If you have been by the Champaign County Historical Archives lately, you may have noticed personnel working on a new project, expanded over our reading space tables.We are rehousing and indexing the Stephen Storch Photography Collection.Stephen Storch (1939-2000) was a photographer and chemistry teacher at Urbana High School. After moving to Champaign in 1968, he opened Storch Photographic.Readers might acknowledge
his name; he photographed all types of events during his profession, consisting of wedding events, pictures, household images, high school senior photos and more.The collection was donated by Storch’s kid, Joseph.This collection contains an approximated 40,000 negatives and includes printed pictures taken by Storch throughout his profession as a professional photographer in Champaign from the
1970s to 2000. Storch’s work provides a distinct visual record of Champaign County in the late 20th century.This collection includes a range of negative formats, mostly consisting of 6 cm x 6 cm Kodak color film, 33 mm film and
a percentage of Fujifilm.Storch was regularly hired as the professional photographer for the yearly Gamma Upsilon Psi debutante ball,”
The Cotillion,”which is still in existence.The Cotillion’s purpose is to commemorate young Black women who excel academically and are really associated with their schools and community.
While we do not have the pictures from the very first Cotillion in 1972 (or have yet to uncover them!), we have the images from many of the balls
between 1973 to 2001. So far, there have actually been over 1,000 Cotillion negatives digitized.Once the digitization is total, they will be uploaded to an online gallery for
viewing.Archives staff are rehousing the negatives into photo-safe sleeves and boxes.The negatives arrived to us in their original paper sleeves, in a variety of glassine, plastic and paper envelopes that have actually become brittle and darkened with age.We are changing these with preservation quality products that will extend the life of the negatives.Information composed on the original sleeves
is copied to the brand-new buffered envelope so we do not lose any valuable clues to the identities
of the negatives ‘subjects.It is best to protect photos, negatives and the majority of archival materials in buffered sleeves and boxes. Buffered paper includes an agent to modify the pH of the paper that safeguards what is inside from moving acids that can trigger harm and speed degradation.Once the negatives are rehoused into the sleeves, the sleeves are alphabetized and organized into specifically sized boxes.Once the negatives are safely rehoused and organized, we are producing an alphabetized index
that will be searchable by customers on our catalog.In a few months, you might be able to visit the archives to find your own photos!We are presently midway through the whole collection and will ideally have more amazing updates as work progresses.Keep an eye on The Urbana Free Library’s social media for updates and news.
Sara Bennett is an archives curator at the Champaign County Historical Archives at the Urbana Free Library.