Photographic Negatives
Details
Type of record: Archive
Title: Photographic Negatives
Classmark: LAVC/PHO/PN
Creator(s): Orton, Harold (1898-1975); Kissling, Werner (1895-1988)
Date(s): [1960s-1970s]
Size and medium: 620 glass and film negatives in archival envelopes, and in negative preservers contained in 18 files.; 14 boxes.; 1 linear metre.
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/414045
Collection group(s): Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture
Description
The photographic negatives held by the Institute of Dialect and Folk Life Studies (IDFLS) comprise 620 individual negatives and sets of negatives. The collection consists of a variety of formats, including 248 glass negatives (16 x 12 cm, and 10.7 x 8 cm); 327 sets of strips, rolls, and individual cells of 35 mm, 46 mm, and 120 film; and 45 microfiche negatives.
The majority of the glass negatives contain images of experimental word maps predominantly based on the Survey of English Dialects (SED); pages produced during the editing of the SED for publication; pages from the published SED volumes including the Questionnaire; and dialect area maps and maps relating to the historical development of the English language.
The 35 mm negatives include 126 rolls, sets, and individual strips of film deposited with the Folk Life Survey by Werner Kissling during his employment as a photographic fieldworker (see biography attached to LAVC/PHO/P). The remainder of the 35 mm negatives, the 46 mm and 120 negatives, and the microfiche negatives, contain photographic images created by IDFLS staff, including Stewart Sanderson, Wille Brunk and Ingemar Liman. Further photographs were taken during a 1971 field survey of vernacular architecture in Conistone (North Yorkshire), and visit to F. Walkley's clog factory in Huddersfield, both organised for students on a Museums Association course. This series also includes copies of photographs of East Yorkshire agricultural workers from the late-19th and early-20th century, collected by Stephen Caunce; and images produced by IDFLS students Jonathan Stringfellow, Richard Langhorne, Margaret Brooks, Peter Nalder, Elizabeth Denny, Elizabeth Hawley, Gillian Slinn, Michael Aston, A. R.
Brooks, K. S. Gallon, Jean Latham, Rachel Holt, Gillian Beels and Valerie Calvert, for inclusion in theses and dissertations.
The microfiche negatives include a series of plates copied from George Walker's 'The Costume of Yorkshire' (1814) for inclusion in Richard Langhorne's thesis; and images of experimental word maps based on the SED, and pages produced during the editing of the SED.
There is also a roll of unprocessed 35 mm film, LAVC/PHO/PN447.
Provenance
The majority of Kissling's 35mm negative films were held in six wooden boxes with plastic containers for individual rolls of film, or in green photograph wallets with glassine enclosures for sets of negative strips. The wooden boxes are numbered 1-6, and each includes a brief ms. contents list compiled by one of the IDFLS archivists. The lists include reference to two reels of film relating to cheesemaking which are noted as missing. The plastic containers in the wooden boxes and the green wallets are marked with a unique four or five digit code, assigned by Kissling as a means of identification. These reference codes also appear on the Photo File cards containing mounted photographic prints by Kissling, although the referencing is not always accurate and has been corrected where appropriate.
The remainder of the negative films were originally held in a variety of envelopes and negative wallets, and in three Film Storage Albums. The Film Storage Albums consist of a hard-backed leather casing with individual glassine sleeves, into which individual negatives or strips of negatives could be inserted. Each album also contains a contents page where the subject matter of the negative and collector's name were recorded in ms. All negatives have been transferred from the wallets and envelopes in which they were originally held into archivally sound storage. The numerical order of the negatives in Film Storage Albums A and B, and Film Storage Album 1, where large numbers of individual negative cells and strips of negatives were held in hard-backed leather cases with individually numbered glassine sleeves, has been retained. This runs from the top left to bottom right of the archival negative preserver sleeves for Film Storage Albums A and B, and from top to bottom for Film Storage
Album 1.
System of arrangement
The negatives are largely arranged as they were found, with glass negatives listed first, followed by 35mm, 46mm, and 120 film, and microfiche negatives. Sets of glass negatives have been stored together where possible.
Access and usage
Reproduction
Access
There are no access restrictions.
This material is in copyright. Photocopies or digital images can be supplied by the Library for research or private study. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain the copyright holder's permission to reproduce for any other purpose. Guidance is available on tracing copyright status and ownership.
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