Most of the slides are of the Rockies, but there are a fair number of slides
from Cuba. From what I can tell, the slides are from the turn of the century.
A couple of slides have a "Copyright 1900" on them and there are a few slides
that are related to the Spanish-American War. The slides seem to be from
several vendors, with the majority of them marked "
For the most part, the slides seem to be a little dirty, but in good condition.
Only about a dozen have any broken glass and most of the tape the holds the
glass pieces together is in very good condition. Much of the dirt appears to
be external, but some tiny spots might be internal.
I'd like to try so print some positives from the positive lantern slides in
a way that would reflect their origin and try to somewhat duplicate the
lantern slide "atmosphere". Perhaps I should look into using an alternative
process to today's printmaking technology to try do this this. I would
appreciate comments from users of alternative printing technologies to see
what processes I should be considering.
The slides themselves are obviously very contrasty. It looks like I would
need to tame the contrast to print with modern technology, but I suppose that
this may not be the case with some of the alternative processes. Off the
top of my head (with little experience with this), it looks like I should
1) Clean the slides as much as possible.
2) Put them on a light box and make 4 x 5 negatives appropriate to
the printing process. This would allow me to control contrast
and retouch the negatives.
3) Make new paper-based positives based upon whatever technology
is most appropriate.
We can probably pick up the slides for around $1 each with a lantern slide
projector thrown in. I've already enjoyed looking at them with a loupe,
so this cost seems reasonable to me. I have no idea what they are worth.
Can I make adequate prints from these slides? What process should I consider
to try to capture the original atmosphere of the slides?
Thanks in advance.