The growth of interest in photography as an art form and as a physical medium has created a need among scholars for many of the early texts and other long out-of-print reference materials on the subject. The microfilm collection, History of Photography, is a comprehensive collection of materials for research and the study of the history, technology, and aesthetics of photography, ranging from purely technical, theoretical tracts on the physics of photography to rare photographs made by some of the pioneers in the field.
The core of the collection is drawn from the holdings of the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House. It also encompasses materials from the extensive collections of other prominent libraries, including those at the New York Public Library and in Columbia Universityís Epstean Collection.
In 1976 Julia Van Haaften, of The New York Public Library staff, wrote a memo outlining the scholarly importance of historic photographic literature and pointing out the strength of the holdings of The Research Libraries of NYPL in this area. She encouraged the library to assist efforts to preserve this material by seeking a microform publisher with an interest in photography. Through Donald Anderle and John P. Baker the NYPL concept for a History of Photography project reached Research Publications (now Primary Source Microfilm, an imprint of the Gale Group), and was soon expanded to include the major holdings of the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, the Epstean Collection from Columbia University, and the Research Library of the Eastman Kodak Company. Contributions from all these institutions have been significant, but we have also been grateful for the material contributed by Yale, Harvard, UCLA, the University of Rochester, Boston Public Library, and numerous others.
One of the virtues of microfilm collections is their ability to bring together resources from diverse locations, so it is to a very large group of people that we owe thanks for the many details attended to in this collectionís production. To name them all would take pages - but we would like especially to mention Grant Romer, Gail McLain and Martha Jenks of the George Eastman House staff; Ken Lohf and Rudolph Ellenbogen of Columbia; Elizabeth Kraus of the Eastman Kodak Company Research Library; Diana Edkins, Julia Van Haaften, and Peninah Petruck for the bibliographic selection they did with the consultation of Beaumont Newhall; and lastly those at The New York Public Library responsible for the projectís genesis - Julia Van Haaften (for originating it), Donald Anderle and John P. Baker (for recognizing it) and Helga Borck (for assisting in its implementation).
All periodicals have an identification number: P1-P127. Please note that the following P numbers have been cancelled: