Several thousand medium-format copy negatives, along with contact prints, were shot in the early 1990's for archival purposes, prior to the advent of practical high-resolution scanning. These negatives are much larger than standard 35mm negatives and were made in two sizes or formats: 2.4"x3.5" and 4"x5".  They were used to make prints up to 16"x20".

PROVENANCE/HISTORY

These negatives were shot for archival purposes from rare images (generally about 15-20 years ago), primarily borrowed from private collections. Some of the originals are worth $300 up to $1,000 or more, were they ever to be sold. Few of these are likely to ever be sold, however, as they are in private collections.  Most images are from real photo postcards (c. 1905-20), and many of the remainders are from older cabinet cards and mounted images.

In most cases only a single negative was made, although for about 1% of images, there are two of different formats (sizes). This was done as backup for images of particular importance. The cost of creating these averaged approximately $25 each, around 15-20 years ago.  Note that some of the samples below show parts of ID labels on the contact print.  These can usually be carefully peeled off, however, they are for reference only, as the negatives are used for any type of reproduction.  The full list of categories or topics is found on the following two pages.