Preservation Essentials

Integrated Pest Management for Photographic Collections: An Example from Outbreak to Treatment

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Abstract

Silverfish squashed in spring! Sounds like a low-budget horror film or an awful artisanal menu item. But on April 9, 2015, the assistant director of the Wisconsin Center of Film and Theater Research (WCFTR) stepped on such an insect when entering a cold storage room at the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS). Known as the “Neg Room” (or room 408), this 180-foot storage space holds photographic negatives dating from the 1860s to the 1980s. These negatives, consisting of different film bases (glass, cellulose acetate, and polyester) and some photographic prints, are kept in an array of housing—most in archival paper and plastic sleeves, some in original donor envelopes, all in archival boxes of varying dimensions. Was this silverfish interested in dining on pulp, as they are known to do? Or, was it merely scampering through? And if scampering, from where?

How to Cite:

Sonntag, H. S., (2017) “Integrated Pest Management for Photographic Collections: An Example from Outbreak to Treatment”, MAC Newsletter 44(3), 39-45.