THE TRANSFORMATION OF A NEWSPAPER NEGATIVE ARCHIVE THE

THE TRANSFORMATION OF A NEWSPAPER NEGATIVE ARCHIVE: THE CASE OF THE LONDON FREE PRESS TOM BELTON, WESTERN UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES APRIL 21, 2018

Tom Belton, Western University Archives LONDON FREE PRESS • Established 1849. • Daily since 1855. • Hired first staff photographers in 1930 s. • Photographers established regional bureaus in 1940 s. • Owned by Blackburn family until 1997. • Acquired by Sun Media in 1997, which was acquired by Postmedia (current owner) in 2014. 12/18/2021

Tom Belton, Western University Archives 12/18/2021

Tom Belton, Western University Archives 12/18/2021 LONDON FREE PRESS COLLECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC NEGATIVES • Donated to Western University by then owner Blackburn Group in a series of accessions between 1984 and mid 1990 s. • Copyright was transferred with most of these accessions (but only for original work of staff photographers). • Changes to Canadian Copyright Act in 2012 enhanced rights of photographers. • Current collection range is 1936 -1992, with most images dating 1939 -1992. • About 20% of images (around 300, 000) were published. • More information at https: //www. lib. uwo. ca/archives/londonfreepress. html.

Tom Belton, Western University Archives 12/18/2021 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION • Approximately 1. 6 million negatives, entirely black and white until late 1966, in a variety of sizes. • Majority are chronologically arranged job files, usually 1 envelope per job. • Each envelope includes a brief description of the job and/or contents. • Also a significant series of portrait files. • Some envelopes were moved into separate series of historical and aerial files. • Historical files tend to be copy negatives of older prints.

Tom Belton, Western University Archives 12/18/2021

Tom Belton, Western University Archives 12/18/2021

Tom Belton, Western University Archives 12/18/2021 PRESERVATION ISSUES • Envelopes are still primarily non acid-free. • Entire collection is stored in cool to cold storage. • A significant portion of mid 1950 s era negatives suffer from vinegar syndrome (deteriorating cellulose acetate film). • Presently conducting a survey to segregate the most heavily damaged negatives. • Other concerns: colour film fading, etc.

Tom Belton, Western University Archives 12/18/2021

Tom Belton, Western University Archives 12/18/2021 COLLECTION METADATA • Newspaper maintained job indexes (which we don’t have yet) that sometimes include contact prints. • University archives staff and students prepared chronological listings of varying quality and formats (typewritten, word processed, spreadsheet). • We have made a systematic effort to import these listings up to 1955 into our archives database. Listings up to 1970 are available on the Collection webpage. • Work is ongoing to add listings up to 1992.

Tom Belton, Western University Archives 12/18/2021 ACCESSIBILITY OF COLLECTION • Patrons have traditionally perused the listings and collection itself in-house with use of light table and magnifying glass. • As noted above, pre-1965 listings now available online. • Patrons still need to view negatives onsite, unless request is a one-off in which case a digital contact sheet can be prepared. • Patrons can request digitization for a fee ($5 per image).

Tom Belton, Western University Archives 12/18/2021 DIGITIZATION • Proactive digitization since 2013. • Initial focus on improving access. • Began by digitizing one negative from each envelope for selected years. • Have since expanded criteria to include preservation concerns (e. g. vinegar syndrome). • Some thematic chronological digitization has been undertaken (e. g. World War Two era images). • Approximately 50, 000 images (about 3% of collection) have been digitized to date.

Tom Belton, Western University Archives FOUR LONDON, ONTARIO MINISTERS IN SELMA, ALABAMA Photographer: George Blumson AFC 177 -S 1 -SS 1 -F 1700 12/18/2021

Tom Belton, Western University Archives 12/18/2021

Tom Belton, Western University Archives 12/18/2021

Tom Belton, Western University Archives 12/18/2021 COMMUNITY OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT • Semi-regular postings on our Historypin site: https: //www. historypin. org/en/person/47683. • Canada 150 project – London Free Press images from 1967. • Regular postings to our Facebook and Twitter accounts. • Our postings have been widely with local history social media groups. • Talks and publications. (e. g. “From the Vault” book).

Tom Belton, Western University Archives 12/18/2021

Tom Belton, Western University Archives 12/18/2021

Tom Belton, Western University Archives THE EMERGENCE OF THE DIGITAL COLLECTION • The physical collection • Negative as original. • Aspects of artifactual, illustrative, and teaching value. • Difficulty of access/focus on a few images at a time. • The digital collection • Positive as published (or publishable) image. • Improved research value. • Ease of access/focus on hundreds or more images. 12/18/2021

Tom Belton, Western University Archives ACADEMIC RESEARCH VALUE • Little academic research or teaching use of collection to date. • What academic research has been done tends to be illustrative. • May reflect the difficulty in using the collection. • Possibility of mining the 50, 000+ images that have been digitized. • What is the academic research value of a significant portion (3 -5%) of this collection of a fairly typical medium-sized newspaper? • Focus on the visual (obviously) and the chronological rather than topical (somewhat less obviously). 12/18/2021

Tom Belton, Western University Archives THE FUTURE • Post-1992 negatives. • Digital photographs as of 2002. • Copyright changes. • Recordkeeping changes. • End of the community newspaper. • End of the newspaper? 12/18/2021

Tom Belton, Western University Archives THANK YOU! QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS? • Tom Belton • tbelton@uwo. ca 12/18/2021