Author Archive for Jordan Ferraro

Panoramic Preservation

Published by Jordan Ferraro on July 29, 2010 in Archives, Behind The Scenes and Highlights from the Collection.
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The Archives Division at the National Air and Space Museum has lots of really neat items.  Most things come to us in good condition and need very little preservation before being made available to the public.  Occasionally however, we get an item that needs to be stabilized before it can be made accessible.  That is where I come in.  I am the preservation archivist and it is my job to identify objects that may be unstable or in need of conservation.  So far I have identified 47 items in our collection that are in need of some level of preservation.

I recently had the opportunity to preserve one of these items, a panoramic photograph of five De Havilland DH-4 mail planes that were modified by Bellanca.  The black and white photo is 10 x 66 inches and depicts five planes which flew the Reno to Elko, Nevada mail route.  Standing around the planes are their pilots and crews.

At some time in the past a well meaning person “framed” the photograph by placing it on a backing board and covering with a flexible transparent plastic.  The two sides were stuck together using a vinyl self-adhesive wallpaper.  The photo came to us loosely rolled in a cardboard shipping box.

rolled photo

Panoramic Photo rolled into a cardboard box for shipping

In order to preserve this photograph and make it available to the public, it needed to be removed from the frame and stored flat.  The condition of the photograph was difficult to determine while in the frame. Nora Lockshin, the paper conservator from Smithsonian Archives, along with her two interns Shereen Choudhury and Rachel Midura, loaned us their time and expertise.  The four of us worked as a team to remove the photograph from its frame and determine a safe storage concept.  To learn more about the process of preserving this photograph please read Nora’s blog.

distortion

Nora Lockshin examines distortion of panoramic photograph while Mark Kahn and Jordan Ferraro look on (National Air and Space Museum Archives).

Once the photograph was removed from the frame we discovered some wonderful historical evidence.  The names of some of the men in the picture are written in the lower margin.  These names revealed that the same people are on both ends of the photograph.  This happened quite often when taking early panoramic photographs using a 360˚ rotation camera.  The camera and film rotate along the vertical axis, once the camera has past a location the people in that position run around behind the camera and stand at the opposite end of the photograph.  Because the camera rotates slower then they run, they end up in the photograph twice.  In this photograph this appears to be intentional, perhaps they did not have enough people to stand in front of all five planes?

The final, and I think most thought-provoking, thing we uncovered was an inscription on the back of the photograph.

photo

Releasing photograph from poor enclosure at center break, minimizing physical stress and allowing staff to work on the two fragments at once. Once released, annotation could be observed on the back of the photograph. (Lockshin pictured). Stabilizing intervention on panoramic photograph at the National Air and Space Museum Archives.

It reads,

“The __(missing due to a tear in the photograph)___ half of Feb I left Reno by plane for Elko NV for a ride in the mail pit.  Round trip from Reno to Elko is 600 miles.  We made it in 5 hours 120 miles per hour at 1000 ft alt.  Pilots make this same trip every day, but Sunday.  Snow, Rain, Hail or Fog they are supposed to get the mail there.  We have had lots of smash ups but only one pilot killed that was Pilot Lewis at Elko he was going to be married on his return trip.

We have made a good record up to May 1st 1921″

This heartrending inscription shows just what these men endured to get the mail through.  It reminds us that, at one time, we were so reliant upon the mail system for information that men risked, and sometimes lost, their lives to make sure the information got through.

Jordan Ferraro is an Archivist in the National Air and Space Museum Archives Division.

The Envelope, Please

Published by Jordan Ferraro on November 11, 2009 in Archives, Aviation and Highlights from the Collection.
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Lee Ya-Ching stepping from the cockpit of her Stinson SR-9B Reliant "Spirit of New China", c.1939. NASM-9A06062, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Archives.

Balancing access and preservation is a continuous problem in every archive. The Museum’s Archives Division’s mandate is two-fold; to make collections accessible for researchers, and to preserve the collections for future generations. These two goals came into conflict while processing the Lee Ya-Ching Collection.

Lee Ya-Ching (1912-1998) was a Chinese aviatrix. During World War II she visited North and South America on a goodwill tour to raise money for the Chinese war effort. After the war, she returned to China. The collection of her papers from her stay in the Americas was buried for safekeeping. Many years later the collection came to light and was eventually donated to the National Air and Space Museum Archives Division. Years of being buried caused numerous conservation issues.

As a processor and the archives conservator, it was my job to determine how these materials are handled. As an archivist, I want the researcher to have access to as much of the collection as possible. As a conservator, I want to protect the materials. When moldy items were found, they were immediately removed from the collection, as mold is a known health hazard to staff and researchers, as well as being detrimental to the collection itself.

Other issues were not as easy to handle. One of these was a large number of sealed envelopes in the collection. Some of these were opened by Lee Ya-Ching and had become resealed by years of storage in damp conditions. The dilemma came when deciding what to do with envelopes that appeared to have never been opened. Should these letters be opened so that researchers can read the contents, or should they be left sealed? Arguments on both sides of the debate had me conflicted as to what to do. Sealed envelopes speak to the character of the individual. Information not received can influence decisions as much as information received. We as processors are obligated to process without influencing the story. Opening these letters alter the interpretation of this woman’s experiences.

Conversely, opening these envelopes gives the researchers access to more information. If these envelopes aren’t opened, researchers would have to be cautioned to leave them intact. Without opening the envelopes, we don’t know what types of materials are inside. Photographs, film, even certain inks and papers could be harmful to the collections.

After much discussion with colleagues, both in and outside the Museum, a final decision has yet to be made. The majority of archivists polled feel the envelopes should be opened, but that they should be segregated and marked as being sealed envelopes opened by the archivist. This would allow access by archivists for conservation and by scholars for research; however, they will know that Lee Ya-Ching did not have the information contained in these envelopes during her lifetime.  Please let us know what you think by posting a comment below.

Here’s more on Lee Ya-Ching – an article from Air & Space/Smithsonian Magazine, a blog post that includes a scene from a Hollywood film, Disputed Passage (1939) featuring Lee Ya-Ching, and a comic book (PDF format) on her wartime adventures.

Jordan Ferraro is an Archivist in the National Air and Space Museum Archives Division.