by Sophie Senning
Much of the research involved in our UnClass uncovering the history of Akron’s Jazz culture requires the use of physical archives, as large portions of information are not digitally available. Luckily, The University of Akron Archives and Special Collections are conveniently located on campus in the Polsky building. Both students and members of the public can make free appointments on the University Archives website: https://www.uakron.edu/libraries/archives/.
While I’m used to using online databases, this class was actually my first time accessing a physical archive. While it seemed a little daunting at first, the staff and my fellow students helped me get acquainted. We started with some image negatives from the Opie Evans Papers. Opie Evans, among other things, was a photographer who took hundreds of pictures during his life, mostly focusing on Akron’s African American community. These photos provide an invaluable insight into people’s lives at the time.
Many of the photos in the archives are stored as photographic negatives. These are pieces of film used to develop printed photos. Negatives invert the colors on images, light is dark and dark is light, which can make looking directly at negatives difficult.
I realized that I could use my phone to take pictures of the negatives, and invert them to the correct colors using its built-in image editor. This saves time when just browsing through a collection, as snapping a quick photo is faster than using a scanner.
I imagine I’ll be using this technique a lot as I browse the archives looking for primary sources for my group’s project. The University website has finding aids available for many of their collections. I’ll be using these to hone my search for information on the historical queer community in Akron.
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