VERMILLION, S.D. - The University of South Dakota is trying to save some 300,000 photo negatives that were found in a basement and give a glimpse of university life back to the early 1900s.

The images contain everything from early homecoming celebrations to pictures of well-known USD graduates, including USA TODAY founder Al Neuharth, NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, and the Lawrence brothers - Ernest, the Nobel Prize winner, and John, the father of nuclear medicine.

"The collection contains many nitrate negatives, as well as cellulose acetates, that are on the point of total deterioration," said Sarah Hanson, a photograph processor at I.D. Weeks Library.

Also involved in the project is Gayla Koerting, the special collections librarian in the I.D. Weeks Library.

"You had thousands and thousands of images just lying in the basement. There was absolutely no quality control," Hanson said. "You had no control over temperature and humidity. Then we found out the images were giving off noxious gas, which was dangerous."

The USD Archives department received the entire photograph collection from the former campus photographer's offices in January 2003.

The preservation effort includes storing the negatives in a freezer.

"The freezer helps stabilize the negative so it doesn't deteriorate," Koerting said. "If we keep the same conditions, within the year of having the collection, the negatives will deteriorate further."

They also hope to make into a traveling exhibit that will run from July 2005 through the 2005-06 academic year. Fifty images will be selected, printed and framed.

"We want to showcase what a gem of a collection we have. We also want to raise preservation concerns and let the general public realize what we are confronting," Koerting said.

"We have shown the collection is highly regarded on a regional basis," she said.