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Example of one of the many glass plate
negatives in the University Historic
Photograph Collection. This one
depicts the College Farm, circa 1918.
Using Primary Sources To Learn
About CSU's Past
- Lying in the box under the weight of several one-hundred-year-old glass plate negatives, an unassuming notebook, its pages protected by a brown swirl cover, revealed itself to the archivist. Written on the cover were the words “Negatives, Dept. of Agriculture, taken by B.C. Buffum.” The hunt began...
- The University Historic Photograph Collection, roughly half a million images documenting Colorado State University’s history, contains 6,000 glass plate negatives dating from the 1880s to 1930. Little documentation exists for these images, often leaving the people interested in them searching for ways to learn more. A handful of glass plates bore multiple sets of numbers carefully etched into the emulsion. Until the notebook surfaced, the meaning of these numbers was lost to history.
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(Above) The notebook that started it all. Prof. Burt C. Buffum’s notebook, dated 1900-1902, listed information about the photographs he took during his time as a faculty member at the College.
(Left) A page from Buffum’s notebook matched a number etched on the glass plate depicting a cow from the College herd. Prior to finding the notebook, the archivists knew nothing about why this cow was photographed.
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