Browse Items (30 total)

A photo of a sitting man. "Tintype" by tungstensun is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.

Glass plate negative on light box fabricated by Block to
more easily view the negatives. The light box has 12 individually wired light bulbs, so that Block
could precisely control the backlight.

This notebook created by Everett Block has a listing for each of the intact glass negatives found in the Thompson House. Any information he was able to obtain on the images is written next to it. Additional information he gathered in interviews is…

"Vintage Camera" by PMillera4 is licensed with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

The Block Collection arrives at the Champaign County Historical Archives in December 2014.

This glass plate negative, along with 200+ others, was
discovered in Everett Block’s attic in 1946.

Glass plates that are not enclosed are in danger of being scratched or
having the emulsion pulled away from the glass, and portions of the image being lost. Four flap
envelopes are the preferred enclosure method for glass plate negatives. These…

Unless they are broken, glass plate negatives should be
stored vertically in a snug fitting box. They should not be able to shift or slide in the boxes. We have
lined our box with volara polyethylene foam (an archival quality non-abrasive foam) for…

Charles Cotton (1860-1949) resided in this home in 1902
when this picture was taken. He married Alice Coddington (1864-1946) and they had three sons Robert, Frank, and Carl (died at birth). The boys Robert and Frank are pictured. Robert is holding…

On June 18, 1966, Block with the help of George Hawthorne displayed 210 prints of the glass plate negatives Hawthorne had finished developing only the night
before. Shown in the picture above is Mr. and Mrs. McElwee of St. Joseph, Illinois viewing…