Describing uncatalogued photographs in nineteenth century albums : a practical project in collections management

This essay documents and justifies a practical project in collections management, in which I surveyed ten albums of photographs and recorded information about them, using a system of my own devising. The descriptive tables included here serve as a finding aid for the contents of albums that are not catalogued at the unit level, offers quick comparison among the albums, and efficiently assembles necessary information for unit-level cataloguing. It also demonstrates a model approach to pre-cataloguing surveys, especially when a particular genre is being studied in more than one album. A system such as this, customized for a specific category or genre of photograph, can provide researchers with thorough and appropriate information specific to their needs. This project deals specifically with the genre of photographic reproductions of works of art, found in ten nineteenth century albums of travels to Italy in the collection of George Eastman House.