than twenty patents related to such albums.[3] During the late nineteenth century, photographers and publishers created photograph albums in response to a growing market for, and consumption of, photographic portraits, initially in a carte-de-visite format measuring about 4 ½ x 2 ½ inches.[4] Collecting and exchanging cartes de visite among family and friends quickly became a popular pastime. The rapid expansion of commercial photography in the marketplace and in everyday life meant that people needed a method to organize, present, and preserve the photographs they had collected of family members, friends, and public figures. In addition to fulfilling these needs, albums offered users an opportunity to shape the stories they told around the album by inserting the photographs and arranging them as they desired. Albums were made to hold anywhere from a dozen to several hundred photographs. Some albums featured fancy covers bound in French or Turkish leather, while more modest versions featured Moroccan or even bonded leather.[5] Standard-size albums from the 1860s included stiff-leaf, cardboard pages with window-mat openings to display the photographs and a slot below each window for inserting a photograph. When photographs are inserted on both sides of the page, the photographs rest back-to-back. The cardboard pages were thick so that the photographs would rest flush against the page.
Albums motivated people to buy more photographs, resulting in a saturated market for cartes de visite. In turn, photographers and album manufacturers in the United States looked for a new product that would create a fresh demand for photographs.[6] The solution emerged in the mid-1860s in England in the form of the cabinet card, which consisted of a photograph mounted on a piece of cardboard that measured 6 ½ x 4 ½ inches, a format larger than a carte de visite that allowed for a richer, more detailed image. In addition, the mounted photograph was smaller than the card, leaving space at the bottom where the photographer could advertise their studio name, often with an address and sometimes a logo—all useful for dating such photographs. Toward the end of 1866, manufacturers in the United States began producing albums designed to accommodate cabinet cards.
The cover boards of the NMAAHC album protecting the book block are padded and covered with cloth. The back board has remnants of a brown, textured, leather or leatherlike covering material (fig. 3). In the remnants of this covering it is possible to see a laminar structure, which suggests that the texturized material might be bonded leather, made of pieces of leather mixed with paper or fabric and bonded with an adhesive material. The first page of the album is decorated with floral endpapers; the second, or title, page is decorated with a gilt, ornamented design with the word “Album” crossing the top half (fig. 4). Following these pages are nineteen stiff leaves containing twenty-seven standard-size cabinet cards (two are from the same negative); a less common and later square-format portrait photograph mounted on a square card; two halftone print portraits; and one memorial card.
Each leaf in the album is hinged with cloth, allowing the volume to open smoothly.[7] Each of the stiff-leaf pages has a gilt border and gilt-edged, cabinet-card-size window opening (fig. 5). The album can be kept closed with a metal fore-edge clasp; the clasp was likely used to keep the photographs inside safe, but it also suggests a desire for privacy. Although these features provide important information about the album’s use, in its damaged condition it was no longer able to function as intended. The conservation team resolved to address this in its treatment of the album.
Types of Photographs in the Album and Identification of Photographic Processes
Knowing what processes were used to make the photographs in the album was essential in the development of conservation plans and treatment procedures. The identification of photographic processes is a daily task for conservators of photographs. Furthermore, process identification helps us better understand the historical context of photographs, allowing us to provide a date range for when photographs were taken and document the various techniques in use by photography studios (often called parlors) in different places over time.
This album contains photographs made using three different types of photographic processes: albumen silver and collodion silver, both introduced around 1850; and gelatin silver, invented at the end of the nineteenth century.[8] Use of the three processes overlapped in the 1890s. All three utilized glass-plate negatives, which came into common use in about 1855 and continued to be used until the early 1900s.[9] A glass-plate negative is placed directly on sensitized paper and exposed to light, causing a warm, brown-toned image to emerge. This type of image is typical of a silver photolytic process, during which silver transforms and changes color when exposed to radiant energy, such as light. In photography, this is also called a printing-out process, because the image in the photographic print is created entirely by strong exposure to light.[10] The resulting print is exactly the same size as the negative. The print is then fixed, so that the image will last, and washed. After fixing and washing, the prints are mounted on sturdy cardboard. The same negative could be used multiple times to produce images with crisp detail and great density and contrast, which made photographs from glass-plate negatives popular for studio portraiture.
The type of process a photographer chose to use had a direct impact on the tonal range and detail obtained in the image. The different tonal qualities among prints produced by the same process were normally obtained by immersing the prints in different toning baths. Toning changed the color and density of the image tones and provided protection against chemical deterioration.[11] For example, matte-collodion papers could be toned in either gold or platinum toning baths to produce olive-black or neutral black tones, whereas gold toning was commonly used with albumen prints to obtain a purplish-brown tone.
Because some photographic processes are more expensive than others, the process used to produce a particular family photograph can also provide insight into the family’s social status. In the 1890s, when mass-produced, precoated collodion and gelatin-silver printing-out papers were introduced in the commercial market, albumen photographs were already known to fade and yellow, while prints made with collodion and gelatin processes were more stable.[12] Consequently, photographers charged more for collodion and gelatin prints. Consumers who could not or would not pay a premium for a higher-quality print could purchase albumen prints instead. About half of the photographs in the NMAAHC album were made using the less expensive albumen process; the rest are collodion or gelatin prints.
Matte collodion was one of the most popular processes around the turn of the twentieth century because of its aesthetic attributes and its permanence. The matte surface and cool, more sober tones of photographs produced using this process resembled photographs produced using the platinum process, one of the most expensive processes available at the time and the favored process for fine-art photographs. In the 1890s, manufacturers who marketed matte-collodion printing-out papers tried to imitate the aesthetics of platinum photographs and even used the name platino for these papers.[13] None of the photographs in the NMAAHC album are platinum prints, probably because this process was too expensive—if it was even offered at the commercial studios the sitters patronized. Instead, the sitters opted for widely used and less expensive types of prints. Of collodion and gelatin prints, collodion probably cost more because it conformed to the prevailing taste for prints with cool, rich tones. The well-executed collodion prints of Rev. G. H. S. Bell and Susan Bell (figs. 6, 7), taken in a well-known, highly regarded studio, probably indicate that the Bells had more money to spend on photographs than many other people represented in the album. Additionally, the process used to make a photograph can reveal a preference for one type of aesthetic over another for a particular photographic subject. The cooler tones obtained with matte collodion were frequently preferred for more serious and formal subjects (for example, matte collodion appears to have been used for one of the album’s portrait photographs of an unidentified woman [1906–12; fig. 8]). In contrast, the lustrous surface and warmer tones present in glossy-collodion prints were popular for portraits of babies (fig. 9).
In addition to photographs made using the albumen, collodion, and gelatin processes, the album also contains two photomechanical halftone prints, which were probably cut from magazines or pamphlets. Halftone printing was introduced in the early 1880s and was commonly in use by 1890, allowing for the mass reproduction of photographic images in books, newspapers, and periodicals (figs. 10, 11).[14] These prints are created with a reprographic technique using evenly spaced dots of various sizes, easily seen with a magnifying glass, that simulates the continuous tones of the original photograph but results in images that are not as sharp as those created directly from the negative.
Knowledge of the history of photography, in addition to systematic observation of the physical attributes of photographs, allows photograph conservators to accurately identify the photographic processes in use in particular photographs. Among such physical attributes are image color, tonal range, and the glossiness or lack of luster of the surface as well as signs of deterioration characteristic of each type of photographic process. Like photography historians, conservators also look for clues for the date range of a portrait photograph in the clothing style of its sitter, the background decoration, the color of the card mount, the typography and logo of the photography studio, and the history and location of the studio. Establishing a date range can narrow down the choices of possible processes, because various processes were in use and popular at different times. The tools conservators use include a variety of light sources positioned at different angles to the photograph, and stereomicroscopes, which provide a closer view of the surface of the photograph and can reveal the presence or absence of paper fibers, the structural layers that form the visible image, or signs of deterioration.
Photographs can also be understood and studied based on their laminar structure and divided accordingly into three main groups: one-layer, two-layer, and three-layer photographs. Interestingly, the Allston family album contains two of these groups: the albumen prints have two layers (a paper layer and an image-forming layer, the latter composed of silver particles suspended in the albumen binder), while the collodion and gelatin prints have three layers (a paper layer, a coating layer, and an image-forming layer composed of silver particles suspended in binder, either collodion or gelatin) (figs. 12, 13).[15] The coating layer on the three-layer photographs is also called the baryta layer and is responsible for the smoothness or roughness of the print’s surface, which in turn causes different reflections of light.
Photographic Processes: Albumen
Albumen is the earliest photographic process featured in the NMAAHC album, in cabinet-card photographs that make up about half of the photographs in the album as a whole; among the earliest examples is the cabinet-card portrait of Izetta Alexander (1888–89; fig. 14). The two-layer albumen process was first introduced in France in 1850 by the photographer Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evard and was commonly in use from 1885 to 1895.[16] The paper used for albumen photographs was very thin and had to be extremely pure, as impurities could cause stains on the final image. The process itself required skilled hands because the paper had to be prepared in the studio, most often by floating the paper over a solution of egg whites and ammonium chloride prior to sensitizing it with a solution of silver nitrate. The glass-plate negative was placed over the wet paper and exposed to light to produce an image. The exposed paper needed to be mounted over a sturdy surface (carte-de-visite or cabinet-card boards) when the paper was still wet, immediately after the image was printed, to avoid curling.
Albumen photographs generally have a moderately glossy surface and great image sharpness. Under magnification it is possible to see that the surface has small grooves, an effect produced by the paper fibers that are underneath the albumen binder and image-forming layer (fig. 15). The albumen prints in this album also show a burnished surface, which first became popular in the late 1860s. This effect offered a glossier finish, achieved by mechanically smoothing the surface of the print with a roller device called a burnisher.[17]
Photographic Processes: Collodion and Gelatin
The introduction and popularity of photograph albums brought considerable growth to the photographic industry. With this growth came a need for a standardized photographic paper, produced commercially and ready to use, that was more reliable than albumen paper, the prints on which tended to fade and discolor or show stains if the paper was not sufficiently pure. Technical advances related to the printing-out papers used to make collodion and gelatin photographs helped make collodion and gelatin processes easier to use than the albumen process. From 1885 until about 1920, collodion and gelatin processes using printing-out papers were in common use. Manufacturers began producing papers for glossy-collodion photographs in the 1880s, which saw the first large-scale production of printing-out paper, followed soon after by the production of matte-collodion and gelatin papers.[18] Collodion and gelatin papers made commercial photography as a profession more accessible to a greater number of people, because those working in the studio did not need the skills required for making albumen photographs. Machine-coated photographic papers with a baryta layer under a binder layer of either collodion or gelatin for the light-sensitive silver salts were fully prepared in the factory and ready for use by photographers. Precoated silver-gelatin papers had a glossy surface and resulted in prints with hues like those of albumen prints, because they were normally toned with a gold bath to achieve a purplish-brown tone. Compared to albumen prints, collodion prints allowed for finer and crisper detail. They were also more stable, with less tendency to fade and discolor than albumen prints.
Glossy-collodion surfaces were achieved by burnishing the surface of the photograph while it was still slightly wet. This surface offers a distinctive reflection—an interference iridescent color pattern—that is visible when holding a light perpendicular to the photograph (figs. 16, 17). Five of the seven portraits of babies in the NMAAHC album are glossy-collodion photographs, while two are albumen photographs.
Gelatin papers, which were in fashion in the mid-1880s, were very similar to glossy-collodion papers in terms of their three-layer structure, sheen, and purplish-brown tones when toned with a gold bath. But both gelatin prints and glossy-collodion prints never achieved the rich tones and matte surfaces of prints made with matte-collodion papers, which were introduced in the mid-1890s. Throughout the 1920s, matte-collodion photographs were widely available at an attractive price. Matte-collodion photographs were created by using a coarse baryta layer under the binder (image-forming layer), and the matte surface was achieved by drying the print, and subsequently squeegeeing it on a high-quality, ground-glass plate.[19] Among the photographs in the album, the matte-collodion images are cooler in tone when compared to the albumen or glossy-collodion images. This effect was obtained with toning solutions.[20] Collodion paper, like albumen paper, is mounted on the card while still damp to avoid curling. Collodion was inexpensive, and it could be used to produce photographs that mimicked the appearance of more costly platinum photographs, which have a wider range of tones and hues and were much more stable than albumen, collodion, or gelatin prints.[21]
The matte surface, cool, dark tones, and rich tonal range of the cabinet-card portraits from 1894 of Rev. G. H. S. Bell and Susan Bell (see figs. 6, 7) help to identify them as matte-collodion photographs. The shape of a photograph can also be a clue to the process used to produce it. In addition to a rectangular format, matte-collodion prints were also available in an oval format (see fig. 8). Retouching, or spotting to correct imperfections, using a fine brush with a mix of pigment in either gelatin, gum, or albumen, or with colored pencils, were techniques used to add color to the photograph manually, a common practice in photography studios to smooth skin, enhance facial features, or emphasize accessories such as jewelry. This is the case on Susan Bell’s portrait, where retouching to smooth areas of her neck and jaw are visible under magnification (fig. 18).
While identification of the photographic process is important for developing preservation or treatment protocols, collodion and gelatin prints can be very difficult to distinguish from each other when they are in good or fair condition. However, over time, silver-gelatin photographs tend to fade more than collodion photographs and lose mid-tone values, even as they are more resistant to abrasion and scratches than glossy-collodion prints. See, for example, two portraits in the album that appear very similar in tone and glossiness (figs. 19, 20). The portrait photograph of an unidentified man in figure 19, likely a gelatin print, shows loss of the mid-tones and reveals different reflections when looking at it with specular illumination (fig. 21). This photograph also does not show the scratches and abrasions that are commonly observed on the glossy-collodion portraits, such as those present in the cabinet card of an unidentified man taken at the Ideal Portrait Company (fig. 22). In addition, the portrait photograph of an unidentified man, the only photograph in the album with a square format, which became popular in the twentieth century, was likely taken later than the rest of the portraits in the album. The square format, as well as the loss of mid-tones and resistance to scratches and abrasions, indicate that it is probably a gelatin, not a glossy-collodion, print. However, in cases such as this, photograph conservators would need to conduct scientific analysis in order to determine the exact nature of the binder and be completely certain of the photographic process.[22]
Knowing that this is probably a gelatin-silver photograph from about 1900, a date based on the medium and on the clothing and age of the sitter, who looks to be about twenty, it could be an image of one of the people associated with the album born in about 1880, possibly James Allston (b. 1880), a brother of Mary Evelina Allston (1888–1975) and Ida Allston (1872–between 1930 and 1948), whose photographs are also included in the album.[23] Speculation about the dates for other photographs in the album also begins with the medium. From there, the date range for a particular photograph can be narrowed down and an identification of its sitter proposed based on the years in which the photography studio was in operation.
The study of photograph albums and the analysis of the photographs in the NMAAHC album are important for understanding where each image fits within the history of photography and the album’s historical context, but they also informed other aspects of the photography conservators’ work. Understanding albums and the materials used to make the photographs was also necessary to evaluate the condition of the photographs and decide whether they would be treated and how they should be stored. Treatment and storage would need to be appropriate not only for each individual photograph but also for the album overall, a critical part of this holistic conservation project.
Conservation Treatment
The treatment was done in accordance with the definition of the conservation of cultural heritage by UNESCO, which states that the goal of conservation “is to maintain the physical and cultural characteristics of the object to ensure that its value is not diminished and that it will outlive our limited time span,” and calls for object conservation that includes “measures taken to extend the life of cultural heritage while strengthening transmission of its significant heritage messages and values.”[24]
The primary goal of the conservation treatment for this album was to stabilize it so it could be more safely handled, digitized, and displayed to avoid losses and other damage. It was also important to recover the mechanics of the album and, where feasible, save the original materials, which would maintain the album’s authenticity, allow viewers to see and understand how it looked and functioned originally, and give viewers a better sense of its history.
The team of conservators, including Mirasol Estrada; Antje Neumann, chief conservator, NMAAHC; Jessica Henze, senior book conservator, and Monique Fischer, senior photograph conservator, both from the New England Document Conservation Center; and other NMAAHC collection and curatorial staff, including Laura Coyle, who initiated this digital art history project, and Michèle Gates Moresi, assistant director for collections, agreed that it was important to preserve some signs of the heavy use the album had received, which were expressed in the damage to some of its parts. Retaining some of these signs of damage would allow viewers to see and understand intuitively that this album was much loved and that many people had often paged through it. But the team needed to decide which signs of damage to preserve and which to remove, balancing the desire to preserve signs of use with the need to stabilize the album and make it functional. This balanced approach was applied to the treatment of the album’s five components: the photographs and ephemera; the album leaves; the textile hinges and spine lining; the binding, including the spine piece (missing) and cover boards (detached); and the leather covering material.
To assess the condition of the photographs and ephemera (a memorial card and two halftone prints clipped from a publication), conservators removed them from the album. Examination confirmed that they were in very good condition overall. Fischer treated and stabilized the photographs with a gentle surface cleaning. The ephemera required no treatment. The photographs and ephemera remained separated from the album during the treatment of its other components, which made the treatment less challenging for Henze because it removed concerns about damage to the photographs and ephemera.
The book part of the album had sustained far greater damage than the photographs and ephemera. When the album arrived at the museum, the spine of the binding was missing, the covers were detached, and the textile spine lining was failing (see fig. 2). Consequently, the book block of nineteen stiff leaves had broken into several sections. It was extremely difficult to handle the album in that state without further damaging what was left of the spine lining and without possibly damaging the pages. Loose leaves can also be accidently reordered, which in this case would have altered what the conservators and museum staff believe is the original—and historically important—order of the pages and photographs. The team decided that the textile spine lining would be replaced because it was too weak and deteriorated to be made structurally sound, and because this part of the album is generally not visible when the album is displayed. The new lining was used to reattach the covers to the text block.
No effort was made to reconstruct the missing spine piece of the binding, for three reasons. First, because it was impossible to know exactly what the original spine looked like, the replacement would necessarily be an educated guess rather than an accurate copy. Second, replacing the spine would have re-created the restricted opening that characterizes stiff-leaf albums. And third, reconstruction of the missing spine piece was not needed to ensure that the volume was structurally sound.
The stiff leaves were in relatively good shape despite fingerprints and other marks, several small tears, and a few losses. The surface of the paper was lightly cleaned, and the tears and losses were mended. The sites of the original tears and losses are still visible postrestoration. Fingerprints and other marks were retained because they pose no risk to the album, they do not interfere with viewing the album’s contents, and they are evidence of use.
Henze also mended the hinges that hold the leaves together and help attach the cover boards to the book block. The original design did not allow the album to be opened to a comfortable width without placing stress on the joints and hinges, which is what caused the original spine to break and the cover boards to become detached. Therefore, Henze reattached the covers with strong, flexible, linen hinges so that the album could be opened widely enough for occasional viewing and effective digitization without stressing the binding to the breaking point. Again, this change does not significantly impact the way viewers see and understand the album.
Finally, conservators needed to address the surface of the cover boards, which was very badly damaged. The covering material, a thin leather or a leatherlike material, was completely missing from the front cover and partially missing, folded, and delaminating (peeling off) from the back (see fig. 3). The conservators and museum staff agreed that although it would be possible to re-create a covering that looked much like it did when the album was new, it was better simply to consolidate what was left of the original covering and leave the linen-covered, padded cover boards exposed where the covering was missing (fig. 23). This choice preserves a very dramatic sign of use, and shows how the album covers, while sustaining significant damage, nonetheless protected the precious contents of the album extremely well. In addition, not replacing the covering poses no danger to the album if it is handled and stored carefully.
The team also decided to reinsert the photographs and ephemera into the album after the photographs and album were treated. Although the photographs and ephemera would be somewhat safer and better preserved if they were stored separately from the album, the album had already done an excellent job of protecting them for more than one hundred years, and the risk of leaving them in the album was relatively low. Furthermore, this album is more than the sum of its parts; allowing the photographs and ephemera to live within it permits museum staff, historians, and visitors to experience it more in the way it was originally intended to be experienced. After treatment, the album is in much more stable condition, but it remains fragile. Use and handling of it will be limited, another reason its complete digitization and documentation are so important.
Conclusion
The physical and intellectual recovery of the album, and the work on the album by conservators and between the conservators and the museum staff researching the album, demonstrate the importance of interdisciplinary work and collaboration for the study and preservation of photograph albums. Finding the balance between providing access to the album, preserving signs of its history, stabilizing it, and making it functional was achieved collaboratively. Collaboration between conservators with different specialties and from different institutions also added significantly to our understanding and recognition of the nineteenth-century African American community represented in the album and their use of photography. Identifying the processes used to create the photographs provided valuable information about when the album was compiled while allowing the team to see which processes for particular types of photographs were most popular with the sitters represented in the album. In addition, confirmation of the processes helped validate the cataloguing and dating of the photographs, which is based in part on studio operation dates, the style of the clothing worn by the sitters, and the research conducted about the people who are identified in the album. At the same time, understanding when different processes were introduced and which were most popular provided parameters for Coyle’s speculation about who some of the unidentified people in the photographs might be. Consequently, conservators contributed to the study of the relationship between the members of a specific African American community and photography, which was used to shape their images.
Furthermore, a close study of the materiality of the album and the photographic processes, as well as the treatment plan and the treatment itself, also add to our knowledge of the history of turn-of-the-twentieth-century photography in the United States. For example, this study allows us to document the processes that photography studios located in the northeastern United States offered their customers and provides an in-depth look at the mechanics of a typical, well-used, much-loved album. In addition, the project to conserve the album offers a useful model for conservators who work with complicated objects and strive for a treatment plan that strikes a balance between providing access, restoring functionality, and preserving authenticity. Ultimately, this essay documents three dimensions of the conservation of the NMAAHC album: how the conservators’ work informed the documentation, research, and interpretation of the album and its contents; how the conservators’ collaborative decision-making process impacted the treatments; and how the conservation of the album will impact the way viewers perceive it, encouraging them to recognize intuitively that the signs of heavy use, deliberately preserved, are critical historical evidence that this photograph album was cherished by the family, frequently handled, and often viewed.
Conservation essay|Conservation video
A Measure of Success: An African American Photograph Album from Turn-of-the-Twentieth-Century Connecticut
featuring Laura Coyle, Mirasol Estrada, and Jessica Henze
This video, produced by the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), is about the museum’s conservation treatment of the photograph album of Allston family and other portraits (1880s–1910), made possible by federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the Smithsonian National Collections Program. The video features a conversation about the treatment goals, plans, and results with Mirasol Estrada, photograph conservator, and Laura Coyle, assistant director of collection cataloguing and digitization at the NMAAHC; and Jessica Henze, senior book conservator at the New England Document Conservation Center.
Notes
[1] When the project began, the NMAAHC did not have a photograph or book conservator on its staff, so head conservator Antje Neumann arranged a competitive bidding process to select an outside conservation firm to do the necessary work on contract. After the bid was issued, the museum hired photograph conservator Mirasol Estrada, who reviewed the treatment plan and collaborated with Jessica Henze, senior book conservator, and Monique Fischer, senior photograph conservator, both from the firm entrusted to perform the treatments, the New England Document Conservation Center in Andover, Massachusetts.
[2] Laura Coyle, “Windows and Touchstones: A Photograph Album from Connecticut, 1980–1910,” in Making Waves: Crosscurrents in the Study of Nineteenth-Century Art, ed. Laurinda Dixon and Gabriel P. Weisberg (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2019), 193–94, https://repository.si.eandle/.
[3] Elizabeth Seigel, Galleries of Friendship and Fame: A History of Nineteenth-Century American Photograph Albums (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010), 73–74.
[4] A carte-de-visite is an albumen portrait that is fully adhered to a sturdy piece of cardboard measuring 2 ¼ x 3 ½ inches (5.7 x 9 cm). It was patented in France in 1854 by André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri and became popular and accessible to the rest of the world in 1859. Helmut Gernsheim, The History of Photography, vol. 2, The Rise of Photography, 1850–1880: The Age of Collodion (London: Thames and Hudson, 1987), 189.
[5] The covers of modest photograph albums were often advertised as “Moroccan leather,” a vague term that does not actually specify the origins of the material.
[6] Seigel, Galleries of Friendship and Fame, 73.
[7] Abigail Sleawik, “How a Book Moves: Photograph Album Structures in the Department of Photographs,” Photograph Conservation, Conservation and Scientific Research, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, September 2, 2022, https://www.metmuseum.org/.
[8] The albumen silver process was invented in 1850. The collodion silver process was introduced in 1851 by Frederick Scott Archer. The gelatin silver process was introduced at the end of the nineteenth century. “Photographic Processes Video Series & Glossary,” George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York, accessed August 24, 2024, https://www.eastman.org/. See also “Popular Photographic Print Processes: Chronological Listing,” Collection Guide and Finding Aids, Prints and Photographs Reading Room, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, March 25, 2022, https://www.loc.gov/.
[9] James M. Reilly, Care and Identification of 19th-Century Photographic Prints (1986; repr., Rochester, NY: Eastman Kodak, 2009), 5–13.
[10] The term “printing-out paper” refers to contact-printing photographic processes such as albumen, collodion, and gelatin, which were common from 1860 to 1940. This type of paper allowed the photographer to witness the production of the image by exposure to a light source. After the image was completely printed, it needed only to be washed and fixed. Bertrand Lavédrine, Photographs of the Past: Process and Preservation (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2007), 129.
[11] James M. Reilly, The Albumen and Salted Paper Book: The History and Practice of Photographic Printing, 1840–1895 (Rochester, NY: Cary Graphic Arts, 2012), 78–81.
[12] Reilly, Albumen and Salted Paper Book, 104–5.
[13] Reilly, Care and Identification of 19th-Century Photographic Prints, 8–9.
[14] Bamber Gascoigne, How to Identify Prints: A Complete Guide to Manual and Mechanical Process from Woodcut to Inkjet, 2nd ed. (New York: Thames and Hudson, 2004), 33–35.
[15] The collodion binder was prepared by dissolving a cellulose-nitrate compound in a mixture of alcohol and ether.
[16] Reilly, Care and Identification of 19th-Century Photographic Prints, 10.
[17] Reilly, Care and Identification of 19th-Century Photographic Prints, 6–7.
[18] Reilly, Care and Identification of 19th-Century Photographic Prints, 12.
[19] Sylvie Pénichon, “Differences in Image Tonality Produced by Different Toning Protocols for Matte Collodion Photographs,” Journal of the American Institute for Conservation 38 (1999): 38; and Dusan C. Stulik and Art Kaplan, The Atlas of Analytical Signatures of Photographic Processes: Collodion on Paper (Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 2013), 7–8, https://www.getty.edu/.
[20] Gold and platinum toners were mixed and became the standard. They were responsible for the cool tones commonly observed in matte-collodion photographs. Reilly, Care and Identification of 19th-Century Photographic Prints, 11–13.
[21] Platinum photographs are a one-layer structure where the image is formed by platinum particles sitting directly over the paper surface (no binder). These photographs offer a wide range of mid-tone density values, from pale gray to deep black. Bertrand Lavédrine, Photographs of the Past: Process and Preservation (Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 2009), 156.
[22] Scientific analysis such as Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), an analytical technique that analyzes organic compounds, is commonly used in the field of conservation.
[23] For information about Mary Evelina and Ida’s brother James Allston, see the Lives tab for Cabinet card of a child, Mary Evelina Allston, in a christening gown (2009.31.4).
[24] “Conservation of Cultural Heritage,” Glossary, UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2009, https://uis.unesco.org/.