NEAL BARR GLASS NEGATIVE COLLECTION FROM WELLSBORO, PA.

Wellsboro PA – This antique glass negative collection was purchased by professional photographer, Neal Barr, in 1978 from two antique dealers, Leonard Plains and Ronald Rooks from Baltimore. Most of the original glass negatives were 5x7 in size.  Some of the negatives were 8x10 and a few 14x18. Barr edited 1200 from 14000 glass plates that had originally been stored on the then unused original 3rd floor studio on Main street in Wellsboro. The negatives were originally intended for use as contact prints presented on Carte de visite which was the popular trend at the time. Enlarged prints by projecting negatives on sensitized paper was not in the offering at that time. The majority of the negatives were rendered on the popular new dry plate technology which by that time required a shorter exposure time. A few of the wet plate negatives of the early 1890’s by photographer Sweet were purchased by Barr but were more rigid in pose. Barr, who specialized in fashion photography in New York City for forty-three years, was most interested in the images that depicted the fashions of the time from 1890 to 1917.

Negatives selected by Barr were carefully washed and all retouching removed with 5% alcohol. All 1200 of the negatives were contact printed and identified and stored. The glass negatives were then stored in archival sleeves with proper ID as to dates and names of those in the photographs. Barr’s intention was to bring the images forward into a new way of presentation. Instead of contact prints, Barr set out to personally enlarge what he considered the best of the images by use of a light diffusion enlarger purchased expressly for the task. The 5x7 glass negatives were enlarged as 14x17 and 16x20 prints and were made permanently rendered as archival selenium toned everlasting gelatin silver prints. Since Barr’s enlarger only accommodated the 5x7 negatives, contact selenium toned prints were made from the larger glass plates. These prints have since been scanned and rendered as digital files. This painstaking task was to take many years to complete and is a document presented in a new unique way preserving a way of life that has forever vanished.

Distinguished Boston photographer, John Garo, 1868-1939. Photographer Yousuf Karsh apprenticed with him from 1929 to 1931.