NEH Grant Project: Saving and Sharing the AGS Library's Historic Nitrate Negative Images With generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the American Geographical Society Library of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries (AGSL) has been able to institute a two-year, $315,000 grant project. Our NEH grant project "Saving and Sharing the AGS Library's Historic Nitrate Negative Images" began in May 2010. The scope of the project is to re-house, scan, create metadata for, and preserve on a long-term basis, the approximately 68,000 nitrate negatives in its photography collection. The ultimate goal of this effort is to provide universal access to this rich resource over the Internet. The nitrate negatives involved were separated out of the AGSL's 450,000 image photography collection and put at the top of the list for digitization because of the volatile nature of deteriorating cellulose nitrate, the type of plastic used to make the first flexible film, which can spontaneously combust when it has broken down too far. The intent of this web page is to bring together in one place the results of this NEH funded project, regardless of topic, region or era. Browse all images digitized as a result of the NEH Grant Project so far Or Explore individual collections: Bert A. Krawczyk Collection This digital collection presents approximately 600 images of China and India taken during World War II by Hubert Krawczyk, a young photographer and artist who was stationed in India, and then assigned to the Hunan (Yunnan) Province of China in 1942 through 1945. The negatives are housed at the American Geographical Society Library and were scanned as part of the 2010-2012 NEH Grant Project to digitize the library's collection of nitrate negatives. The negatives are particularly valuable because he made annotations for his photography of Chinese cultural events and document the regional clothing and costumes of the Chinese people during the 1940s. Browse the entire collection . Richard U. Light and Mary (Light) Meader Collection This digital collection contains approximately over 900 images from Mary Upjohn Light's aerial photography in 1937-38. Mrs. Light (who later married Dr. Edwin Meader) was an adventurous aerial photographer who flew with Dr. Richard Upjohn Light, a geographer and pilot, over the continents of North and Central America, South America, and Africa. They were the first to produce aerial photographs of these continents. Some of the first aerial photographs of the pyramids in Egypt are present in the Light/Meader Collection of negatives. The negatives, and accompanying photos and photography logs, are housed at the American Geographical Society Library and were scanned as part of the 2010-2012 NEH Grant Project to digitize the library's collection of nitrate negatives. Browse the entire collection . Mary Jo Read Collection This digital collection consists of approximately 200 negatives made in 1935 while Mary Jo Read was on vacation in China, Japan, Korea and the Philippines. She had a selection of these images made into hand colored lantern slides. The negatives and slides are part of a larger collection of photography housed at the American Geographical Society Library. The negatives were scanned as part of the 2010-2012 NEH Grant Project to digitize the AGSL's collection of nitrate negatives. Browse the selection of black-and-white negatives . Harrison Forman Collection Harrison Forman (1904-1978), a native of Wisconsin, was an adventurous journalist, photographer, and explorer. Forman worked as a foreign correspondent in the Far East for the New York Times, London Times, and the National Broadcasting Company. He undertook three expeditions to northern Tibet between 1932 and 1937 and also documented the Nazi invasion of Poland and the outbreak of World War II. The more than 3,000 images presented here were scanned from film negatives. Browse the selection of black-and-white negatives . Theodoor deBooy Collection This digital collection presents approximately 90 images of Venezuela in 1918 when Theodoor deBooy traveled there under the auspices of the American Geographical Society and the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. DeBooy, a noted archaeologist and geographical researcher, was interested exploring the unknown region of the Perija Mountains in eastern Venezuela. His expedition in 1918 allowed him to study the ethnology of the Motilone Indians, a South American tribe that had little to no contact with white settlers. He was still compiling his research while working as a South American expert in the State Department Inquiry when he died unexpectedly. The negatives are housed at the American Geographical Society Library and were scanned as part of the 2010-2012 NEH Grant Project to digitize the library's collection of nitrate negatives. Browse the entire collection . Isaiah Bowman Collection This digital collection presents approximately 1000 images taken by Isaiah Bowman while researching in South America and North America. Isaiah Bowman led the Yale South American expedition (1907), served as geographer-geologist on the Yale Peruvian expedition (Machu Picchu discovery of 1911), and led the American Geographical Society Expedition to the Central Andes (1913). This collection also includes photographs he took on his field trips to study "pioneer problems" across the most western territories of the USA and Canada, known as the "Pioneer Fringe" in the 1930's. The negatives are housed at the American Geographical Society Library and were scanned as part of the 2010-2012 NEH Grant Project to digitize the library's collection of nitrate negatives. Browse the entire collection . Helmut de Terra Collection This digital collection presents approximately 800 images taken by Helmut deTerra while in Tibet, India, and Chinese Turkestan, from 1927-1936. De Terra's work in Chinese Turkestan was a particularly notable expedition with the geographer Emil Trinkler; the results and materials of De Terra's and Trinkler's expedition were published a quarter of a century later by Gerd Gropp. The Helmut de Terra Collection negatives are housed at the American Geographical Society Library and were scanned as part of the 2010-2012 NEH Grant Project to digitize the library's collection of nitrate negatives. Browse the entire collection . Alexander Forbes Collection This digital collection presents approximately 1400 images taken while mapping the northern most coast of Labrador in the 1931, 1932, and 1935, including the historic first aerial images over Northern Labrador. Dr. Forbes was a leader in photogrammetry (the technique of compiling maps from aerial photography) for the United States Navy. In his work for the U.S. government, Forbes engaged in mapping Labrador, Northern Quebec, and Frobisher Bay of Baffin Island. The Forbes collection of negatives are housed at the American Geographical Society Library and were scanned as part of the 2010-2012 NEH Grant Project to digitize the library's collection of nitrate negatives. Browse the entire collection . Copyright © 2010 Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. All rights reserved.