On the morning of November 29, 2023, the Vietnam National Museum of History (VNMH) had a meeting with Dr. Laurel Kenall - Curator of American Museum of Natural History and Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Van Huy - Former Director of the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology on the preservation of photographic documents at the museum.
The meeting was attended by Dr. Nguyen Van Doan - Director of the VNMH and senior staffs from Documentation and Library Department.
Panorama of the meeting
At the meeting, Ph.D. Laurel Kendall expressed her desire to carry out a project on preserving photographic documents with museums and archives centres through training programs. Initially, she conducted surveys on the current status of photographic documents as well as preservation methods at some places such as: Lai Xa Museum of Photography, families of martyrs in Lai Xa village, Vietnam National Museum of History, etc. After finishing the survey process, she will coordinate with partners to organize short-term training courses for preservation staffs. The project is expected to be implemented in early 2025.
Taking memorial photo
On behalf of the VNMH, Dr. Nguyen Van Doan believes that this is a meaningful project. At the same time, he said that there are currently about 74,000 audio-visual documents being kept in the museum's storage, including many precious documents that are moldy and stained. Therefore, the Museum wishes to cooperate and participate in training programs on preserving visual documents in the near future.
The meeting took place in a friendly and open atmosphere, the two sides agreed to establish a focal point for information exchange. At the end of the meeting, Dr. Laurel Kendall surveyed the VNMH’s storage of photographic storage.
Dr. Laurel Kendall conducting a survey of the VNMH’s documents storage
EN: Thu Hien