During the period 14 - 16 November 2005, the State Hermitage hosted a seminar on international research and practical work entitled "Inspecting archives of photographic materials - the first step to planning a program for their preservation.”

Among the participants in the seminar were curators and restorers of collections of photographic materials from the largest museums, archives and libraries of St Petersburg, Moscow, the USA, Israel, and Great Britain.

The seminar program included lectures by leading staff from the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Cinema (Rochester, USA), the Rochester Institute of Technology (USA), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA), the University of Delaware (USA), the American Institute for Conservation (Boston, USA), the Courtauld Institute (London, Great Britain) and the Russian Museum of Ethnography (St Petersburg). In addition to lectures on issues of storage, conservation, restoration and use of photographic materials drawing upon the actual experience of inspecting archives, there was also some practical work in the storage facilities of the State Hermitage and the State Institute of the History of Material Culture (St Petersburg).

Special attention was devoted to issues of storage and conservation of negatives and daguerreotypes associated with aging and decay of the chemical components in the films and images, as well as new practices for using digital images in the long-term storage of photographic images and their archiving on electronic platforms.

The present seminar in the Hermitage set for itself tasks of studying the principles of investigating museum archives, determining the condition of collections of photographic materials, and also proposed to deal with suggestions for creating a plan of conservation and restoration of archives making use of existing experience and working methods in practice at the International Museum of Photography and Cinema in Rochester, New York.

The seminar was the first time the instructional program of the Mellon Collaborative Workshop has been applied in Russia. This is a museum and restoration program sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The model exists since 1998.

The project became possible thanks to assistance from the director of museum and restoration programs of the Andrew Mellon Foundation Angelica Zander Rudenstein, to close professional collaboration between curators and restorers of the Hermitage and their colleagues at the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Cinema (Rochester, New York, USA), as well as to active financial support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, private sponsors in Russia, and assistance from Kelly Engineering Resources.

The seminar program ended in a round table discussion. Participants exchanged opinions on issues relating to specialized literature in Russia and abroad and on the accessibility of information about new methods for preserving photographic materials.

At the Seminar