TSLA

Our trip to the Tennessee State Library and Archives, also known as TSLA, was fantastic. We visited the Conservation Lab. Conservation attempts to clean, repair, and preserve documents, blueprints, and photographs. It is different from restoration, which attempts to restore an artifact or document to its original condition or appearance. Conservator Stewart Southard and Carol Robers showed the girls how they clean documents, uses magnesium bicarbonate to flatten and relax the acidity of documents, and applies Japanese tissue paper and wheat paste instead of tape. Director of Conservation Carol Roberts talked about the science behind historic preservation and conservation. The girls also learned about the process of emulsification and using water to flatten rolled panoramic photographs. They were able to see documents from the 1700s! Lessons we learned include: print your pictures, never do anything you cannot undo, and never use scotch tape. The Conservation Lab is hard at work cleaning and preserving documents related to Tennessee history and government.

Mr. Southard's also shared with us his photo collection. The first photographs were called daguerreotpyes. Next were pictures on tin and copper. Essentially the light from the flash would burn the image (through a chemical reaction). Sometimes this could take up to five minutes which is why most people had simple poses and did not smile. Glass plate positives preceded negatives which is why you have to put it on black backing to see the image. Early paper photos were cheaper, allowing people to have a little more fun in their pictures. As such, the first "funny" photos emerged -- some things never change! Paper photos emerged in the 1920s and 1930s.  Below are some of the samples of early photographs.