The Civil Rights History of Baltimore at the MCHC: Part 2

The thing about oral history is that you have the opportunity of learning from different people and hear different perspectives on particular topics and issues of society. Baltimore has a rich history that many don’t know or heard about. The McKeldin-Jackson Project showed and explained the history of segregation during the civil rights movement.

Upon reading and listening to the interviews, I was able to get a better understanding of Theodore McKeldin, the people on his team, and civil rights leaders such as Lily May Jackson and her family. The transcription and translation process of these interviews gave us new perspectives on how African Americans were treated in society and the way Governor McKeldin worked with race leaders to bring change into Baltimore. Not just that but most of the summaries that I was able to create from the interviews were concerns about African American disenfranchisement; education and employment of African Americans; black relations with the police and with Jews; public accommodation of African Americans, black political action, and black women. This opened a doorway for me to learn more about Ford and Lyric theatres in Baltimore; desegregation; restaurant discrimination; the Urban League; Gov. Theodore R. McKeldin's appointments. I think it was truly interesting to see different groups of people come together to fight for a common and rebuild a community that wasn’t getting any respect from society.

I think it was quite inspiring to see a black woman like Lillie May Jackson, working closely with the governor of Maryland to create opportunities and change for the black community. It was amazing to see her support Louise Kerr Hines, who was discriminated against at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, as she wasn't offered a position for a free library training course due to the color of her skin. It was quite significant to see Carl Murphy of the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper and Lillie Mae Carroll Jackson of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People suing the library for their discriminatory actions towards the black community.

The most important part of the internship was the opportunity to listen to and transcribe old audio from the 90s. It was a long and difficult process but it was worthwhile for any future historian who was trying to get into the field of transcribing works of others from any time period. Overall, though the internship wasn’t too long of an experience, I still found all the projects and work that we did to be quite interesting and such a contribution to my field of study as a future historian.

Historic Photographs, Film, and Negatives

     In addition to my work with digitizing photographic prints at CECOM, I have been learning about photographic negatives and the special techniques required when working with these materials in an archive. The care and preservation of film-based photographic negatives can be challenging because the common types of film all behave differently from each other, even when kept in the same environment. Deterioration of photographic negatives is a serious concern as it can affect not just the negatives themselves, but other items within the archive as well.

     To properly care for film-based negatives, it is important to know the history of the film negative. In 1889, the first photographic film, a replacement for fragile glass-plate negatives, was developed by Eastman Kodak. These early negatives were made of cellulose nitrate, a substance that proved to be extremely flammable. Although a 1903 refinement of the film made the negatives sturdier and less flammable, nitrate-based films continued to be a major fire hazard throughout the first part of the 20^th century. In 1909, a major fire at a Pittsburgh film warehouse led to the development and implementation of regulations for the safe storage and handling of nitrate-based films, which remain in place today. Cellulose nitrate sheet film was in common use from 1889 until 1930, but nitrate-based films remained in use for rolled and motion picture film all the way until the 1950s, meaning that it is a common find in many archival collections.

     Safety film, which was developed as a replacement for cellulose nitrate film in 1923, solved the flammability issue by changing the film’s base to cellulose acetate, and in 1937 to cellulose diacetate. In 1947 diacetate was replaced with cellulose triacetate, which remains in use today, became the common base for safety films, improving issues of shrinkage, discoloration, and brittleness. The most stable film base, polyester (polyethylene terephthalate) was introduced in 1955. Although now considered the best film for permanent archiving, this film was never in wide use because of difficulties in its manufacturing and engineering.

     In order to house photographic negatives within an archive, it is necessary to identify the type of film used. This is most easily accomplished through a study of the negative and any background information about the photograph itself. Information about the subject, photographer, and date on which the photograph was taken can first be compared to the history of film-based negatives to determine which type of film would have been most common at the time. A visual examination of the film can reveal the manufacturer’s identification markings. Notches in the upper right hand corner of sheet film are used to identify the type of film. These notches and their meanings differ from company to company, so it is important to compare them to guides from the most common film manufacturers, such as Kodak, Agfa, and Ansco. Labels along the edge of sheet film and filmstrips are also useful in the identification of film type. Words such as “Safety” denote cellulose acetate, “Nitrate” denotes cellulose nitrate, and “Estar” or “Cronar” denote polyester. The use of edge markings to identify the type of film can be tricky, however, as negatives can be reprinted onto new film, meaning that a newer negative may say “Nitrate” on it because the original copy was printed on nitrate.

An example of a notch code guide from 1954, showing film from Ansco, DuPont, Eastman (Kodak), and Gevaert.

     If visual methods of identification are inconclusive, chemical and physical tests may be done to the negative in order to determine its make-up. These types of test should be used as a last resort, as they will destroy the negative, including the image on it. Destructive identification methods should only be completed by people whom are specially trained in the use of these tests, as they all use potentially dangerous substances such as trichloroethylene (a known carcinogen) or sulfuric acid.

     As I continue to work on my project at CECOM and continue to read more about the subject of archival preservation, I hope to learn more about how to properly care for different types of historic items. 

Works Cited:

Image. Code Notches for Sheet Films. 1954. U.S. Camera: November 1954. From: Photo.net Classic      Camera Forum. Accessed July 27, 2014. <http://photo.net/classic-cameras-forum/00S1f0>. 

Messier, Paul, "Preserving Your Collection of Film-Based Photographic Negatives," Conservators of      Fine Arts and Material Culture Rocky Mountain Conservation Center (1993). Accessed July 19,  

    2014. <www.cool.conservation-us.org/byauth/messier/negrmcc.html>.

U.S. National Park Service, Identification of Film-Based Photographic Material, by Karen L. Bennett      and Jessica S. Johnson, Conserve O Gram (Washington D.C., September 1999).