Requirements and standards for HABS/HAER photography

[james norman]

i do HABS/HAER recordation for a living. if you email me your fax number, i can fax you the standards. the process to prepare these materials for submittal to NPS i quite involved, and i have a full- time assistant that does nothing but process all my work for submittal. all the work is large-format and black-and-white, unless LF CTs are specifically requested by paul dolinski (HABS) or eric delony (HAER). each negative must be archivally processed, and labelled in the margin with the accession number. each print is on fiber-base paper, also to archival standards, and labelled on the verso. each negative goes in its own archival sleeve which also must be labelled, and each print is mounted on a card, also labelled. for many projects, we also must process the historic narrative materials. all materials are tested upon receipt at NPS, and if they do not test properly for archival stability, they are rejected. btw, i use permawash :-)

[pchaplo]

i do HABS/HAER recordation for a living. ... ... ... all materials are tested upon receipt at NPS, and if they do not test properly for archival stability, they are rejected. btw, i use permawash :-)

James, how does HABS/HAER test for archival stability? How can I ensure that my film and prints are properly processed? Is it a matter of longer washing time? I see that you use Perma-Wash and I am reading about that now -- do you use Perma-Wash after a long water wash? Thanks, Paul

[Sal Santamaura]

i do HABS/HAER recordation for a living...all materials are tested upon receipt at NPS, and if they do not test properly for archival stability, they are rejected. btw, i use permawash :-)

James, how does HABS/HAER test for archival stability? How can I ensure that my film and prints are properly processed? Is it a matter of longer washing time? I see that you use Perma-Wash and I am reading about that now -- do you use Perma-Wash after a long water wash? Thanks, Paul

I regularly applaud posters who add on to an existing thread, regardless of its age, rather than starting a new, redundant one. However, two bits of searching argue against awarding kudos in this case.

First, James Norman's profile indicates he was last active here on December 6, 2001. Second, a quick Google inquiry leads to this page

http://www.nps.gov/hdp/standards/PhotoGuidelines.pdf

that provides the current standards (as of June 2015) for processing. It's not clear to me from this document that the HABS/HAER office actually tests submissions for residual hypo. To obtain a definitive answer, I suggest you contact them directly at the provided email address:

hdp_collections@nps.gov