At 04:49 PM 7/28/2010, David Sadowski wrote, in part:
As for the detailed printing instructions someone referred to, what Adams did in 1937 may have been different than what he did in 1977. Maybe he did have detailed instructions that got separated from these negs, or maybe they were destroyed in that 1937 fire. Or maybe the detailed instructions were something that came later in his career.
----------I wrote that memory, as told to me by a wonderful close friend who I went to school with in Oklahoma, starting with the 1st grade and continuing through college, the difference is that he studied medicine so we eventually went to different physical locations the last 2-3 years.
My late friend eventually became chief of staff at a hospital in Santa Clara, CA, and we saw each other about every year or two until he passed away around year 2,000.
I would tend to assume that it was only late in his career that Adams stopped doing his own prints and thus the detailed instructions came into being. My friend used the terms "negative" and "envelope" and since he was a photographer in his own right, would surely have used "plate" if they had been glass. I am certain the print was one of the more famous ones but not the most famous. I think he paid on the order of $150 for it and there were others that sold for quite a bit more.
I will send a note to his son and find out specifically which picture my friend bought.
DAW
