Release the McCracken...aka Vinegar Syndrome Part 1: Discovery

Part 1:  Discovery 

This is the first installment of a multiple part series about Vinegar Syndrome at Minnesota State University, Mankato.  
 

The MSU Archives at Minnesota State University, Mankato receives many requests for images and this request for images of Dr. Duane McCracken, a former College of Business professor, seemed no different than any other that morning in November of 2015. The College of Business had recently renovated their office spaces, including the new McCracken conference room named in former professor, Dr. Duane McCracken's honor.

Dr. Duane McCracken
Mankato State College April 07, 1959.

We have many resources that we check for images, ARCH, various MSU manuscript collections and the University Photograph Collection.Photographs, 1868-Ongoing. MSU Archives Collection 309, which includes a vast collection of 14,450+, 4” x 5” black and white negatives, including this image that the College of Business selected to display in their newly remodeled conference room.  We scanned the negative, provided the high resolution to the College of Business, and added it to ARCH, our digital collections.

Initially a donation from Campus Printing Services, these negatives also arrived with a card index detailing each negative.  A past student project included entering all of the card details into an MS Access database so these images are easily searchable.  The 4" x 5" mostly black and white negatives, came to us individually sleeved in wax paper sleeves, stamped with identifying numbers, dates and filed in wooden drawers.  We chose to store them as we received them.

Negative Index example

But back to Dr. McCracken...while pulling a couple of image options from the filed negatives, we came across some weird ones.  They looked as if they were victims of bad lamination, or had been left out in the sun and overheated somehow.  Not only were they wrinkled and the images difficult to view, the negative appeared to be brittle as well.

What is this?! Dr. Duane McCracken, Prof. of Economics and
Business Education with F.B.L.A. officers, December 17, 1958.

After some googling, we wondered...could this be Vinegar Syndrome?  Learn more about our experiences with Vinegar Syndrome in our next installment, Yeah Science! Vinegar Syndrome, Part 2:  Testing for the Problem.

Anne Stenzel is an Archives Technician specializing in digitization at Minnesota State University, Mankato.