Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "djon43" 
<djon43@...> wrote:
>
> Our ancestors' prints lasted nicely for 50 years without much care,
> and remarkably well in many cases for 100-plus  without "archival"
> crossing anybody's lips. 

I am not sure when the term "archival" entered usage referring to 
works 
of art, photography, etc.  However, the concept was enshrined almost 
from the very beginning.  The early roots of photography and much of 
its heyday were during a time when the concepts of "long lasting" 
and "here today but likely gone tomorrow" were understood by many 
artists and the public.  

Early paper prints through mid 20th century were either made on 
cotton rag paper or very high quality wood pulp paper with the 
preferrence for the former.  When they weren't, the fading and 
discoloring was pretty obvious, pretty fast and the 
photographer/printer had to leave town fast if he hadn't moved on 
already.

The washing regimes used in most photographic paper printing 
processes further enhanced the longivity of the prints by removing 
many of the acids present and soluble impurities likely to contribute 
to lessening the prints life.



> A photographer has to be nuts to deliver a print with comments about
> archival longevity...> 
> 

I would say that anyone contemplating purchasing such a print would 
be 
nuts not to first ask about its likely degree of permanence and to 
not 
insist on a warranty of such.  That much is "caveat emptor" at any 
rate.

Mark MacKenzie