[rollei_list] Re: Slightly OT: What did old period photo albums look like?
- From: Newhouse230@xxxxxxx
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2011 16:12:28 EST
Jeffrey
Judging by my own albums, started in the 50's and my parents' albums from
the 30's and 40's....there was nothing even close to a 'standard' or
'common' size album. It seems that they were every shape and size. Often the
covers were just an embossed cardboard, though sometimes wood, or even leather
were used.
Black 'construction paper' pages were the norm. It was common to write
'cute/funny' captions with white ink on the black page next to each photo.
Photos were affixed with black or white 'corners' which had glued backs.
You slipped a photo into four of the corners...licked the back of the
corners...and pressed the photo onto the album. There were other common
options
too...including 'hinged mounting flaps', glue-backed strips that worked
like a 'piano hinge'...you licked and 'pressed-in-place' one side of the
paper hinge and wet the other part of it which then stuck to the back of a
photo. This allowed you to mount vertical rows of perhaps eight or ten photos
in the same space that would be taken by just two or three photos mounted
with 'corners'. .
I am sure there are millions of albums that just used scotch tape to
mount the photos. You'd cut a small piece of tape and form a very small loop,
so it basically became a double sided tape. Place five of them (think
dice pattern) on each photo and press in place.
Amazingly, a fair number of photos from the 30's and 40's are still
holding to their pages. I suppose some brands of corners or paper hinges had
better glue than others. (or, some saliva activated the glue
better....sounds like a great subject for a research paper!)
These old Family albums are treasures. I, as a child looked at my
parents' albums to see them and and my grandparents when they were young.
My Mom just passed away a few months ago at 93 and those albums were by
far the most valuable tangible asset that she left to my siblings and me.
By the way, you can find listings on Ebay for 'vintage photo
albums'....'old photo albums' 40's photo albums" etc. Often they sell
for
about $10 or $15 and sadly, often include someone's family photos!
As far as 'size of prints'....contact prints were the norm. Making
them was a hugely popular hobby. The world was filled with FR home darkroom
kits...Kodak TRI-CHEM packs.....and packages of Kodak VEL0X contact paper.
(my spelling may be a letter or two off...memory is shot to hell).
The range of common size negatives was roughly 2 1/4" square up to
about 3 1/4" x 4 1/4" . I'm talking about hobbyist usage...not professional
sizes.
I remember that Popular Science, in the early 50's printed the
instructions for how to make a contact printer....using wood from an orange
crate
for the 'box', covering it with black 'felt paper'. and installing a
duplex socket inside...one to hold a white bulb and one to hold a red
safelight.
I think the little round safelight bulb was around 5 or 7 watts..
Anyway....a lot of people did their own contact printing; those that didn't
took their film to the drug store, which sent it to local processing plants
and returned it in a few days. I think 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 and 3 1/2 x 5 were
the small enlargement sizes that you got back...at least, by 1950 that was
the case. Often the paper had 'deck;le edge' paper...sort of a scalloped
edge.
Hope this helps. Good luck with your project
Charlie Silverman
In a message dated 1/3/2011 10:29:55 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
jeffrey@xxxxxxxx writes:
I hate bringing up off-topic things, but this sort of fits in...
I plan on taking some of my MF/Rollei photos and presenting them as if they
came from the era of the camera, say from 1930 until 1950. It will be
darkroom printing on real paper, etc.
The questions come on how to make the work feel like something my
grandparents would have been familiar with. What were the common page
sizes? How were these albums bound? How about print mounting technology?
I've searched on-line and in the antique dealer areas, I see old pressboard
covered, black construction paper books, bound with a cord or ribbon.
Seems
to have no size standards. Some have leather covers.
So, what has everyone else done? Any idea where I can either buy a new
(made to look old) book?
FWIW: what were common print sizes back then? Was everything contact
print?
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