Air pollution adversely affects the state of preservation of old photographs.

Zanieczyszczenia powietrza wpływają negatywnie na stan zachowania starych fotografii.

In 2019, a 15th-century print entitled The Tower of Wisdom kept by the Kórnik Library in Poland was subjected to scientific examination. The main purpose of the examination of the hand-coloured image was the identification of the technique of the application of the text and the illustrations. The conducted examination proved a thesis that it is an example of xylographic print. Moreover, the elemental composition of the paint layer was analysed, revealing no colours which were not used in the period of the object’s origin.

Th e article presents issues related to the collection of over 200 collodion negatives made on a glass support in the so-called wet collodion process, housed in the Kórnik Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Kórnik. It describes the collodion process, which was invented in 1851, the characteristics of collodion negatives, and the themes presented on objects from the Kórnik collection. It subsequently discusses the characteristic damages of collodion negatives, with the most dangerous deposition of alkaline compounds on the surface of the glasses, which causes the destruction and loss of the image layer. It further presents the preservation activities carried out on the objects from the Kórnik collection including conservation treatments, photographic documentation, and photographic prints from the originals (1:1) on highly sensitive bromosilver-gelatin paper toned with selenium and Digigraphie prints. In conclusion, attention is drawn to the necessity of the continuation of research, conservation and restoration works on the collection of negatives.

This paper presents two photographs referred to as pannotypes (from the Latin word pannus) from an album of photographs. It discusses the history of the pannotype technique, which was popular in the 1850s and 1860s in photography ateliers all over the world (it presents a review of materials and substances used in this technique and the transferring of the negative layer onto a black, flexible substrate). Pannotype is one of the most interesting techniques used in the 19th century. The paper then discusses the Kórnik photographs, the people they show, and their dimensions and structural features. Some conservation-related remarks on the susceptibility of precious objects of this type to damage also follow.