Microbial communities affecting albumen photography heritage: a methodological survey.

Andrea Puškárová,Domenico Pangallo,Božena Habalová,Lucia Kraková,Mária Bučková,Alena Maková

doi:10.1038/srep20810

Andrea Puškárová, Domenico Pangallo + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/srep20810

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Abstract

This study is one of the few investigations which analyze albumen prints, perhaps the most important photographic heritage of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The chemical composition of photographic samples was assessed using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray fluorescence. These two non-invasive techniques revealed the complex nature of albumen prints, which are composed of a mixture of proteins, cellulose and salts. Microbial sampling was performed using cellulose nitrate membranes which also permitted the trapped microflora to be observed with a scanning electron microscope. Microbial analysis was performed using the combination of culture-dependent (cultivation in different media, including one 3% NaCl) and culture-independent (bacterial and fungal cloning and sequencing) approaches. The isolated microorganisms were screened for their lipolytic, proteolytic, cellulolytic, catalase and peroxidase activities. The combination of the culture-dependent and -independent techniques together with enzymatic assays revealed a substantial microbial diversity with several deteriogen microorganisms from the genera Bacillus, Kocuria, Streptomyces and Geobacillus and the fungal strains Acrostalagmus luteoalbus, Bjerkandera adusta, Pleurotus pulmonarius and Trichothecium roseum.

Highlights

This study is one of the few investigations which analyze albumen prints, perhaps the most important photographic heritage of the late 19th and early 20th centuries
Until the last decade of the 20th century, it was not so simple, and photographs were printed on special photographic paper, composed of a light-sensitive emulsion containing of silver halide salts suspended in a colloidal material, usually gelatin, coated onto a paper, a resin coated paper or a polyester support[1]
A paper sheet was covered by a layer of albumen, a type of protein found in egg whites, in order to bind the light-sensitive halide salts to the paper; they became the dominant form of photographic positives from 1855 to the turn of the 20th century, peaking during the years 1860–90

Summary

Introduction

This study is one of the few investigations which analyze albumen prints, perhaps the most important photographic heritage of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many albumen-based photographs must exist in archives, galleries and museums around the world, both on display and in storage, and several of them are part of important historical collections; like the other historical objects in these collections, they too need to be safeguarded against aging and biodeterioration processes It is already known how many microorganisms, mainly fungi, attack various types of archival materials, including books, parchments and photographic materials[3,4], but, though many studies have been carried out to investigate the microflora responsible for the deterioration of different materials preserved in indoor environments[3,4,5], few have examined the biodeterioration of photographic materials, and most of those that do have focused only on gelatin-based photographs[6,7,8,9,10]. A methodological strategy for assessing the biodeterioration of albumen photographs, one of the most valuable “collections of memories” from the 19th and 20th centuries, is sorely lacking

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