Private Holdings: Personal Artifact (Photograph)

By Anonymous on Mon, 06/22/2015 - 07:19

Forums

Hi,

I am trying to cite a large number of old photographs that have been handed down to me (through the family line) from my Great-grandmother, Doris Perrin. I need clarification in citing an individual photo:

  1. I am not sure I understand who the 'complier' is (QuickCheck Model Private Holdings: Artifact). Is it who orginally owned the photo or the person in the photo? Or am I completely wrong in this area. The references below show both versions.
  2. Am I able to add in the "Perrin Family Collection" as part of information, to indicate it is a photo from a collection. Have I placed it in the correct position?
  3. Besides the above issues, does it look like I have the reference citation correct, in its layout?

Written as the person in photo as the lead.

Harriet Alice "Allie" Perrin (1888-1987) Perrin Family Collection albumen-silver photograph, ca. 1908; digital image ca. 2014; privately held by current owner, Albany, Western Australia, Australia, 2015. Standing, young, black-haired woman wearing period clothing. Original owner by Doris Mabel Perrin, photograph has been passed down the generations to current holder. It is a cabinet card, consisting of a 13.7 x 10.3 cm albumen-silver photograph on a 16.4 x 10.8 cm card backing, produced by McNeills Studio, 184 Rundle Steet, Adelaide.

Written as the orginal owner as the lead.

Doris Mabel Perrin (1892-1982) Perrin Family Collection albumen-silver photograph, ca. 1908; digital image ca. 2014; privately held by current owner, Albany, Western Australia, Australia, 2015. Standing, young, black-haired woman wearing period clothing. Original owner by Doris Mabel Perrin, photograph has been passed down the generations to current holder. It is a cabinet card, consisting of a 13.7 x 10.3 cm albumen-silver photograph on a 16.4 x 10.8 cm card backing, produced by McNeills Studio, 184 Rundle Steet, Adelaide.

Regards David

Submitted byEEon Mon, 06/22/2015 - 10:32

David, have you seen 3.37, "Photographs, Portraits & Sketches"? 

The QuickCheck Model for "Private Holdings: Artifact" is for a scrapbook. Scrapbooks do have compilers. Individual photographs would not, although they could have a known photographer.

Your approach, to identify a collection by the individual who created it and to then cite one item from the collection is logical also. However, there is one other factor you might want to consider. If this photo is a woman and you lead with the name of a woman, casual readers of your work (particularly those who get glassy-eyed when they see long reference notes and don't read everything it says) will jump to the conclusion that the woman in the photograph was Doris Mabel Perrin. Yes, they'd be wrong. Yes, there's no excuse for them doing that. But, yes, at least one somebody's going to do it and then the photograph will spread across the Internet as Doris Mabel Perrin. (Part of the "art" of citation is thinking through the various ways that someone might misinterpret the details and then consider how that potential problem could be addressed.)

The fix for this is found at 3.1 and 3.3, EE's discussion of how items in a collection are arranged and cited. In your Source List Entry, it is logical to make the collection the lead element. It would bloat your Source List considerably, if you cite every photograph separately. But, if you follow 3.37, your reference note will start with the smallest item (the ID of the photograph) and move to the largest (the repository and its location).  After that, you would physically describe the artifact:

Unidentified woman ca. 1908; Doris Mabel Perrin (1892-1982) Photograph Collection; privately held by First Middle LastName [address for private use] Albany, Western Australia, Australia, 2015; this albumen-silver cabinet-card, 13.7 x 10.3 cm, produced by McNeills Studio, 184 Rundle Street, Adelaide;  has been passed down the generations from its original owner (Doris) to the current holder.

You'll also note:

  • Given that the item does not have a formal title, the words we create for a label are not placed in quotation marks; we are not quoting anything. 
  • The holder of the photograph should be fully identified.
  • The address of the holder and any other contact information you may have should be included in your research notes, but you would not publish or disseminate that without permission.