Harold Edgerton Scanning Project

We completed a project to scan a large collection of 35mm slides for the MIT Museum in Cambridge, MA. These slides were copies of Harold Edgerton’s groundbreaking work in high speed and high-powered flash photography. Much of the original work was on medium and large format films. The University had these originals duplicated to 35mm slides some time ago. We scanned these slides for the Museum to use on the website and as “first versions” of the images for prints and licensing.

We all know Edgerton’s most famous work – milk splashing and balloons bursting. But this project gave us a look at the rest of his photography work – from utilitarian (e.g., night reconnoissance shots during WWII), academic (e.g., Schlieren photos of smoke and flame) and whimsical (e.g., fruit being destroyed by bullets).

Many of the scanned 35mm slide images are available on the Edgerton Collection website. It is well worth the time to look at some of this amazing work: Edgerton Collection