About the Photography Archive Index

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About The Database

About the Tacoma Public Library Photography Archive

The Tacoma Public Library's extensive photograph collection conveys a rich sense of Northwest history by documenting the social, industrial, commercial, and agricultural growth and development of Washington and the Pacific Northwest.

About the collection.
The Library's active efforts to acquire historical photographic materials have resulted in a detailed collection of more than one million photographic images. The collection contains a variety of formats, including: daguerreotypes, glass lantern slides, early and modern prints, panoramic photographs, ambrotypes and tintypes, glass and film negatives, and more.

Images within the collection include the work of many prominent and highly skilled photographers, including:

Albert Henry Barnes
Marvin D. Boland
Chapin Bowen
Amzie D. Browning
Arthur French
Virna Haffer
F. Jay Haynes
Claringbould H. Maarten
Lee Merrill
Paul Richards
Turner Richards
The Richards Studio
Thomas H. Rutter
Beatrice Stanley
William Trueblood
Honor Wilhelm

Accessing the collection.
Diverse in scope and expansive in number, the Library's pictorial resources offer an excellent reference source for researchers, historians, students, authors, publishers, planning agencies, and the general public. The photograph collection is available for general use with the assistance and guidance of the Special Collections Department staff. The best and most efficient way to research a project through the Library's photograph collection is to visit the Special Collections Department of Tacoma's Main Library. Materials are currently available for public viewing through this web site and through photocopies in notebooks. If you are unable to visit the Library, please write detailing your specific interest or inquiry and describing the needs of your particular project. Library staff will do their best to accommodate you.

Photographs from A to Z.
Encompassing a broad variety of subjects, the photograph collection notebook index is divided into a number of smaller collections covering specific topics. The broadest topic for each subdivision of categories is arranged alphabetically by subject matter and geographical location. Smaller collections are filed by photographer. Major subject headings and areas of specific concentration within the collection are many, including such diverse topics as the following:

Aerial photographs
Agriculture and farming
Alaska
Automobiles and auto racing
Aviation and airports
Bridges
Buildings
Businesses
Churches and religious groups
Clubs and organizations
Colleges and universities
Drama and theater
Ethnic groups and minorities
Fishing and hunting
Government
The Great Drepression, 1929 - 1941
Homefront, World War II
Houses and apartments
Industries
Indians of North America
Logging and lumbering
Military and forts
Mining
Mountains and mountaineers
Music, parades and events
Portraits and weddings
Railroads and streetcars
Recreation
Restaurants
Schools and school groups
Service stations
Ships and ship building
Sports and athletics
Streets and neighborhoods
Tacoma Tideflats
Visitors, prominent people and dignitaries
Washington cities and towns

Using the collection.
Reproductions of images are available and can be made at reasonable costs through professional photograph finishing services in the area. If a negative is not available, the Library will send a print to a photo finishing service to produce a copy negative and copy print, at the customer's expense. The negatives produced as a part of this process become part of the Library's collection. In this way, the public is constantly assisting in the evolution and preservation of this valuable public resource. Please allow 14 to 21 days for processing. If a photograph is to be used for exhibit, commercial, or publishing purposes, a credit citation must be given to the Tacoma Public Library. Telephone the Library Special Collections staff at 253-292-2001, Ext. 1650 if you have questions or requests concerning the Library's photography collection.

Contributors

A number of Library staff have worked on the creation of the Tacoma Public Library Photography Archive web site. Technical Services staff who have worked on the database and scanning of early images include:

Special thanks goes to An Gates and Karla Deters, who came on board on this project with the Digital Imaging grants, and worked on the Tacoma Public Library Photography Archive web site since late 1999. They are doing scanning, research and description of selected images from the Richards Studio photographic collections. They have set a high standard for quality and have significantly enhanced the Photography Archive.

Anne Heller was the Manager of Technical Services, and was responsible for all original cataloging at the Library. She was responsible for subject heading quality control and assignment in the Richards images grant projects. She supervised the project to add photographs to the Buildings Index, as well as performing quality control review for the Tacoma Public Library Pierce County Buildings Index database. Anne also was responsible for documenting the software used for data entry, testing the web site, and overseeing quality control in the Photography Archive database.

Lare Mischo is the Manager of Automated Systems and has been working in the archives and library automation fields since 1974. He is responsible for the software used in the data entry process and the technical web site and database design.

The staff of the Northwest Room of the Tacoma Public Library have made a significant and continuing contribution to the quality and content of the Photography Archive database. Judith Kipp, as Conservator of the Photographic Collections, has worked for a number of years to preserve and arrange the photographic collections of the Library. She was responsible for selecting the images to scan in the Richards Studio grant projects, training grant project staff, and maintaining the collections, as well as in selecting, scanning and describing some of the best images from the Library's general image collections. Special thanks to current and former NWR staff Gary Reese, Bob Schuler, Judith Kipp, and Jean Gillmer. Did I miss anyone?

Partners

This project could not be sustained and enhanced without the dedication of Library staff and the contributions of various partners. In addition to the above individuals who have been essential to this project, the Library needs to recognize various partners who have contributed and continue to contribute to this project. These include:

• in 1999 and 2000 the project received two grants totaling $115,000 as part of the Digital Library Initiative of the Washington State Library using federal funds made available from the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS). A partners in the second grant is The Tacoma Historical Society. These grants support scanning, researching and describing as many as 10,000 photographic images.

Copyright

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code) governs the making of photocopies or any other reproductions of copyrighted materials.

Tacoma Public Library is not responsible for the improper or illegal use of any copies of materials from its collections. It is the user's responsibility to guard against the infringement of rights that may be held by others and for clearing reproduction rights and copyright restrictions. Tacoma Public Library does not claim to control the copyright for all pictorial and textual materials in its collections. Library staff will provide any information available for specific items that it has available to the user in this regard if a specific request is made. The Library provides such information as a service to aid customers in determining the appropriate use of an item, but that determination ultimately rests with the customer. It is the customer's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials from the Library's collections. Customerss are reminded that these materials are provided by the Tacoma Public Library for non-profit educational, personal or scholarly purposes and that transmission or reproduction of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright holders.

Issues pertaining to privacy and publicity may arise when a researcher contemplates the use of materials found in library collections. Because two or more people are often involved (photographer and subject) and because of the ease with which images can be reused, photographs represent a type of document in which issues of privacy and publicity emerge with some frequency. Privacy and publicity rights are, of course, distinct from copyright. In addition, while it is true that famous people or public figures who seek recognition have already surrendered some privacy, they may have the right to control the commercial use of their images (likeness, voice, signature, etc.). This principal recognizes that a celebrity's image can be an asset in trade. Users are solely responsible for determining the existence of such rights and for obtaining any permissions, and paying any associated fees, which may be necessary for the proposed use.

The Tacoma Public Library is eager to hear from any copyright owners who are not properly identified so that appropriate information may be provided in the future. It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in an appropriate manner under such Act and other applicable intellectual property laws, including the removal or disabling or access to material claimed to be subject of infringing activity. Pursuant to 17 United States Code 512(c)(2) (Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998), the Tacoma Public Library is the designated agent for notice of alleged copyright infringement appearing on our Site. Direct any notices of infringement to:

Tacoma Public Library
Attn: NWR - Copyright Questions
1102 Tacoma Avenue South
Tacoma, WA 98402
Phone: 253-292-2001, Ext. 1650
Email: nwr@tacomapubliclibrary.org

To file a notice of infringment with us, you must fulfill the requirements specified in Title II of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. The text of this statute can be found at the U.S. Copyright Office Web Site, http://lcWeb.loc.gov/copyright/.

Conditions of Use

Tacoma Public Library may modify or terminate services from time to time, for any reason, and without notice, without liability to any user or third party. The Library reserves the right to modify the Conditions of Use from time to time without notice. Please review all conditions of use from time to time so that you will be appraised of any changes. The Tacoma Public Library disclaims any and all responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, completeness, legality, reliability, or operability or availability of information or materials displayed in the Tacoma Public Library Photography Archive web site. The Library disclaims any responsibility for the deletion, failure to store, misdelivery, or untimely delivery of any information or materials. The Library disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from downloading or accessing any material on the Internet through the Tacoma Public Library Photography Archive web site.

Ordering Copies of Photographs

Copies of the photographs displayed in this database are normally available for purchase for non-commercial purposes. Only access-quality browsing images are displayed on this web site. Commercial-quality and high quality scanned images, as well as photographic prints, slides and other formats are available for purchase as allowed under copyright and rights restrictions.