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Bill Thayer

How to make best use of the Index of Photographs

Sample line:

[MissingALT]

Column 1

The identifying number of the photograph. In the example above:

  •  97: Year 1997
  •   A: Series (usually corresponding to a trip)
  •   4: Roll
  • .36: Sequential number (of the negative on the strip)

    Skipped numbers correspond either to completely failed pictures, or to personal pictures (e.g., the dog I played with near Montenero).

    If column 1 is a link:

  • the link is in a sans-serif font: you will be sent to the raw JPG.
  • the link is in a serif font: you will be sent to the photograph as used on a webpage. If the same photo is linked on several pages, the best webpage will be selected (several criteria being balanced: largest photo, best captioning, most context provided, etc.).
          Requests for any photo already linked will be ignored, of course. (If the JPG is defective, you will need to tell me what the problem is.)

    If the number appears in green the photo is not onsite yet, but is scheduled to be included. Others may be placed on the site as well; I just haven't made up my mind.
          If I get many photo requests, the photos not numbered in green will be given priority.

    A boldfaced number merely alerts you to a gap in the sequence; in the example above, there is no 4.35.

    Column 2

    The first letter represents the type of photograph:
  • A: Atmosphere (pictures taken mostly because I felt they would be attractive)
        or Anecdotal (pictures that tell a story)
  • H: Humorous
  • I: Informational

    The second letter represents the quality of the photograph:

  • A: outstanding ( example )
  • B: good:
           boldface B are the best of them ( example )
           the others are just plain B (here's an example of the bottom of the range).
  • C: more or less adequate ( example )
  • D: poor but possibly useful ( example )

    The quality is judged based on my intent in taking the picture (assumed to be the intent of a reasonable person!). Two near-identical photos of an old rock in deep shade under a tree may be A and D respectively, if the first rock had no inscription, and the second rock had an inscription that is unreadable.
          Among the uses for the poor photos by the way, in addition to ascertaining general size, shape or color of something; and when much reduced some can serve as recognizable thumbnails.

    Column 3

    To help your searches, I followed a few basic rules:

    General Format

    Each listing follows this general format:
    Town name: type of monument: name of specific monument: details

    This allows you to find, say, all the churches in Milan by searching for Milan: church

  • cathedrals should be searched for as Placename: church: cathedral
          which insures their retrieval among just plain churches, as well.
          Do not use "Duomo", although I'll try and remind you.
  • abbeys and basilicas can be searched for as Placename: church: abbey [basilica]
          but I've been less consistent here, often omitting abbey [basilica]

    In the case of Roman monuments (or details), the modern placename is preceded by the Roman placename between /slashes/, when known to me. Thus, anything Roman in Arles may be found by searching for /Arelate/

    Abbreviations

    "Saint", "San" etc. are abbreviated:
  • building names: S. (SS. covers both the French "Saint(e)s" and the Italian "Santissimo/a".)
  • placenames: according to country postal conventions
          (in France, e.g., Saint‑Bertrand-de‑Comminges is listed as St‑Bertrand. . .)
  • 16th century is entered as 16c
  • "16th and/or 17th century" is entered as 16c‑17c

    Postal Codes, Ordnance Survey Grid Numbers, etc.

    In France, postal codes precede the placenames, as Fnnnnn. This allows you:
  • to enter the code rather than the often long name
  • to search for small regions or entire départements:
          e.g., Bouches-du‑Rhône département is F13 and the area around and including Arles is F132
  • to search, conversely, for specific areas of the larger cities:
          e.g., the 4th arrondissement of Paris can be searched for with F75004

    In Britain, Ordnance Survey (OS) grid numbers will be referenced as possible. For now, the question is moot: there are very few photos of Britain, and (12/98) they won't be indexed for several weeks or months.

    Alternate Names and Spellings

    Alternate terms are given once only in each webpage, in { bold curly brackets }. For example, if you search for

    St. Mary Major
    you will find
    S. Maria Maggiore { St. Mary Major }
    and after that, should therefore search for
    S. Maria Maggiore

    Inscriptions

    As often as possible, they have been transcribed in the index. The transcriptions should not be considered scholar­ly.
          Spelling and graphism (V for U, e.g.) are retained; but words are separated, with interpuncts and intercolons omitted and replaced by spaces to facilitate consistent searching. Hederae, macrons and other non-alphabetic signs are ignored; now that Unicode is slithering into general usage, that may change at some point. Some CIL or other refs may be inserted; eventually I hope to put them in systematically.
          There is a separate sub-index just for Latin Epigraphy (Roman inscriptions thru the end of the Empire in the West). It contains no more information than in these general indexes, but for ease of searching, has all the Latin inscriptions on a single page and excludes everything else. The format and search rules there differ slightly from these.

    Useful Reminders

    Although the pictures are listed in the order taken:
  • That order may not be strictly logical; in a church, for example, I may have photographed the 3d chapel, then the 6th, then back to the 4th.
  • Just because I took a group of pictures once, doesn't mean I didn't go back and take more pictures later of the very same thing: search the entire Series, and in some cases (e.g., Rome, Arles, Todi, St‑Bertrand-de‑Comminges) several different Series. Check first on the main Photo Index page, which gives summary contents of each Series. An inactive area of this clickmap. If you click here, you will stay exactly where you are.

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    Page updated: 11 Dec 98

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