Books
Set in Stone, Fixed in Glass
The Mormons, the West, and their Photographers
Author Nelson B. Wadsworth is an emeritus professor of journalism at Utah State University. He is the author of Through Camera Eyes and of Set in Stone, Fixed in Glass: The Mormons, the West, and Their Photographers, and is co-author of The History of the Mormons in Photographs and Text: 1830 to the Present (republished in Germany as Der Weg zum Licht: die Geschichte der Mormonen in Bildern und Texten) and of Utah--with photography by Floyd Holdman and text by Nelson Wadsworth.
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Utah
Published in May 1984 by Skyline Press, this historical book contains photographs that display the rugged beauty of Utah's mountains, canyons, deserts, and lakes, and reveal aspects of its Indian and Mormon heritage.
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Through Camera Eyes:
A Photographic History of Utah and the Mormons
Used Books by Nelson B. Wadsworth
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Project Contributions
C. R. Savage Collection
A building on a city street destroyed by a fire. Written on the back- C.R. Savage Enlargement by Nelson Wadsworth Utah Hist. Society Nelson has copy neg. The photo is sepia-toned.
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Bear River Watershed Historical Collection
Bear River Canyon, 1890. View from east (Cache) end of Canyon, looking west. Photo by C.R. Savage. Gift of Nelson Wadsworth, 1985. One black and white photograph (5.75 x 9.25 inches) mounted on board.
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Selected Articles
Felt put career on the line for justice
"W. Mark Felt was the so-called 'Deep Throat' who supplied information to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein at the Washington Post that ultimately led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon ... I was the Deseret News reporter who covered the FBI between 1956 and 1958, when Mark was the special agent in charge of the Salt Lake City office. I met with him and his assistant, Heber Clegg, on a daily basis, got to know him quite well and found him to be a man of intense honesty and integrity." - Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jun 4, 2005
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A Village Photographers Dream
A brief biography of George Edward Anderson, the Mormon bishop with a camera.
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Endorsements
Consumate Professional
"Given Nelson's decades long experience as a university professor, mentor, author and restoration expert, there is no better professional with whom I'd trust my most valuable historical images." - Randy Taylor, CEO StockPhotoFinder.com
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Color Restoration
"All but a few of the images were made on 35mm Ektachrome film, which later faded to red. Mr. Olson asked Nelson Wadsworth, an archivist at Utah State University, to adjust the color digitally to return the images to their original color, which was largely successful." - A. Oscar Olson, History of the Glen Canyon Photographs
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Restored From Obscurity
"It is evident that George Edward Anderson labored in relative obscurity during his lifetime; after his death in 1928 he was essentially forgotten, until justly resurrected through the works of Rell G. Francis, Nelson Wadsworth, and Richard Holzapfel." - Description of the George Edward Anderson Collection
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Helping Preservation
"The collection was transferred to Nelson Wadsworth, professor emeritus of journalism, by the Kelly estate. Wadsworth then gave them to USU Special Collections." - Description of the Charles Kelly Photograph Collection.
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A Print This Detailed
"An ambrotype portrait of ten of Brigham Young's daughters called 'the big ten,' possibly taken by Edward Martin in the 1960s. The original is in the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Museum ... It may be worth ordering a 5x7 print from the DUP (Nelson Wadsworth is the contractor who makes them--it may pay to work with him directly to get a print this detailed)." - Description from the Partridge Photo Catalog.
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Handling Special Collections
"This collection was tranferred to Special Collections & Archives by former USU professor Nelson Wadsworth (who obtained them from a family descendant) in 1995." - Description from the James Crockwell Photograph Collection.
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Lavish and Systematic
"... lavishly illustrated and treating more systematically the history of photography in early Utah is Nelson B. Wadsworth, Through Camera Eyes (Provo, Utah: BYU Press, 1975)." - Article by Davis Bitton, "Mormon Media," Ensign, Dec 1976, 65
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Links:
Your Photos Can Be Saved
For a Free Consultation, Contact (801) 424-3238
Restoration of Historical Images
"Do you need restoration of your visual memories? Guidance in donating historical photo archives to an appropriate library? Analysis, evaluation or estimating of old images? Such services have been a top priority of mine for a long time. I welcome the opportunity to work with you to preserve your visual history." Nelson B. Wadsworth
Wet Darkroom versus Digital Photography
Your images can last 200 years
If photographers of a hundred years ago were shooting digital photographs and not utilizing the chemistry of silver and gold, most if not all of our photo legacy would have been lost in the ensuing years. Converting visual images into pixels, as we are doing in digital photography today, instead of into microscopic grains of silver, as we did in traditional photography of yesteryear, places mankind's visual history at great risk. Families today who are relying on digital photography to preserve their visual heritage will probably not leave much behind to their upcoming generations. The trouble with digital images is that they are too easily lost in cyberspace. Unless your images are printed, using long-lasting, archival, pigmented inks, chances are they too will soon fade away and evaporate into the mists of time.
The ideal for preserving family photographs is to make copy negatives of the original images, catalog them, and file them away in a dark, cool, dry and safe place. From these archived negatives any kind of prints can be made, either in the darkroom or through a computer on an inkjet printer. In the process of making copy negatives, one can either make a facsimile of the original photograph or improve on it by using special types of colorblind or color sensitive films. Then, by scanning the negative into a computer, one can use photo-editing software like Adobe's PhotoShop CS3 to improve the image even more by eliminating dust and scratches and digitally repairing any physical damages. Prints can then be made on high-end pigment printers in either color or black and white. Such prints, if done on acid free papers and if stored properly, should last up to 200 years, much like a gold-toned albumin print of the 1880s.
The mission of our company is to help people preserve their family photographs. We still use a wet darkroom to accomplish this task, as well as a high-end computer system to help us restore photographs that have faded or been physically damaged. Of course not all faded photographs can be restored, particularly those that have been subjected to too much light. The naked eye, however, is incapable of discerning what detail might still remain. On the other hand, the camera eye can, and a skilled craftsman more often than not, can dramatically bring the faded image back to life.
If you want help in preserving your family's photographic heritage, call us for a free consultation, or send us an e-mail to archivalphotography@comcast.net. Then you will have a valuable family photographic legacy to leave your children and grandchildren.
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