One of the places I visited for Doors Open Toronto was the City of Toronto Archives. The main reason I wanted to visit was a photo I had seen on the website, which once I got there was the viewing gallery. All the photos taken below were taken from there. It is a really neat area where you can look to see the stacks of archive boxes. Well, you can see some of the archives box because there are a LOT of archive boxes, and you can’t see them all. They are kept in a climate controlled area with fire protection. I honestly wanted to learn more about the engineering of the climate control and fire protection, but there didn’t seem to be anyway to ask.
However, while there, I ended up spending quite a bit of time looking at some photographs from their files. I also talked with man who worked with the archives about the restoration and digital scanning of archives. It was fascinating. They scan and also photograph archives depending on the piece. They also had a lot of information about vinegar syndrome, which sounds rather funny, but happens to cellulose acetate film and causes irreversible damage once it starts occurring. They keep cellulose acetate film in a freezer to try to prevent it.
