The old phrase, “time is of the essence”, couldn't be more true than in the case of holography. The practitioners who came together from diverse fields developed the means to build a dream through a new media of light in the 1970's-90's. Holographic images made with laser light on photographic emulsions established new disciplines in optics, art, engineering and science. Artists from around the world joined scientists and technicians to realize imaging light in space, color and dimension. This work inspired special effects in films, the quest for virtual and augmented reality in games and exhibitions, and yes, the commercial and optical applications of holography.

Time is ebbing away. We've lost many inspiring artists, scientists and practitioners already. What if none of the daguerreotypes were saved, nor Gabriel Lippmann's research or true color images, or if all the early films of the Lumiere Brothers were lost? The chemistry they used at the turn of the 20thcentury helped holography come to be and their work inspired us. Now what we learned might be lost.

Commercial applications profited from all of these early explorations into holography. That success could greatly assist in supporting the continuing work of archiving past work in holography to inspire students in holography and new technologies.

Linda Law, the Director of the Holocenter and the Founder of the Virtual Museum of Holography is a visionary in her quest to capture and archive where we've been in order to nurture the future, and where we're going. There is always interest in holography, but support for the facilities and expertise to make holograms is needed as well. This is the seed of a dream that is yet to be fully realized.

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Sally Weber

Installation Artist using Lasers and Holography

Wisdom, experience, and knowledge gained over decades has been disappearing as practitioners die, images recorded on slides vanish & handwritten lab notebooks end up in recycling bins. What they contain and reveal is being lost, and new practitioners are in essence reinventing the wheel instead of standing on the so called shoulders of those who created the technologies and practices over decades. This doesn’t have to be.

Congratulations to the HoloCenter for setting up the Virtual Museum of Holography digital archive and resource. VMOH has the historical expertise to identify and retrieve what has not already been lost, and the vision to build on it with younger generations of holographers.

There are hologram collections & important lab notebooks, that have been cared for by families and friends, but in most instances theses resources vanish when we lose another of our colleagues. The VMOH provides a virtual home for Holographers to archive their images and works and it will be maintained in perpetuity. Thank you, HoloCenter, and the VMOH!

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M. Melissa Crenshaw

www.mmelissacrenshaw.com

“You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been.” - Maya Angelou

The Virtual Museum of Holography is a much needed repository for the holographic images that were made during the foundational period of technical and art holography. The Museum provides documents, stories, and memorabilia that will be a resource for those who wish to understand and experience a time when scientists, artists and entrepreneurs freely mixed their talents and ideas to create a unique culture.

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John Kaufman

Holographic Artist

In the big scheme of things, the "history of holography" is quite brief. But it is also quite unique and valuable and most certainly needs to be preserved. Today, we are still blessed with the presence of some of the pioneers in the field, while others have sadly passed on already to the big lab in the sky. So time is of the essence to capture this irreplaceable knowledge and related artifacts, and there is no more important time than now for the VMOH! I can speak to this personally, for example, as I was an early entrepreneur in the field and have files full of ephemera not to mention a large hologram collection. I have often been concerned about what would happen to these materials over time, many of which I believe to be historically relevant. And I'm of course not alone in these concerns -- we all need a stable, functional, well-designed home for these foundational materials to be preserved for the artists, scientists, and scholars of tomorrow.

That is why I highly endorse and recommend the Virtual Museum of Holography. And perhaps even more importantly, I am supporting this initiative financially, and I sincerely hope you will too.

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Gary Zellerbach

Founder, Holos Gallery, San Francisco | Holography Entrepreneur & Collector

My first “holographic” experience was early in 1967 at the Royal Society of Arts in London when I attended a lecture given by Denis Gabor. At the time I was employed by the UK’s Electricity Generating Research Laboratories. Subsequent to Gabor’s lecture I ordered my first pulsed ruby laser, for recording holograms, also a Helium-Neon laser for the reconstruction of the recorded hologram. My first hologram was recorded in 1967 which facilitated the measurement of the size, density, and velocity of both particles and droplets. The application was unique, the data is recorded in publications but sadly, I doubt if any of the holograms now exist.

The above is just one early example of the application of holography as a tool for science and engineering. I have applied holographic technology in its various forms to many other situations including such diverse subjects as the internal inspection of nuclear reactors, and the restoration of ancient museum artifacts, including the world-famous Marcus Aurelias equestrienne bronze in Rome.

I learned a lot about the creative aspects of holography whilst working with the artist Margaret Benyon and I know she gained a new understanding of the physics of holography from me. We informed each other’s work and our collaborations extended the visual and technical capabilities and frontiers of holography at that time. To a lesser extent, I similarly worked with other artists around the world.

I well understand the importance of saving early work and research for future generations. How we early practitioners worked with holography is a record of how we learned what it can do. So, this early work presents a lexicon of what we discovered was possible, as well as what we wanted holography to do for us, both as artists and scientists. These explorations are vital to the understanding of three-dimensional imaging. For the artist, the result is an image that contains the expressive quality of color and light in space.

I applaud Linda Law for her vision and energy in understanding the importance of collecting, preserving, and presenting all aspects of holographic history – now, while we still can, while many of us are still alive to talk about our work and holograms are still able to be acquired and preserved. The archival preservation of all of this pioneering work, as well as exhibiting it and interpreting it, are all part of ‘saving’ the early years of holography for future generations. It is equally crucial that current-day holographic work is presented in the same way. What is invaluable is that using the technology described by Linda, alongside the digitalization of museum stored materials, will enable online transmission and full 3D reconstruction in schools, colleges, universities, and homes around the world. This must be the way forward in every museum field and holography should be at the forefront of this new way of opening-up archives to everyone.

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John Webster

Dr. John Webster

The Virtual Museum of Holography is a timely and much needed vehicle for expanding the context and archiving the history of this enigmatic medium. This easily accessible online resource will allow a broad spectrum of people across the globe to learn about the world of holography and the principles that define it.

The Greek translation for the word hologram is whole message or whole writing. I view holograms as captured, dimensional moments of time, encompassing trillions of differing perspectives. If one integrates these concepts of wholeness and multiple perspectives into their human experience, a more integrated human existence will be the outcome. This may sound a bit mind-bending and lofty, but after I saw my first hologram and began to understand the science and mystery within it, my eyes were opened to a new way of seeing. For example, I learned that the structural color within holograms is equivalent to the color and beauty within the wings of butterflies.

The concept of the holographic universe widened my perspective of the word “possibility.” By infusing these and other holographic concepts into my life, it has allowed me to appreciate the wonders of the universe through a more integrated holistic methodology. Light is the storyteller of the cosmos.

As a centralized web resource, The Virtual Museum of Holography will be a seed of inspiration, enticing the online audience to explore, seek out, and experience the phenomenon of holograms in person. As everyone knows who has personally interacted with holograms, it is a unique and mystifying experience. I am confident that The Virtual Museum of Holography will broaden the individual human experience along with enhancing our understanding of the words “possibility and imagination.”

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August Muth

Light Artist / Holographer

To learn holography I sought out artists and experts around the world. Through meeting and working with so many innovators I was able to develop my artistic and curatorial practice.

The VMOH is crucial for documenting key holographic works and collecting the stories and techniques shared between holographers. This archive will be a place of discoveries that captures the development of holography and holographic art and shapes how the medium is understood in the future.

Linda Law has my full support to establish the VMOH. I encourage each of us to contribute what we can to share holography around the world and with future generations.

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Martina Mrongovius, PhD

Art Producer - Lake Macquarie Arts Precinct, Australia | HoloCenter Creative Director 2008 - 2021 | Holocenter Board Member

As a high school senior in 1971, I attended an after-school program in our science classroom. The shades were drawn and a special lamp illuminated a small glass plate on the lecture table. As I drew closer I saw a glittering scene of a small treasure chest with gems and pearls, and an ornate flintlock pistol. All this appeared inside the glass plate as though it were a window into another world. It was a hologram. I was struck by the wonder and magic of it.

After 6 years at Disney as an Imagineer, I focused solely on holography. In the early 1980's, I developed numerous methods to make large-format holograms, over one meter. During my career, I invented and patented machines and techniques which were the commercial core of our company's brand protection and anti-piracy products. Our customers included Microsoft, Intel, Warner Brothers Records, DC Comics and many others.

Now the public has a distorted idea of holography formed by popular culture. The real history of actual holography may be lost if no one preserves and records the artifacts and stories from the field. I support the VMOH and the efforts of Linda Law to collect and capture this history. We need a focused center for this effort and I believe the VMOH is the way to preserve the wonder that I felt when I saw my first hologram. Please support VMOH!

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Craig Newswanger

Holographer, Optical Engineer