In clearing out the well room, we came across (again – I had seen this before but not opened it to fully explore) two boxes of glass plate negatives. Glass plate negatives were used between the 1850’s until the 1920’s, depending on the type. Since this is an entirely new thing to me, I couldn’t tell you which type we have I looked on the box to see if I could find out what we have. The box says these are rapid dry plates which means they were the kind invented in 1871 and used until around 1920.
You almost can’t see anything when you look in the box – the negatives have to be held up to the light to see any of the pictures, much like more recent film negatives (practically as obsolete as these today!). But when placed on a light box, you get a good idea of what the photo is and could look like.
After watching a tutorial of how to reverse a negative in lightroom, I was able to use my phone (ah, smart phones!) to reverse these and change them to black and white. Pretty amazing. Especially when you consider they’re over 100 years old and have been sitting in an unheated or cooled house for almost 27 years untended and exposed to those temperature changes (it can get down to below 25 in winter and in the high 90’s in summer where the house is in southern NH).
The previous owner’s father was something of a hoarder according to the local townspeople – he told many people that he collected anything there is more than one of! – so it’s unlikely that these are there relatives and more likely that they were acquired at a rummage sale or flea market as part of a “collection” of his. I’m excited to print some of them. I think the girl on the chair with the glasses perched on the end of her nose is my favorite. She looks serious, but it’s obviously a silly pose to put such a small child in. Nice to know they still had a sense of humor despite rarely smiling in photographs.
What’s the coolest old thing you’ve ever found. I think along with the hand dug well, this is the neatest one we’ve found so far.
Gnarly Farms 