Description of Photographic Collections

W. H. Jackson, 1870
Western History Photographs Collection
Denver Public Library

Panoramic view of grounds at night,
Century 21 Exposition, 1962
Seattle Photograph Collection
University of Washington

Description of Photographic Collections

To examine how photographs are described in online collections, I looked at two collections:

The Denver Public Library's Western History/Genealogy Department Photographs Collection

The University of Washington's Seattle Photograph Collection

Denver Public Library Photographs Collection

The DPL's Western History Photographs collection exists as a subcategory of type of format within their Digital Collections catalog (the other formats being Western Art, Building Plans and Drawings, and Maps). Unfortunately, no comprehensive finding aid or subject list is available, nor is there a definitive subdivision of series, so discovering the scope of the collection is not an easy task.

Main page of DPL Photographs Collection

The front page of the collection does however include a brief collection level description, listing a few of the more popular subjects, such as Native Americans, mining, and railroads. The page also includes links of subject highlights of the collection, which direct the user to search results with those subjects. For example, the Native Americans link directed me to results for a search of the subject "Indians of North America" within the collection. But the search does not return only historical photographs as expected; it also returned art images and even images of physical objects in the collection. These records were included because the cataloger listed "photograph" in the format-medium field in the item level description, even though the actual item being described in the record is not itself a photograph. This error reflects the issue of inconsistency and inaccuracy in the record description, resulting in unreliable search results.

Denver, Northwestern & Pacific RR shot from one tunnel to another
Western History Photographs Collection
Denver Public Library

On the whole, the descriptions of the photographs are very thorough and objective, and do not appear to make any unfounded assumptions about the context of the photographs. If the title has been supplied, it is indicated in the notes field; otherwise, a brief practical title has been constructed by the cataloger. Also in the notes field are any transcriptions from the photo, as well as the accession number and various other facets for internal identification. As we discussed in class, it is important to communicate what the photo is about in order to effectively describe a photo for useful discovery. The summary field provides a thorough and usually concise description of the photograph, detailing the specific contents and context. The record also lists the appropriate subject headings that convey the important locations, people, topics, and events depicted.

Record description for
Denver, Northwestern & Pacific RR shot from one tunnel to another

While the collection's record descriptions are thorough and detailed, the lack of a finding aid or any authoritative guide to assist the researcher in discovery forces the researcher to browse through the photographs at the item level in order understand the full context and extent of the collection. The brief collection level description and the various collection highlights on the main page are not quite enough to properly communicate the collection contents. It should at the very least include a date range and a list of all subject headings used in the record descriptions.

University of Washington's Seattle Photographs Collection

Browsing options on
the main page of
the Seattle Collection

The Seattle Photographs collection is a subset of the Digital Collections at the University of Washington. Unlike the DPL's digital collection, UofW's is not organized by format, but by elements such as subject, genre, or creator. This structure results in a great number of collection titles, about 100 in this case. While I did not see any instances of overlap of items across the collections, this organization style lends itself to that possibility.

The main page of the collection provides a brief description of the contents,  as well as the purpose of the collection. The photographs are meant to document the neighborhoods and street scenes of Seattle. Surprisingly though, not much significance is given to the time periods depicted, as evidenced by a lack of date range. 

Also unlike DPL, the Seattle collection has a few methods to view the contents. The main page provides a link to simply browse the collection, which brings the user to a thumbnail listing of all the photographs in the collection. The main page also provides links to browse the collection's subject headings, using terms from both LCTGM and LCSH. These options serve as a discovery tool, and they give the user the opportunity to fully explore the scope of the collection without having to delve into the records at the item level.

12th Ave. from E. Jefferson St., August 20, 1922
Seattle Photograph Collection
University of Washington

The record descriptions themselves are not as detailed as those in the DPL collection, as they don't often provide a descriptive summary of the contents of each photo. But as the P:ACM textbook explains, "general access to many photos is better than rich access to few". The descriptions appear to be consistent throughout the collection, and do not contain inaccurate metadata that would produce unreliable search results, as found in the DLP collection.

Record description for
12th Ave. from E. Jefferson St., August 20, 1922

Because the photos are mostly of streets and neighborhoods, the titles usually consist of cross streets and a date. Any transcriptions are listed in the notes field, and sometimes historical notes are listed to provide context. The subjects of course include headings from LCTGM and LCSH to correspond with the browsable subject listings from the main page. Other fields are the collection(s) the photo belongs to, the order number, the negative number, repository/location of the original, and the digitization information.

Despite the collection's minimal description of the content in each individual photo, the various approaches the researcher can take to browse the collection make these photographs much more accessible than DPL's. A quick scroll through the subject headings lists makes the collection contents immediately clear, and the researcher is able to determine what kinds of queries will help him locate the appropriate items. While an added detailed summary of each photograph would certainly be even more helpful, the comprehensive subject headings lists provide a controlled vocabulary that returns more relevant records, and ultimately results in a more functional collection.


References

1. Ritzenthaler, Mary L, Diane Vogt-O'Connor, and Mary L. Ritzenthaler. Photographs: Archival Care and Management. Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2006.

2. Dooley, Jackie M. "Processing and Cataloging of Archival Photograph Collections". Visual Resources 11:1 (1995)