After Finding 120-Year-Old Undeveloped Cat Pictures In A Time Capsule, A Photographer Decided To Develop Them

While this type of photography process is very demanding, it involved cats so it was well worth it

Damjan

• Published in Animals
• March 6, 2020

Time capsules are a wonderful glimpse into the past. And personal time capsules are the best kind. Because they don’t show past in general, history of a city, nation, country...

But the past of a single person and that makes them much more intimate. You won’t read that in any history book, and there will be no article on Wikipedia. And you will feel privileged to know something that not many people do.

YouTuber Mathieu Stern had the privilege to look inside the treasured belongings of a little girl in the 1900s. The time capsule was discovered in the basement of his old family house. Inside, amongst other things, were two glass plate negatives, and he decided to revive them.

Mathieu Stern, French photographer, filmmaker, and YouTuber, found a time capsule in his old family house and he wanted to develop the negatives he found inside

Stern estimated that the items in the box date back to the year 1900

Stern found the little “time capsule” in the cellar of his old family home after being informed about it by a family member. “Because of my last video, someone in my family told me about a possible time capsule in our old family house,” he said.

Among other things, it included two glass negatives that Stern decided to develop.

He chose to do that using one of the oldest photography print methods in the world – cyanotype

“After investigation, I found a box dating from around 1900 judging by the objects and the technique of the photos found inside. So I decided to develop the images using the Cyanotype Process.”

He began by covering a bit of paper with cyanotype solution

He placed the glass negative on the paper coated with cyanotype liquid in a wooden frame and secured it firmly

He decided to document the whole process, like any self-respecting filmmaker would, do and post it online. And he proved that cat pictures were beautiful even before the internet.

The wooden frame with the negative inside was left under UV light for around a half an hour

Then he soaked the photograph in water and ended with hydrogen peroxide

The memory of a cat who lived about 120 years ago came back to life

Stern developed the second photograph

It was a photo of the same cat along with her kitten and a cute dog

The public fell in love with the photos and the background story.

Damjan