What happens to old photography studio negatives?

[hosman321]

Do libraries keep them? Do they get thrown away? Is there some kind of archive that cities have? I find it hard to believe that when a studio closed, they threw them all in the landfill. But maybe they did. My mom gave me this big 1910's-1920's? picture of my great uncle. Here I am spending money on vintage photos of strangers and she had this one all along. It's in bad shape so it'd be marvelous if there was some sort of archive. The name of the studio is on the back.
By the way, what is this type of picture called? The ones that are on really thick paper, are usually in bubble frames and have color added to them like rosy cheeks etc...

[waywardangler]

Hand-tinted or hand-colored.  Common years ago and tints are still available today.

[KC]

Many years ago my mother received a call from a kind stranger who found family photos in the trash.  The studio in another town closed (due to death of the elderly genteleman) and the family threw out all of the  storage.  A wonderful dumpster-diver found them and attempted to track down all of the people to give the photos and negatives to.  THEY ASKED FOR NOTHING......even when we went to pick them up.  Mom offered money....they declined!

[talesofthesevenseas]

Sadly people don't see the value in photos, unless it is someone they are related to. Responsibility for archiving photographs lies with the family and sometimes it is valued as the genealogical goldmine that it truly is, other times it is not. It is heartbreaking to see letters and photographs for sale by the box load a flea markets, but it happens every weekend.

If your photographer's studio is out of business, I would first attempt to contact the family of the studio owner, to see if his old negatives were saved. If not, your photograph can be restored digitally, then easily reprinted and shared with your family. So all is not lost if the negatives are gone these days and there are plenty of services who can do this for you if you don't enjoy doing your own touch-ups in Photoshop.

(Great story KC and three cheers for that dumpster diver!)

[ironlord1963]

     I have been working in the photo and printing industry for years, and have seen many photo's and negitives thrown in the dumpster.  I have saved many myself, and sold a few at the flea market last year, cause I had way too many and they just sat in boxes.  Under most cases it is almost impossible to locate where the family is to have them returned.  I still have a few boxes of processed prints and negitives from customers that never pick up there prints.  In the photo industry, you will aquire lots of these items, and are required to save them for a period of 7 years I think, then they go to the dumpter.  I saved several photo's and copy negitives from Art wolfe, that I was told to dispose of in the dumpster.  Under contracts one is not allowed to keep these items and photos and mounted printed must be tossed.  I just could not do that with these, Being Art wolfe is the modern Ansel Adams.

[KC]

I would have done the same Ironlord.  Nice save!