Viewing of the glass negatives in boxes 18 and 18a requires the assistance of an
archivist. Nitrate negatives are located in cold storage and must be acclimated before
delivery to the reading room. The audio cassettes and audio reels in Series 5 that have
been digitized are also restricted and may only be accessed via the digital files
available in the Archives. There are no access restrictions on the rest of the materials,
and the collection is open to all members of the public in accordance with state law.
The researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming with the laws of libel,
privacy, and copyright which may be involved in the use of this collection (Wisconsin
Statutes 19.21-19.39).
George Hardie donated the collection to the Archives in 1994 (accession 1994-032).
Additional material, including World War I and II airplane photographs, clipping albums of
airplane data, and artwork, was donated in 1996 (accession 1996-020). In 1999 and 2000
four accessions of Hardie materials were made (accessions 1999-060, 2000-002, 2000-021,
and 2000-036). The balance of the collection was donated in August of 2001, after George
Hardie's death (accession 2001-004).
Thomas Steman processed the original collection (accession 1994-032) from January through
August 1996. Ellen Engseth and Kathy Koch processed accession 1996-020 from January and
February 1997. Nick Weber processed accession 199-060 as series 6 in March 2000. Emily
Castle processed accessions 2001-004, 2001-021, and 2001-036 in 2002. Ismoon Hunter-Morton
processed several dozen aviation blueprints and drawings in July 2004. Christel Maass
added a folder of Wright flyer blueprints (accession 2005-009) to the collection in August
2005.
In June 2011, Bob Jaeger removed 872 nitrate negatives from the collection and placed
them with other nitrate negatives. In February 2012, Bob Jaeger relocated the safety film
negatives previously housed in box 37 to boxes 40-44. Box 39 was then re-numbered as box
37.
The glass negatives and some slides were digitized in June 2009. Preservation master
files were created as .tiff files.
Twenty-five audio cassette and audio reel interviews were digitized in October 2009.
Preservation master files were created in .wav format.
