Conservation of Deteriorating Vertebrate Paleontology Nitrate Negatives

日益恶化的脊椎动物古生物学硝酸盐阴性物质的保护

• 批准号: 0237425
• 负责人: Samuel McLeod
• 金额: $ 12.89万
• 依托单位: Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-05-01 至 2006-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0237425&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Conservation; Deteriorating; Vertebrate; Paleontology; Nitrate

A grant has been awarded to Dr. McLeod at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (LACM) for conservation of deteriorating nitrate negatives of photos taken by the personnel of the California Institute of Technology (CIT) to document collecting of vertebrate fossils, including dinosaurs, during the period 1925-1949. Although standard for photography at that time, nitrate negatives are known to deteriorate and they constitute hazardous materials. These nitrate negatives represent the best, and sometimes the only, documentation of the localities for the CIT fossil vertebrate collections, acquired by the LACM in 1957, and additionally document the conditions in some areas of the western United States during the early 20th century that have subsequently been highly altered due to natural causes or human activities. These nitrate negatives currently range in condition from apparently pristine to almost completely destroyed. Ultimately, they will all deteriorate to an unusable state.Following the National Park Service guidelines for conservation of nitrate negatives, with funding from the National Science Foundation for this project new interpositives, copy negatives, and prints will be made for the 2,043 CIT field photographs. This will preserve the photographic images that otherwise would be lost due to the deterioration of the nitrate negatives. A half-time curatorial assistant will be hired to scan the photographs from the nitrate negatives, type in the descriptions, adjust the images, and place them on the Museum's web site, thereby providing wide access to these images for both lay and professional audiences. A half-time student assistant will be hired and trained to determine the latitude and longitude of the fossil localities represented by the CIT nitrate negative images, thereby providing a new permanent standard reference for the location of the sites.The broader scientific significance of the project is that these photographs document the localities for a substantial and important collection of vertebrate fossils from western North America. Some of the areas documented by these photographs no longer exist due to development in the more than half century since the collections were made. Teaching students how to use modern technology to determine the exact location of the fossil sites represented in the photographs will expand the educational activities of the Museum and enhance the Museum's commitment to education. Providing web access to the images will give a broad and international audience a portal to these early classic fossil vertebrate sites and the collections derived from them.

洛杉矶县自然历史博物馆(LACM)的麦克劳德博士获得了一项赠款，用于保护加州理工学院(CIT)人员拍摄的照片的劣化硝酸盐底片，以记录1925-1949年期间收集的脊椎动物化石，包括恐龙。尽管硝酸盐底片在当时是摄影的标准，但众所周知，它会变质，而且它们是危险材料。这些硝酸盐底片代表了最好的，有时是唯一的，关于1957年LACM获得的CIT脊椎动物化石收藏的地点记录，并另外记录了20世纪初美国西部一些地区的条件，后来由于自然原因或人类活动而发生了很大的变化。这些硝酸盐阴性物质目前的状况从表面上看是原始的到几乎完全被摧毁。按照国家公园管理局保护硝酸盐底片的指导方针，在国家科学基金会的资助下，将为2043张CIT现场照片制作新的中间底片、复印底片和照片。这将保留原本会因硝酸盐底片变质而丢失的摄影图像。博物馆将聘请一名半职策展助理，扫描硝酸盐底片上的照片，输入描述，调整图像，并将它们放在博物馆的网站上，从而为非专业观众和专业观众提供广泛的访问这些图像的机会。将雇用和培训一名半职学生助理，以确定CIT硝酸盐负片所代表的化石地点的纬度和经度，从而为遗址的位置提供新的永久标准参考。该项目的更广泛的科学意义在于，这些照片记录了北美西部大量重要的脊椎动物化石收集的地点。由于半个多世纪以来的发展，这些照片记录的一些地区已经不复存在。教授学生如何使用现代技术来确定照片中所代表的化石遗址的确切位置，将扩大博物馆的教育活动，并加强博物馆对教育的承诺。提供对图像的网络访问将为广大和国际观众提供一个门户，进入这些早期的经典脊椎动物化石遗址和从它们衍生出来的藏品。