Rescue of information after fire: the case study of digital preservation of photographic cardboard of the National Museum/UFRJ
Ana Luiza Castro do Amaral
The 2018 fire at the National Museum/UFRJ, a bicentennial institution located in Rio de Janeiro/Brazil, considerably affected the entire collection of the institution through the action of fire and the collapse of the upper floors of the Palace. Such loss includes the more than 11.000 glass plate negatives that documented the academic and scientific history of the institution. After the accident, the Memory and Archive Section of the museum (SEMEAR) took over the iconographic items of the extinct Photography Section, including a series of 219 cardboard with collages of printed photographs. After the archivist treatment, the cardboards were digitized, according to Brazilian norms for digital preservation. The following analyses revealed that part of these photographic cardboards represent printed samples of the lost glass plate negatives, constituting the last physical evidence of the lost collection. This highlights the importance of the preservation of this material and your scientific dissemination to promote the knowledge, the safeguard of the national memory and to offer full access to the general public. This collection illustrates scientific expeditions, former exhibitions, and didactic materials used by researchers at the National Museum, providing a valuable source of knowledge about scientific development in Brazil. This study case stands out the importance of document digitalization in the preservation of cultural collections preservation. Exemplifies how digitalization not only protects the historical and scientific heritage against possible loss, but it allows them to be shared and studied for the next generations. In summary, this experience with the photographic cardboards of the National Museum/UFRJ shows the crucial role of the process of the recuperation and preservation of a valuable cultural and scientific heritage, emphasizing the importance of the promotion of information access and the encouragement to academic research.
approaches to preservation from document to data