Re: Eastman House gum prints
The rules are pretty strict. You have to get a pass to go through locked doors, then into the library where you don't have access to the archives but request stuff which is brought to you on cart. You are allowed pencils only, but I was able to bring in my computer and camera and handle all publications myself with my hands (property pass declaring what I was bringing in). And I was alone with them as I was at Mertle, too. So their policy is tight but more liberal than Mertle Rare Books at the U of Minnesota. And highly accomodating. The library staff is tremendous--Jessica, Christopher, Rachel, Susan. Toward the last day or two I was requesting full runs of journals. But, I did email frequently, with book requests, beforehand so perhaps they do screen researchers and I just didn't realize that. Whatever the case, I cannot say enough good about both libraries. That said, I was so bummed to find a great article in the index of one of the journals, but when I went to the pages, they were cut out. However, they were also replaced by pages of archival paper, so I would think they came like that to the GEH, without pages, and they repaired it. I couldn't believe that article was gone because it was written by Ravell, and they have a whole box of Ravell work in their archives, and I was so excited to find that article for Joe, in case he didn't already know about it. Ravell's technique was very unusual. I know that Mark Osterman with his particular grant and what he is doing with the GEH/Univ of Rochester is able to go into all the archives himself. As far as picture archives, no I was never alone with them--Joe Struble brought out boxes at a time and I went through each box individually with white gloves. Joe was always present. Etienne, how fortunate you were to live here and go there for so many years. Plus there are some great restaurants here :)--like Black and Blue Steak and Crab. Chris ----- Original Message ----- From: "etienne garbaux" <photographeur@nerdshack.com> To: <alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca> Sent: Saturday, January 13, 2007 12:41 AM Subject: Re: Eastman House gum prints Judy wrote,I would figure, Chris, that "security" isn't a problem at GEH where visitors are well vetted? (Do you get to handle the original publications?) But then again last year the papers were full of a story about the map expert who filched antique maps from Yale and Harvard libraries, among others, then got caught.It was a bit of a problem in the past. I don't know if that is still true. I lived in Rochester for many years, visited GEH hundreds of times, and knew a number of the employees and conservators personally. They all had horror stories of thefts by visitors. Last I knew, GEH had begun to restrict access to at least some materials to people (generally academics) with a "legitimate research interest." At least at that time, I always got to see original artwork and publications, and was left alone with them. While we're on the subject, let's not forget the tens or hundreds of thousands of images and films that were deteriorating much faster than GEH could conserve them. A real pity. Best regards, etienne
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