Protecting Nitrate Film Heritage

This post was written by Caroline Yeager, Associate Curator in the Moving Image Department at the George Eastman Museum.

In 2019, the George Eastman Museum received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Division of Preservation and Access, Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections program to support major upgrades to the conservation system currently in use at the museum’s Louis B. Mayer Conservation Center (LBMCC) in Chili, New York. This facility conserves the museum’s renowned and extremely fragile collections of 35mm nitrate-based film materials and original photographic nitrate negatives.

What is nitrate film? It is the first flexible film stock that made motion pictures possible. From 1893 to 1951, all films were made on nitrate.

The trouble with nitrate film is that it is made from nitrate cellulose, an organic material derived from cotton, which is flammable and prone to natural decomposition. That is why the film type introduced in 1951 is referred to as safety film, because the acetate base means that film isn’t flammable.

So how do you keep a collection of flammable films safe? What archivists have learned in the past 100 or so years, is that with proper carenitrate film-based materials can live quite happily for many years. It requires a clean, cold, and dry environment with stable, balanced temperatures of 40 degrees and relative humidity of 30%.

That is why LBMCC is a special place. It is ensuring that all of these original negatives, soundtracks, and prints are available for future generations. Archivists have a motto: “Save the original!” The original is the best source material to use to make duplicate prints and negatives that can be safely accessed for screenings, research, exhibitions, and public enjoyment. We tenaciously hang on to nitrate film, doing everything we can to ensure that the images it carries do not disappear. Eventually, all of these films will go the way of all organic materials and break down to powdery dust. That may sound a little melodramatic, but that is when nitrate is at its most dangerous. Don’t worry, we know how to dispose of it safely!

When the LBMCC was opened in 1995, it incorporated all of the best design standards approved and adopted by major archives worldwide. With time, advances have been made in building insulations, air recovery systems, and energy conservation in general. The project improvements won’t be seen with the naked eye, but they will have a tremendous impact on our ability to protect and conserve the nitrate film collections housed in the LBMCC. The technical improvements include the purchase of a backup generator (so if the electrical grid goes down, the systems keep operating), installation of an energy recovery system within the climate control system (saves energy and recycles cold air), and passive building enhancements to increase energy efficiency (wrapping the whole building to reduce stress on the chiller). All of this will ensure that the LBMCC continues to provide a reliable, safe, and sustainable environment for the museum’s rare collection of nitrate motion picture and photographic materials. As a bonus, these improvements will reduce overall energy loss and make it less expensive to operate.

Stay tuned for further developments and updates as we work to make a better home for our nitrate collection. And a huge thanks to the NEH for supporting this conservation project!