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About Us
Thank you for taking a moment
to read our "about me" page. We are excited to
bring a variety of compelling historical
photographs, maps, posters, books & documentaries
to you. This business started as an unpaid
position doing archival research for a history
professor that was working on a book and has
grown into a full time business of digging
through various archives and passing on the
finds to you. On this page you will find a
more detailed description of how our products
are made and some valuable information about
purchasing historical reproduction items on
eBay. Our primary focus on eBay is to provide
the highest quality items at reasonable prices.
This dedication to quality is reflected in our
outstanding feedback and is explained in more
detail here.
Our Gallery
If you are in the Portland
Oregon area, we invite you to visit our gallery
at 1730 SE Holgate Blvd. Every month we present
a new show of photographs, maps and posters and
have an open reception on the first Friday of
each month from 6:00 to 9:00 pm. For current
show information
click here.
Photographs
The photographs that we
offer come from the National Archives, various
other federal archives as well as state and city
archives here in the Pacific Northwest.
Additionally, we purchase photographs directly
and have a few agreements to reproduce privately
held items. In most cases we scan the
photographs or negatives at 800+dpi and produce
a digital file that is used for reproducing
prints.
The 8" by 10"s and 11" by
14"s color photographs are produced as traditional photographic
prints using a laser-driven chemical
photographic developer. The resulting prints are
standard photographs on Kodak Professional or
Fuji Crystal Archive paper. The larger sizes are
produced on an Epson 9800 using Epson Premium
Glossy photographic paper and Epson Ultrachrome
K3
archival ink. This process is a standard in
high-end photography and graphic arts studios.
You can read more about Epson's ink technology
here:
Epson Ink.
Black & white photographs are produced in-house using
Epson's K3 ink process. This process is a revolution in black & white
photographic printing and should not be confused with traditional ink-jet or
giclee prints. The K3 process is specifically designed for black and white and
produces a truly neutral tone with a wider tonal gamut than traditional silver
halide prints. The prints are stunning.
Photo labs process all film and files, including black and
white, as color film. That's a great process for color prints and that's why we
use a lab for those. However, it imparts a slight color cast to black and white
prints.
It's worth talking about
the cost of producing a print like this: Using
all Epson brand ink and high-end photographic
paper is expensive. In fact, it would be
impossible to sell a 24" by 36" print made using
this method for $9.95 or anything close to that.
What that means is the sellers on eBay that have
prices like that are using cheap cardstock paper
and generic ink--a process that produces
inferior prints that will fade over a short
period of time. For comparison, the national
chain, Kinko's, will reproduce a photograph or map
for you using a method similar to ours (slightly
inferior)
for 10.00 per square foot, a price of $60.00 for
a 24" by 36" print, not including
scanning. Maps
The maps that we offer come
from many of the same sources as the
photographs. Because many of the maps are very
fragile, we take great care at the archive to
make one digital file that will reproduce
stunning prints. The process generally includes
photographing the map with a large-format
camera. The resulting digital file usually
exceeds 600 megabytes. The final print is
absolutely stunning and includes details as
small as fibers in the original maps. When
framed, behind glass, it is very difficult to
tell that the map is a reprint. The paper that
we use is Epson Premium Semi-Matte. This paper
has a very slight sheen, similar to vellum.
We have a special agreement
with the David Rumsey Map Collection to offer
reprints from their collection. If you find a
map from their collection and would like a
print,
contact us.
The David Rumsey Map
Collection was started over 25 years ago and
focuses primarily on maps of the Americas from
the 18th and 19th centuries. The collection also
includes maps of the World, Asia, Africa, Europe
and Oceania. The collection has many atlases,
globes, school geographies, books with maps,
maritime charts, and a variety of separate maps,
including pocket maps, wall maps, children’s’
maps and manuscript maps. Posters
The posters come from many of
the same sources and are produced using the same
method as the maps. In the past, we offered
posters only on card stock paper. We recently
switched to using the same paper that we use for
the maps because there was so much detail that
was lost with the cardstock paper.
Framing
We currently offer both
"Studio" framing and six popular wood
framing packages on eBay. Framing includes
dry mounting of the print on acid-free mounting
board, custom-cut frame moulding and matting
with 100% acid-free cotton rag. The glazing is
clear, low-iron glass and all of the frames are
pre-wired for hanging. The back of each piece
includes the full archival record for the
item. We do offer UV glass, plexi and premium
Museum glass as well as different colors and
types of matboard.
Click here to purchase framing
We offer a limited set of framing options on ebay so that
we can buy in volume and keep our prices very low in the competitive ebay
marketplace. However, we operate a full-service frame shop in Portland, Oregon
and can offer you all of the options that your local frame shop can. If you want
a different moulding, museum glass or colorful mat combination or if you just
have questions, please
feel free to call us at (503) 408-2360 or email
us at
info@historyNYC.com |
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