Schneider noted that he began scanning images, about 120 in all, himself as time permitted. “It was the discovery that, mixed in with the data-capture photographs, were these aesthetic gems that captured worklife in the Alaskan wilderness, photography and surveying techniques, and many noteworthy towns and geological formations.” “That made the project truly blossom for me,” Schneider said. Schneider said this was his “aha moment” during his preservation work. “It was like having pieces of a puzzle, and when I put the pieces together, they formed a beautiful panorama.” “Much to my surprise, the images aligned to create some incredible 360-degree views of the Alaskan territory,” Schneider said. That caused him to examine the images side by side and then align them with each other. It was through this systematic organization of the images that he noticed the same mountain in two different places on two different images. He employed systematic methods, ensuring the images were aligned in the same direction, with the sky at the top, mountains on the bottom, and emulsions were facing down. Schneider’s original role in the project was to organize the images for duplication. However, thousands of other images were still viable. As a result, hundreds of images were unable to be duplicated.” When unsleeved negatives get wet and then dry out, they can stick together. “They showed minimal damage, which was likely due to water exposure, not nitrate deterioration. “Surprisingly most of these negatives were actually in fairly good condition,” Schneider said. Originals were kept in fire-proof metal containers in a refrigerated room and monitored to minimize the risk of internal combustion or danger to staff. The project involved nitrate film, which can be highly combustible, if not stored correctly, and which could pose safety concerns, if not handled precisely. Richard Schneider, a special projects management and program analyst, joined the preservation effort in 2008, one year after the National Archives took custody of the USGS images. (Photo: Jeff Reed, NARA) A Preservation Project and a Discovery Richard Schneider discovered panoramic images among USGS files he was preserving at the National Archives. Thanks to one team member’s curiosity, dedication, intrepid research, and photography skills, some treasures were found hidden among those previously unseen images of the vast Alaskan landscape.Įnlarge Richard Schneider and The Hidden Treasure Exhibit
Their mission was the same: preserve our nation’s documents, images, and videos. It was assumed that they could have been taken by topographers and surveyors to collect data in order to map the Alaskan territory.įor the preservation team, however, the purpose of the photos did not matter. When the National Archives preservation team embarked on reformatting and duplicating approximately 52,000 original nitrate-based negatives onto film, little was known about the 1910-1932 U.S. How those images were discovered and brought to the public is a tale of archival detective work and dedicated preservation efforts. WASHINGTON, MaAs the National Archives and Records Administration commemorates the 150th anniversary of the purchase of Alaska from Russia on March 30, 1867, the agency’s facility at College Park is hosting an exhibition of panoramic images taken in the territory during the early parts of the 20th century.
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