Collection Guide
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UC San Diego. SIO Photographic Laboratory Collection
SAC 0044
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
Title: SIO Photographic Laboratory Collection
Creator:
Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Photographic Laboratory
Identifier/Call Number: SAC 0044
Physical Description:
39 Linear feet
(39 archive boxes, 72 card file boxes, 5 cartons, and 1 cassette box)
Date (inclusive): 1900-2002 (bulk 1949-1999)
Abstract: The Photographic Laboratory Collection consists of original negatives, prints, and films documenting the history of Scripps
Institution of Oceanography and UC San Diego, including the development of the campus, research, portraits, and expeditions.
Languages:
English
.
The Photographic Laboratory (aka Photo Lab) was established in 1949 on the campus of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography
(SIO) to provide photographic services to the academic community. The first Photo Lab photographer, John MacFall, was hired
that year. Photography of an event, building or person could be requested by academic, administrative, or research units;
the office that placed an order was then billed.
Beginning in 1958, the Lab began accepting many requests to photograph the construction of new buildings and the growing physical
plant of the broader University of California, San Diego campus. There were also increasing numbers of events, programs, faculty,
and students to document. Photo Lab photographers captured thousands of images of faculty, staff, and students, in addition
to scientific instruments, artifacts and marine specimens, research ships, campus buildings, special events, and even aerial
views of SIO, UC San Diego, and surrounding area.
Although the Lab's primary output was still photographs, during its early years the Lab also produced several silent films.
Many of these early films were taken by Lab personnel John MacFall and James Rupert, who documented oceanographic expeditions.
In 2000, SIO closed the Photo Lab due to the increased use of digital and emerging image technologies. The Lab closed permanently
on June 30, 2000. The last photographer was Sue Green. After the Lab's closure, contract photographers were hired as needed
to capture images of campus, events, and staff. For photograph processing, personnel at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography
were also offered access to other UC San Diego resources, including the UC San Diego School of Medicine's Office of Learning
(OLR) Photo Services.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Photographic Laboratory Collection consists of original negatives, prints, and films documenting the history of Scripps
Institution of Oceanography and UC San Diego, including the development of the campus, research, portraits, and expeditions,
originally created by the campus Photographic Laboratory (aka Photo Lab). The collection comprises the Lab's photo archive,
which included over 25,000 indexed negatives, thousands of prints, and several dozen films. Most of the images date from between
1949 and 2000, the Lab's active years, though it does include some copy prints of earlier negatives that were processed at
the Lab by special request.
The bulk of the collection (71 boxes) consists of the master negative archive. The negatives were sleeved by job number, with
the general subject of the shoot noted in a running index maintained by Photo Lab personnel. The negatives date from 1949
to 1997 and encompass a wide variety of subjects, from notable people to events in campus history. Many of the negatives have
been digitized. The prints in the collection generally complement the negative archive and were processed from the negatives
by request. Additional prints and copy negatives have been divided into two additional series, PEOPLE and SUBJECTS, that may
overlap with the master negative archive.
The collection is arranged in four series: 1) INDEXED IMAGES, 2) PEOPLE, 3) SUBJECTS, and 4) FILMS.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. ALLOW ONE WEEK FOR RETRIEVAL OF MATERIALS.
Publication rights are held by the UC Regents.
Original media formats are restricted. Viewing/listening copies may be available for researchers.
SIO Photographic Laboratory Collection, SAC 44. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.
A selection of images and recordings from this collection have been digitized.
Acquired 1985, 2003-2012
Scripps Institution of Oceanography Photographs Collection, SMC 59. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.
The UC San Diego Library's
Digital Collections website includes many digitized images from this collection as well as other content related to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography
from the Special Collections & Archives. Online description and collection pages are continually being enhanced and edited
for ease of use and discovery.
The Photographic Laboratory maintained a numbered index ledger of all photo orders, and prints and negatives from a specific
shoot were normally put into sleeves or folders and marked with the corresponding number. Most images were kept in a master
negative file in numbered order, but there was also a separate group of portraits, possibly due to frequent requests for images
of individuals. In addition, the Photo Lab would occasionally make copies or extra prints on demand without recording the
original index numbers, resulting in some images that can't be identified to a job in the master index. The Photo Lab's archive,
including both indexed and unindexed images, and the portraits, were transferred to the University Library in several different
accessions between 1985 and 2012.
In 2019, Special Collections & Archives staff began processing the collection to facilitate ease of use and paging, transcribing
data and index numbers from the ledgers into a finding aid for the collection. They decided to tidy and retain the two main
indexed series: the primary indexed group (series 1), and the portraits (series 2), following the original organization. All
remaining images without index numbers were collated together into categories by subject (series 3). Finally, the films were
added to the end of the collection and also organized by topic (series 4).
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Oceanographic instruments
Oceanography -- Research
Scientific expeditions
Negatives (photographs)
Photographic prints
Silent films
Science films
Nonfiction films
Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Photographic Laboratory -- Archives
Scripps Institution of Oceanography -- History
University of California, San Diego -- History