Mid-into-late-winter has been a busy, digital-centric time at the archive, and we’re keeping warm brewing up exciting things! Over the past several weeks, all of our archivists have plunged into a scanning frenzy, digitizing documents and photographs from all of the fonds that we’ve added to our new database, AtoM (Access to Memory). Our intention is that, by our spring AtoM launch, all of the fonds browsable by the public will be complimented by a sample of digitized items so you can take a peek into our holdings for yourself.
Things haven’t been all digital, however–the creative analog processes at the core of our work prevail. This month we dealt with several extra-long 1950s Camp Mishmar photographs that had been stored so tightly curled, they were on the brink of destruction. Archival ingenuity to the rescue: propping the photographs on a metal rack atop a damp towel in a sealed plastic container, we created a humidification chamber in which to soften the photographs for several hours. Next, the photographs were removed and enrobed in layers of blotting paper and parchment, and pressed between heavy objects for one week. An archival success story: the photographs unfurled to their original length, and will live to see the light of day (i.e., the cool darkness of the archive) for perhaps centuries to come!
