The WoW picture collections include photographs, original paintings and illustrations, pencil drawings, prints, news cuttings, postcards, stamps, posters and digital image records.
New Additions to the Collection
We have recently been able to dry and then renovate the Elisabeth Kempe Lindermeier photo collection which includes early photographs of Elisabeth and Rudolf Kempe plus many opera singers on stage and off, along with newscuttings about the operas, autographs and opera programmes.
Once the collection was moved to our dry storage conditions we assisted the natural process of drying out using a wide variety of conservation methods.
Water and mold generally make an excellent rotting team that can rot most materials be they of animal, vegetable or mineral origin. Some photos break down faster than others but every one of them is ‘moving’ within its natural reuseable cycle – apart from those which incorporate un-natural plastic materials and they’ll probably be around long after their captured image has faded. It’s a bit like holding onto a hard drive after the data on it has gone.
Still, with a bit of luck, no floods, good storage conditions and no tsunamis, this collection should remain rot free for a very very long time.
Elisabeth and Rudolf Kempe Photo Collection
