August 13, 2026

Notes from the Archive: Damaged, but not Lost

A small photographic glass plate being held on the edges by a gloved hand. The emulsion on the plate shows severe signs of degradation, flaking, and discoloration. An image is not immediately apparent. — The glass plate as it appears to the naked eye.

A scan of the damaged photographic plate. The damage is still evident, but the portrait of two children can be seen. It's difficult to make out most of their clothing, but one is earring a plaid outfit with buttons and they're both wearing lace collars. — The scanned glass plate.

Never would I have expected a photographic plate (wet plate collodion, in this case) with this much damage to still hold a discernible image. But... there it is. Interestingly, it's not (or is no longer) a negative. I'm not sure if something happened during development or if degradation over time (this was probably taken in the 1870s-1880s) has flipped the image, but it's a positive. I know you can do "reversal processing" with film (giving you a positive transparency instead of a negative), but I don't think I've ever heard of it being done with wet plate.