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The Holtermann Collection is the name given to a collection of about 3,500 glass-plate negatives which mainly depicts life in the New South Wales goldfields towns of Hill End, Gulgong, Home Rule and Canadian Lead. Photographs of people and prominent landmarks are also included. The photographs were taken in the second half of the nineteenth century. The collection is held by the State Library of New South Wales.〔(The Holtermann Collection, State Library of New South Wales. ) Accessed 6 June 2014.〕 In 1951 the negatives were discovered in a garden shed in Chatswood, New South Wales. In response to an inquiry made by Keast Burke, then associate editor of the ''Austrlasian Photo-Review'', to the Mitchell Library in Sydney, Burke was advised by the Mitchell Librarian that she had 'recently heard that the plates of photographs taken by old Mr. Holtermann' may be in the possession of the widow of Holtermann's youngest son. In the event, the collection of glass-plate negatives were in the garden room which had remained locked for many years. Thus the room disclosed its long-hidden treasures. The fortuitous timing of the advice to the library and Mr. Burke's inquiry, together Mr. Burke's ability to recognise the treasure and the chance safe-keeping of the plates for over seventy-five years, conspired to enable the conservation of this remarkable collection. In time, the find proved to be the most important photographic documentation of goldfields life in Australia.〔Gold and Silver: Photogrphs of Australian Goldfield from the Holtermann Collection by Keast Burke, Penguin Books Australia, 1973, pp 1-4.〕 As it happened, the photographs were not taken by "old Mr. Holtermann," Bernhardt Otto Holtermann, but by Beaufoy Merlin and Charles Bayliss, two gifted photographers whose work is of the highest order. Holtermann had actually sponsored the project. Producing the glass-plates was slow work. Long exposures were required and only one photograph at a time could be processed. Furthermore, the wet plate negatives captured exceptional detail, but photographs made after the discovery of the plates failed to reveal the wealth of information hidden within. Then, in 2008, the collection was digitally scanned at very high resolution and, for the first time in over 100 years, it was possible to see with astonishing clarity what Merlin and Bayliss had actually photographed.〔 In May 2013, The State Library's Holtermann Collection of glass plate negatives was included on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register – Asia and the Pacific. In 2015, Gulgong Holtermann Museum was launched in Gulgong, NSW.〔http://www.mudgeeguardian.com.au/story/2839026/gulgongs-holtermann-museum-launch-reveals-first-drawings/〕 ==References== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Holtermann collection」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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