Mounting photographs in bound material

Ms. Gubkins inquires about photographic mounting techniques for
theses and dissertations. She examines several approaches, such as
PVA and dry mounting, dismissing them, at least in part it seems,
because the students would complain of the cost or complexity. I
suppose this is a sign of the (changing) times. Certainly no one was
worried about my inconvenience or out-of-pocket expense when I was a
graduate student--I can still remember the fear as I waited for all
my margins to measured to the nearest 1/16th of an inch, etc., etc.

However, an option which hasn't been considered is requiring the
photographs to be printed on 8-1/2 by 11 inch paper--which is the
technique that my graduate school required. At the time, I believe,
we were printing on Kodabromide paper. Now, I notice that about the
only fiber-based paper that Kodak offers in 8-1/2 by 11 is Polymax
(single weight), which should be acceptable for most uses.

Of course, this would require archival processing--but that seems
like a given for any photograph in a theses or dissertation
(especially if we're going to worry about 415 tape migration). And
it does require some darkroom skills, but they are talents that
serve students well, so it may actually serve multiple functions.
There may also be an on-campus photo lab that could handle such
requests.

Michael Trinkley, Ph.D.
Director
Chicora Foundation, Inc.
PO Box 8664
Columbia, SC  29202-8664
803-787-6910

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 12:11
                   Distributed: Friday, July 17, 1998
                       Message Id: cdl-12-11-006
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