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The photographic morgue of the Hearst newspaper the New York Journal-American consists of photographic prints and negatives published between 1895 and 1966. The collection is divided into two series, I. Prints and II. Negatives. Due to the size of the collection (approximately three million items), only the Prints series is cataloged; it is accessible through an online database. The negatives (approximately one million items) are not available for patron use. |
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Series I. Prints consists of approximately two million original photographic prints
maintained in over 64,000 file folders. The files are arranged into five subseries,
A. Biographical, B. Subject, C. Geographical, D. Geographical—Greater New York,
and
E. Jumbo (i.e., oversize), which reflect the original arrangement devised by the
Journal-American photo editors. The bulk
of the photographs are gelatin silver and made to the conventional American standard
dimension of 8 x 10 inches. Although they range in date from throughout the
newspaper's lifetime, the vast majority date from the mid-1930s to the paper's
demise on April 24, 1966. A few hundred gelatin silver prints and a handful of
albumen prints, all of which pre-date the 1930s, are scattered throughout the
collection. It was common practice for newspapers to weed their morgues from time
to
time to remove images, both photos and negatives, that were judged to have lost
their news value. Much weeding likely occurred during the multiple mergers, between
1937 and 1941, of several Hearst newspapers, which ultimately resulted in the
formation of the Journal-American. |
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Roughly half of the photographs were taken by New York Journal-American photographers and nearly all of
these were subsequently reproduced in an issue of the paper. In most instances,
the
backs of these prints bear either the stamped date of publication and a pasted-down
clipping, or a report sheet, generally filled out by the photographer himself,
which
provides valuable contextual information such as the date, the photographer's
name,
and any pertinent information that they supplied about the shoot itself and/or
the
subject of the photo. In rare instances, prints of an amateur or freelance
photographer were used. These were clearly labeled as such and subject to the
same
thorough contextual processing as all the other prints. Nearly all the remaining
prints came from wire services, such as the Associated Press or Hearst's
International News, and are identified with the wire service name and a caption
on
either the fronts or the backs. A small number of the prints are publicity photos
from such sources as airlines, night clubs, public relations firms, and movie
studios; these usually have a caption and source information on the back. The
wire-service and publicity photos may or may not have appeared in the newspaper. |
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The prints in the collection formed the original working files for the editors and
photographers of the Journal-American. They
were subjected to all of the traditional uses of a very active and long-term photo
morgue and subsequently show signs of rough handling, bending, creasing, tearing,
marking, rapid chemical processing, deterioration, and the advanced wear-and-tear
of
possible multiple uses. As such, although their historical and cultural worth
remains high, their condition is not comparable to those of most fine art prints.
Items in a print file such as this were intended to be used and, despite standard archival practices of housing and
conservation, continue to reflect their original state. Likewise, many of the
prints
bear evidence of their use in publication: some show crop marks, or portions whited
out, or outlines reinforced and features emphasized with pencil or pen. In some
instances people were painted onto prints to recreate crime scenes. These are
the
traditionally integral and standard alterations of a working newspaper morgue
and
have been preserved as part of the history of the morgue. In the case of images
produced by Journal-American staff photographers,
there is the likelihood that an original untouched negative exists in the Negatives
series. |
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The Biographical subseries consists of both formal portraits and snapshots of people.
Prominent New Yorkers, as well as most historical figures from the worlds of
business, politics, sports, crime, science, literature and art, are represented.
There is extensive coverage of presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy,
and Johnson. In addition to celebrities, thousands of otherwise obscure New Yorkers
are represented in these files as the victims of crimes or accidents, the winners
of
sweepstakes, participants in Journal-American-sponsored symposia, combatants returning from war,
immigrants to America, or ordinary citizens involved in daily activities that
caught
the interest of staff photographers. Perhaps the most significant feature of the
Biographical files is its sheer democracy of subject. |
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The Biographical subseries is arranged alphabetically by subjects' surnames.
Depending on the quantity of images and/or the notoriety of any given subject,
subjects either received their own folder(s), or were placed into broad letter
and/or name folders. For example, images of baseball great Hank Aaron are located
in
the "Aaron, Hank" folder, whereas images of less
well known Aarons are located in the "Aaron / Aarons, A –
Z" folder. Regardless, it is still worth looking in the broad letter
and/or name folders for additional photographs of well known subjects as photographs
were sometimes misfiled, and individuals rising in notoriety during the last decade
before the paper folder may not have warranted a folder of their own at the time.
For example, there are a number of photographs of Raquel Welch filed in the "Welch, J – Z" folder. Images of subjects with less
common surnames are located in letter-range folders; for example, images for the
surname Abelson are located in the "ABC – ABEQ"
folder. |
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The Subject subseries consists of files arranged by topic as assigned by Journal-American editors. In all likelihood, these folder
headings were created along general topical news or feature dimensions and then
evolved further through the growth of the file itself. Throughout the series are
large groups of photographs arranged in various subjective categories including
railroads, housing projects, paintings, sculpture, opera, plays, plane crashes,
ships, World Wars I and II, theatrical teams, maps, basketball, baseball, boxing,
football, dogs, horses, strikes, fires, floods, explosions, hurricanes, buildings,
bridges, hospitals, and corporations, to name but a very few. Hundreds of other
subjects are represented by smaller groups of images. |
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The Geographical subseries consists of images from around the world, with the
exception of the greater New York City area. These files are arranged
alphabetically, first by state name (if in the United States) or country name
and
then, when applicable, by city name and/or topic, such as "Oklahoma--Enid--Army Flying School and Ethiopia--Newspaper men at."
Topics for the regions represented in this subseries are diverse and include events,
man-made features, people, and military themes. Events include wars, raids, openings
of bridges or roads, strikes, riots, demonstrations, and natural disasters. Man-made
features or landmarks include structures such as businesses, plants, observatories,
museums, hotels, hospitals, railroads, dams, schools, streets, churches, and
miscellaneous buildings. Natural features include rivers, mountains, and lakes.
While the U.S. Military section is included within the Subject subseries, military
forts, ships, and other military subjects for foreign countries are arranged within
this subseries. Much like the Biographical subseries, subjects in the Geographical
subseries range from obscure, local people, landmarks, and events, such as the
Holy
Sepulcher Cemetery in Totowa, New Jersey, to more widely known locales and events,
such as Arlington Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. |
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The Geographical: Greater New York subseries is largely devoted to images of the
streets, neighborhoods, landmarks, and buildings of the greater New York City
area,
including Long Island. This subseries includes similar coverage of landmarks and
events as the Geographical subseries, but it is arranged alphabetically by a larger
topic or category and then by the more specific subject. Some of the larger
categories include churches, museums, parks, banks, fire departments, the Health
Department, the Police Department, schools, streets, and theatres. In addition
to
these categories, some images are further arranged alphabetically according to
neighborhood, such as Brooklyn, Bronx, and Long Island/Queens. The borough of
Staten
Island is also included as a topic, but has a much smaller selection of photographs
than the other major boroughs of New York City. Manhattan is not represented as
a
category within the subseries. In addition to these major subjects covered within
the subseries, the 1939-1940 World's Fair is also included. The 1964-1965 World's
Fair, on the other hand, is included in the Jumbo subseries. The New York Journal-American is also a major topic within the
subseries, with photographs pertaining to contests held by the paper; editorials,
features, and other stories included in the paper; as well as more operational
topics such as photographs of the building, employees, offices and departments,
and
visitors to the building. |
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The Jumbo subseries consists of files created by Journal-American staff to accommodate prints too large to
fit in standard 11 ¾ x 9 inch file folders. The folders in this subseries are
arranged and titled to reflect the other four subseries titles: Biographical,
Subject, Geographical, and Geographical: Greater New York. Prominent in this
subseries are sports photos and documentation of the 1964 New York World's Fair. |
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In processing this collection, the Journal-American's
original folder titles were maintained whenever possible. However, due to
inconsistencies in abbreviations, punctuation, and word choice, some reformatting
and standardization was undertaken for better clarity and to facilitate indexing
and
sorting capabilities in the collection database. Examples are:
- File titles containing abbreviations for states (e.g., Conn.) were
expanded to include the full state name.
- Colons, parenthesis, commas, and other forms of division between subtopics
were replaced with double dashes to offset subtopics, for example Acheson, Dean: Heads & fulls was changed to
Acheson, Dean--Heads & fulls.
- Spaces in between initials were removed, and periods were inserted in
between initials previously unseparated.
- LI, L.I., and
L. I. were standardized as Long Island.
- LIRR and L. I. R.
R. were standardized as L.I.R.R.
- US, USA, U. S., U. S. A., and
U.S.A. were standardized as U.S.
- Folder titles in the Geographical subseries that began with nationalities
were changed to begin with the names of nations. For example German Army Troops Parachute Army was changed to
Germany--Army--Troops--Parachute
Army.
- As a subtopic, the abbreviations Bldg. and
Bldgs. were standardized as Buildings.
- Where appropriate, Co was changed to County.
- Various spellings of countries were standardized. For example Porto Rico was changed to Puerto Rico, and Jugo Slavia, Jugoslavia, Jugo-slavia, and Jugo were
standardized as Yugoslavia.
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Due to the age of the collection, and the years of handling and the acidic nature
of
the original file folders, a number of file tabs bearing folder titles were lost
or
simply disintegrated. In these instances, the cataloger devised a title based
on the
contents of the folder. Because many of the backs of photographs contain clippings
or captions with one word or phrase circled, a folder title was easily created. |
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A number of loose images were found outside of the file folders. When possible, they
were integrated into existing folders, but on occasion new folders were created
to
accommodate them. |
