Enhancement of the most important Italian collection of unique photographs

A project focused on the conservation, restoration and dissemination of the largest collection of unique photographic items from the Alinari archives, with a special focus on the daguerreotypes produced from 1840 to ca. 1855.

Fondazione Alinari took part in the "Strategia Fotografia 2020-Conservazione" call for bids issued by Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture with the project: Enhancement of the most important Italian collection of daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and ferrotypes from the Alinari Archives.

For the first time in Italy, the project allowed the conservation and restoration of the largest collection of unique photographic items from the Alinari archives, with a special focus on the daguerreotypes produced from 1840 to ca. 1855 and enabled their access through our website. This is the most important and largest collection - 3,165 photo-objects - kept in Italy, of which 2,896 items, covered by this project, have already been made accessible and available for consultation.

At the moment the objects are safely stored at Art Defender warehouse (Calenzano, Florence), awaiting their definitive destination.

Our partner for this project is Opificio delle Pietre Dure, a Central Institute of the Ministry of Culture: they collaborated in the conservation, restoration and high-resolution digitization of such unique items.

The Project

The "Unicum" archive, although considered in general good conditions, had 830 items showing damages to the mountings, whilst 55 items presented critical conservation issues and required restoration (carried out by Opificio delle Pietre Dure). Furthermore, most items required the cleaning and securing, activities which were extended to their cases or frames.

Following the necessary conservation and restoration activities, the project proceeded to the cataloguing in Italian and in English and the back and front high-resolution digitization of each item in order to allow access on our website.

These are extremely precious works, dating back to the dawn of photography, and just like the daguerreotype patented by Daguerre in 1839, provide non reproducible positive/negative images that do not allow for copies: unique objects, produced by Italian, European and American authors. Most of these items date between 1840 to 1860, including a very rare daguerrotype portraying Florence under snow, which is the earliest image of the city existing in the world, made by scientist and Head of the Specola Astronomic Observatory Giovanni Battista Amici (1786-1863), or by his son Vincenzo. Beside several portraits, including those of well-known personalities (such us Gioberti, La Marmora, Liszt), there are views of cities and landscapes (Rome, Genoa, Milan, Palermo, Pisa, Villa d'Este in Tivoli, Niagara Falls, Paris), post-mortem portraits, still-life photos, genre scenes, art works and monuments.

Authors of Unique Items

Among the authors, we would like to mention: Alphonse Bernoud, Gioachino Boglioni, Matthew B. Brady, Aristide Castelli, Onorato Dellacqua, Girault Joseph Philibert De Prangey, Philippe Derussy, Alhonse Thaust Dodero, Alessandro Duroni, Jean Bernard Léon Foucault, Garcin et Meylan, cavalier Iller, Carlo Jest, Lodovico Jung, Giuseppe Marzocchini, John Jabez Edwin Mayall, Désiré François Millet, Joseph Renaud, Pierre-Ambroise Richebourg.

The "Unicum" archive, besides various types of techniques (ambrotype, daguerreotype, tintype, Crystoleum, Eburneum, Ivorytype, Pannotype, Metallotype, Physionotrace portraits and Autotype carbro transparency), contains objects of different formats and mountings, from the so-called Union-Case to the French ones, from 20th century frames to small albums and pendants.

Techniques of conservation and restoration

Conservation interventions included: the dry-dusting with micro-aspiration and the use of micro-fiber cloths; the deep cleaning with the use of a scalpel when needed, the cleaning of glasses with a mix of demineralized water and ethyl alcohol, the removal of tapes and disfiguring labels with diethyl carbonate (green solvent), the securing of the mountings with localized interventions, the manufacturing of conservation cases whenever necessary.

The restoration of 55 objects required a targeted cleaning, dry or solvent -based; water or alcohol consolidation depending on the object technique; the replacement of damaged glasses with new museum glasses; the specially designed and differentiated conservative mounting.

Depending on their format and type of mounting, all the objects treated were placed into folders or paper envelopes (ISO18916) and then moved back into conservation boxes.

Digitization

The digitization was carried out by specialized operators with the creation of a digital workstation and a photographic set, where each object was shot - back and front - by Fuji GFX 50R 50 megapixel professional camera, with 8256x6192max resolution.

Cataloguing

The cataloguing required research and study in order to identify the authors, the date and geographic area of production. Information, both in English and in Italian, was included in compliance with the cataloguing standards, through the creation of the "FF-Fondi fotografici" sheet, which is used by ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione). All the digitized images with their info are now available on our website for consultation, as well as for teaching activities on the history of photo-procedures and on the most important authors and their narratives.

International Workshop

The enhancement project of the "Unicum" archive of the Alinari collections included an Online International Workshop, held on December 13-14, 2021, in which the issues and interventions on photographic materials were discussed with the greatest experts on European and Italian photography collections.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3