GRINDE, LENE. "CONSERVATION OF STEREO DAGUERREOTYPES."

Abstract

The rarity, beauty and importance of stereo daguerreotypes are widely recognized, yet their complexity and vulnerability are not. As more scholarly attention is paid to early photography, greater valuation will surely be given to the first forms of stereography, which is already seen as a very significant element of the history of photography. No doubt, conservators will be asked more frequently to address problems.

Conservators and students of conservation lack guidelines for making corrective interventions when confronted with jeopardized stereographic daguerreotypes. It is proposed to create a guide which establishes protocols for examination, documentation and analysis, which provides illustrations of the issues typically presented by this form of photographic object. Such a guide will not only serve the conservation of stereo daguerreotypes, but it will also give a model for approaching similar photograph conservation challenges, where housing structures are unusually complex and vital.

Lene Grinde was an ARP fellow from 2003 to 2005. This capstone project grew out of a treatment problem that Lene was working on at the ARP. She is currently a PhD candidate in scientific conservation as well as an assistant professor in the School of Conservation at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art in Copenhagen, Denmark.

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