The Royal Engineers in Halifax

Photographing the Garrison City, 1870-1885

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Digital Conservation and Presentation

The digital world has opened up new and wonderful ways to make archives accessible online. It has also allowed for the 'digital conservation' of material as it is prepared for presentation on the World Wide Web.

Our goal is not to alter the original intent of the photographer, but to repair damage done over time. With this collection of glass-plate negatives created by the Royal Engineers during the years 1870 to 1885, the emulsion or chemical material comprising the image has, in the years since, scratched, flaked or crackled off the glass plate. We have minimized this damage by using appropriate software and digital techniques to 'clean up' the image that appears online. For example:

This is what the copy print looks like when the glass
plate is used to create a positive.

This is what the Web-ready image looks like when it
has been digitally cleaned-up.

This is what the copy print looks like when the glass
plate is used to create a positive.

This is what the Web-ready image looks like when it
has been digitally cleaned-up.

We also use Zoomify to present images in greater detail by allowing the image to be magnified.

In the notes which accompany the original image, Harry Piers mentions a lamp post: "Near the barn is an old wooden lamp-post (for oil lamp) with street-sign, as used in the suburbs before 1884." He also identifies buildings across the Northwest Arm: "In distance, near the Arm Bridge, St. James (Church of England) and Bethany Presbyterian Churches, and Henderson and Pott's large stone Paints Works (formerly Black's Grist Mill), burnt down about 1887, on stream from Chocolate Lake; also Hosterman's houses." click on the image above and zoom in to see the details mentioned in Piers' notes