Fragile Heritage - historical glass plate negatives at the Astronomical Observatory of Palermo

The Astronomical Observatory of Palermo still operates in the original 18th century premises where a wealth of heritage has stratified. Historical instruments, books, archival documents and photographs. Among the photographic collection a number of glass plate negatives survived several moves and internal rearrangements of the spaces, especially of the library and archive.

Some years ago a fruitful cooperation with the Course of Cultural Heritage conservation of the Palermo University gave the opportunity to design and carry out a preservation project to clean, stabilize and digitize all the historical photographic negatives of the collection. The project was carried out by the students with the tutoring of an accredited conservator and allowed, with a small investment, to dramatically increase the life expectation of such invaluable piece of heritage and to make it safely accessible to scholars.