While the Compton Photograph Studio Archive is a wonderful resource that visually documents Brigham City from the 1890s to the 1990s and which provides the Box Elder County genealogist with tens of thousands of studio portraits, the age, condition, and vast bulk of the material constitute an enormous challenge to the archivist in terms of its storage, arrangement, and access. Researchers must allow for extra time in requesting materials. In addition to the disposal of nitrate film discussed above, many negatives were undoubtedly lost, destroyed, or given away prior to arriving in Special Collections & Archives. What does survive is a precious resource, and should be handled accordingly.

Nitrate conversion:

Film negatives from 1920 to 1938 were composed of cellulose nitrate, a highly flammable and inherently unstable medium used prior to the advent of "safety" film. Due to the volatile and rapidly-degrading nature of this film, most of the negatives were culled for views and scenes (e.g., anything besides straight portraiture), and the balance disposed of. No portraits are available that were taken on nitrate film. The views and scenes deemed worthy of retention were contact-printed, and the negatives disposed of. The resulting prints were identified with date and negative number and filed accordingly, along with the balance of the collection dating from 1938 (that year contained both nitrate and safety film) to 1994. All prints and negatives, dating 1920 to 1945, have been individually sleeved in acid- and linen-free envelopes.