While working with photographs can be a visually stimulating, photographs in large numbers that have been mixed together present a unique challenge. In the Scurlock Studio Records, AC618 at the National Museum of American History, NMAH, we had many boxes of portrait photographs of men and women, weddings, and group events that needed the photographs of each individual or event to be matched with its corresponding photographs. A similar situation occurred with the photographs of jazz events in the Floyd Levin Jazz Reference Collection, AC1222, at NMAH, taken by Floyd and Lucille Levin.
Matching photographs of individuals and events may seem fairly easy at first glance but it is actually incredibly tedious and time consuming. We had thousands of photographs and after seeing several hundred portrait sittings, minute facial features and clothing become very important in telling the difference between individuals. However, there is never enough space to layout all of the photographs and finding where you put a stack of photographs for an individual. When looking at weddings or events, the details of the buildings, clothing, and decorations become significant in telling one pink wedding a part from another pink wedding.
With the jazz events held almost every year at the same location and with the same people attending, the buttons, rarely clear in the photographs, are sometimes the biggest clues in distinguishing one year from another. The process is the equivalent of playing a multilayered game of memory with the questions: Have I seen this person or event before? Where are did I put the rest of the photographs? being asked over and over. Of course, there are other ways to match photographs and other issues that complicate the process. For example, the individuals in the Scurlock portraits may have been photographed with different changes of clothing or at different times; now, the minute features of the face are important for determining if you are looking at the same person or a different individual. While processing the Levins’ photographs, we used date stamps on the back of the photographs to match events. However, this technique was only useful for the initial matching of photographs, because we quickly realized the Levins owned and used multiple cameras at events. As a result, the visual clues in the photographs were significant for matching differently sized and date stamped photographs for a single event with one another.
While the process was incredibly tedious and time consuming, the end result of a group of photographs of an individual being together or being able to look through an event leaves you with a very satisfying and accomplished feeling.
Post Submitted by Rebekah Keel, DCAAP Processing Assistant














