American Museum of Natural History Photography Collection Diana Rosenthal

Origins of AMNH photo collection ●AMNH founded in 1869 ●Photographs collected purposefully from the beginning ●Oldest negatives date to late 1800s ●Photography studio opened in early 1900s ●Current collection contains more than 1 million photographs 1907

What formats are in the collection? ● Black-and-white negatives, ranging from 35 mm to 11 x 14 inches (>850,000) ● Photographic prints representing more than 900 different collections (125,000 individual photographs) ● Scrapbooks created in various AMNH departments (52) ● Large-format color transparencies (>9,000) ● 35 mm color slides representing more than 600 collections (>150,000 individual slides) ● Lantern slides (>55,000 colored/uncolored slides)

Subjects pictured in the collection ●Images document scientific work worldwide ●Cover fields of anthropology, archaeology, astronomy, geology, paleontology, zoology ●Photographs from every continent ●Photos of the stars ●Images document history of AMNH, AMNH staff at work ●Images also depict permanent and temporary exhibits 1912

Who generates the photographs? ●Photos created by scientific staff and AMNH photo studio ●Some images donated, some purchased ●Photography collection maintained by AMNH education department until 1967, transferred to library ●Photos housed/managed/cataloged by AMNH Research Library Unknown, but pre-1925

Who uses the collection? ●AMNH curatorial and scientific staff ●Academic researchers ●Writers ●General public ●Most groups rely on library catalog/help from librarians to find materials 1914

Digitization of the collection 1898 ●Library won grant to fund pilot program to digitize, describe, and make available online 1000 images ●Pilot program turned into larger, grant-funded project to digitize and describe more images ●Digital Special Collections page launched in April 2014 with 7,000 fully cataloged digital images on Omeka

More on digitization ●Currently, Digital Special Collections page has nearly 11,000 images ●5,650 digital images currently being cataloged ●194,000 images in various stages of post- scanning processing ●7,000 scanned and cataloged legacy images to be incorporated into Omeka Unknown

How is the collection accessed? Unknown, but pre-1904 ●Library catalog/slide inventory provides most info on physical collections ●Digital Special Collections can link researchers to library for more help/info about collections ●Research appointments necessary to view physical materials; often, photos are scanned and provided for non- commercial use ●Licensing and reproduction now handled by Global Business Development office

Metadata and authority control 1962 ●Images described using Library of Congress Subject Headings, Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names ●Local AMNH vocabularies also employed ●Metadata entered into modified Dublin Core fields in Omeka database

Spotlight: Lantern slides Unknown Unknown, but pre-1919 ●Collection contains about 55,000 lantern slides ●Once circulated to NY schools to educate students on natural history ●Used for AMNH lectures to educate public ●Prized accomplishment of Albert Bickmore, founder of AMNH

Spotlight: Expeditions and exhibitions 1894 ●Recent effort to categorize some images by expedition based on existing collections ●Beginning with oldest, most famous expeditions, like Peary, Jesup, and Pepper ●Currently, most-accessed collection is Chinese expedition of early 1900s

Final thoughts 1936 ●Surprised by low numbers of digitized images ●Library relies heavily on volunteers and interns to maintain project ●Photos are a priority for library and generate grant money ●Would like to see input from AMNH staff to enhance record linkages

Thank you! Questions?