On or about May 25, 2020 the Internet Archive banned me and deleted, or as they say, ‘locked’ my entire Archive.

I can’t say for sure, as I don’t have access to my Archive, but as a rough estimate there were about 70,000 to 110,000 items in 1666 collections in my Archive. The reason I don’t have an accurate number of items that they deleted is that I never bothered to count the items in each collection I uploaded.

Some of my collections had close to 300 items in them, some had 127 and some had only 1 or 2 items. And as the Internet Archive was in the process of deleting my Archive, I was in the process of uploading a sodbuster collection of 1073 items. So there is just no telling how much was actually lost without access to my account.

I was particularly sad that the Internet Archive deleted 150 – 200 hours of unscoped aircheck recordings I had made over a 2 month period of radio and TV broadcasts about the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. Again, I never bothered to count the exact time of the recordings, so only have a range.

Some of the material I contributed has been lost as I didn’t keep copies of everything and used the Internet Archive as a cloud archive for about 5% of the material. So I learned a good lesson, albeit a costly one, about the pitfalls of non-physical storage.

It is interesting that the Internet Archive left up one audio file on parking lots sounds that I had recorded, but that is all that is left of my Archive. And I don’t even have access to it!

Someone would read my mini bio header advertising my skills and scope and say, ‘Jeeesus, he sure is braggy for only having 1 upload…huh.’  At one time I had the world record for the largest online body of work by a single photographer. I had YouTube, Vimeo, 48 Tumblrs with thousands of photos, Flickr, 82 WordPress websites with countless photos, Wiki Commons with a year’s worth of uploads, LinkedIn. But the biggest collection was the Internet Archive with 70,000 to 110,000 items.

Maybe the Internet Archive left up the one inconsequential file of parking lot sounds as a joke?

Apparently it is a big joke with the young kids that run these sites when they delete your stuff. They put up stupid error pages.

 Here are a couple of their ‘joke pages’ that come up when you try to access my old Tumblr sites. A lot of work went into Photography Compared, many years worth that was lost.

Even worse than joke pages is when someone takes over your web address after they ban you and puts up garbage.

People click on your links and they think you are scamming them. Here is what happened to my Tumblr for my Inkjet Encyclopedia.

Below are samples of a few of my Tumblr’s that were deleted in 2019…

This is what ‘Unbetitleit’ used to look like.

I had archived a lot of my Tumblrs at the Wayback Machine, but when I went to access the backups I found the Wayback Machine had only archived a few pages at the beginning and the bulk of the content was lost. Well, at least I have a few of the title pages of the deleted Tumblr’s to show you.

Here is a partial listing of the Tumblrs that were deleted in 2019…

The IA is a little more business like when they delete material. 

All the websites I’ve created over the last 10 years have been deleted with the exception of WordPress. I was able to rejoin a few of the sites that banned me using a different name, but I could never put much back up or they would just ban my account again.

If and when WordPress ever pulls the plug on me I will have gone from holding the world record for a single photographer’s online body of work to basically a nil online presence.

Now I didn’t set out to make records, I just naturally produce tons of material and like to put it online to share.  And in the big picture, what I had online was just the tip of the proverbial berg. I have no time to get to all 4 corners of my production. I could have easily put up 10X as much as I had online…if I had the time. And none of this takes into account the many decades of work I lost in a flood in 2001 that can never see the light of day.

When I inquired as to the problem with my account, the Internet Archive said I had violated their Terms of Service, but gave no indication as to what the violation was. There only reply was your account will remain locked.

I had uploaded the same material for 5-1/2 years and never had any problems. I wrote the Internet Archive a second time to inquire about the specifics of the violation, but I never received a reply.

I then wrote to Brewster Kahle, the founder of the Internet Archive, to make my case for a restoration of my account. And I asked if he would not restore my account, to at least give me a few days access to my deleted account so I can download the files I didn’t retain copies of.

…never got a reply from Brewster.

Isn’t that sad, after working as a volunteer for the Internet Archive 4 – 5 days a week for 5-1/2 years, you have to beg to get your material back. Very little courtesy left nowadays.

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Below is a partial scope of the material the Internet Archive deleted. My goal for my Archive was to make a sort of ‘People’s Archive’ of anything noteworthy of a social documentary nature. My Archive was noteworthy for being composed of relatively hi-resolution images with some of the subject matter unavailable anywhere on the internet. And of course everything I did was free and open to all. I never thought to warn people to ‘download now’ or it may be gone later.

 Early Photography: Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Opalotypes, Tintypes, Cyanotypes, Glass Plates, Autochromes, Gum Bichromate, Platinum, Palladium, Bromoil, & Salt Prints.

C.D.V. & Cabinet Cards

Sodbusters – Prairie Settlers

Fat Women of the 1800’s

Fashion, Portrait & Vernacular Photographs from the 19th Century

Early Japanese 19th Century Albumen Photographs & Glass Plates

Early 20th Century Rodeo Photographs

Vintage Ballerinas & Dancers

Historical Collotype, Woodburytype, Photogravure & Halftone Plates

Pre-Jazz Era – WW I

Roaring 20’s – Flappers1930’s – Depression Era1940’s – WW II

Eiffel Tower

Bobbysoxers

Vintage Schools, Classrooms & Students

Vintage Dye Transfer Prints

Steel Pier Diving Horses

Girls with Cameras

1950’s – Extensive Beat Generation Archives

1960’s – Hippies

Vintage Kodachrome Slides

Fashion 1845 – 1980: Dresses, Hats, Ribbons, Bows, Bonnets, Buttons & Shoes

19th & 20th Century Muffs – Purses

Victorian & Edwardian Husband & Wife Portraits
19th Century Children

Extensive Collection of 19th & Early 20th Century Wedding Dresses

Mid 20th Century Satin & Lace Wedding Dresses

Tea Length Wedding Dresses

Vintage Wedding Parties

Vintage Bridal Bouquets & Nosegays

Vintage Bridal Headpieces

Magic Lantern Slides

Vintage Boxing Ladies

Artists & Art Studios

Mutilated Photos – Faces Cut Out

Vintage Travel Trailers

Breastfeeding

Majorettes

Vintage Radio, Hi-Fi, Reel to Reel, Television, HAM and Vacuum Tube Photos & Ephemera

QSL Postcard Archive / QSL Risqué Postcards

Historical Audio Recordings

Acetate Records

Airchecks Radio Transcriptions

Phil Schaap Jazz Archive

Reel to Reel & Cassette Tapes

Ruth Wallis Archive

Living Letters Archive

Nesta Kerin Crain Archive

Radio Station Photos and Ephemera

Early Beachwear

Fredericks of Hollywood Archive

Sami Laplanders Archive

Women’s Hairstyles 1840 – 1980

Hair Curlers

Christmas – Santa Claus – Snowmen

Vintage New York City

Before Photoshop – Retouched Photos

Of Historical Interest

Macabre

Yawning

Vintage Eyeglasses

Vintage African Postcards

Vintage Middle East Postcards

Newsworthy

Vintage Press Photos

Politics

Nixon Archive

JFK Archive

The McCarthy Era

Vintage Football

Press Photographers – Press Cameras

Roadside Americana – Dinosaur Statues

Stereo Photography

Painted (Retouched) Press Photos

Gender Studies

Vintage Nudes

Upskirts

Vintage Pornography

Sexual Deviants

Early Bondage, BDSM Photos and Ephemera

Crossdressers

Homosexual Erotica

Early Transvestite – Female Impersonators – Mimic Publications

Vintage Explicit Personal Correspondence

8mm and 16mm Vintage Pornography 1920 – 1970

16mm Adult Film Trailers

Vintage Homosexual & Heterosexual Cartoon Photos

Vintage 16mm Kodachrome Home Movies 1938 – 1960

Historical 16mm Films 1920 – 1960

Vintage Train Films

Educational Films & School Daily Life

Circus Films

Underground Films

Art Films – ‘Art Student’ Figure Films

Silent Films / Silent Films with later added comic narration

Cine Arts Films

Small Gauge Reel and Film Can Archive

Film Rental Catalogs

Vintage 1970’s VHS Pornography Videotapes1970’s Adult Film Trailers on VHS

Vintage Erotic Cartoons

Early #800, #900 & ‘.com’ Sex Ads on VHS

Early Homosexual VHS Sex Ads

Japanese 1980’s VHS Pornography Videotapes

Japanese 1980’s Adult Film Trailers on VHS

Obscure VHS Videotapes

Political Comix

Vintage Medical Photos

Sleepers

RPPC’s Propaganda

Outcasts

Underground Social Documentary Photography

Vernacular Snapshot Aesthetics

Vintage Circus

Vintage Night Photography

Whimsical

Halloween

Blackface

Historical NAACP / Racial Prejudice

Picnics

Ghost Transfer Images

Black Panther – Black Power Publications

Belle Barth Archive

Switchboard Operators

Vintage Parades1940’s – 1960’s

Swimsuits & Sportswear

Vintage Umbrellas & Parasols

Weegee Archive

Vintage Rodeo

Currier & Ives Darktown Comics

Vintage Print Advertising

Stripper Groupies

See-through Negligée

Trocadero Theatre

Bettie Page Archive

Hand-Colored Photos

Maurice Seymour Archive

Irving Klaw Zine & Ephemera

Irving Klaw Negative Archive

Vintage Pinups

Eric Stanton Illustrations

Sexploitation

Vintage Birthday Parties

Donald Trump

Film Era Ephemera

Vintage Cine’ & Still Camera Ephemera

Leica Publications & Ephemera

Vintage High School & College Yearbooks

Mount de Chantal Visitation Academy Collection

Down Syndrome

Self Harm – Cutters

Postmortem Photographs

Early Computer, Video & Cell Phone Ephemera

Black Americana

Vintage Sheet Music

Artists’ Books

Vintage Comix – Comics

Original Comix Art & Ephemera

Neo-Nazi – White Power Publications

Mimeograph Machine Photos & Ephemera

Vintage Jazz Photos, Periodicals & Ephemera

Yodeling Dick Brooks Archive

Early Mountain, Country, Hillbilly, Western & Folk Music

WWVA Jamboree Archive

Square Dance Music, Call Sheets and Ephemera

Mimeo Revolution Press – Little Magazines –Independent Press Poetry

Counterculture & Underground Newspapers

Paladin Press Archive

Covid-19 – Coronavirus Audio Archive

Vintage Newspapers

Handbills

Malware / Ransomware / SPAM / Robocall Correspondence

Laserdiscs

Zines

 

Deleted Tumblr  ‘De Wallen – Amsterdam’s Red Light District’ via Wayback Machine  

 

Edit July 4, 2020:

After a month of complaints to the I.A. they unlocked most of my account. 1649 collections out of 1666 were restored. Any ‘favorite’ data associated with the item was removed.

While the I.A. is to be commended for reversing their decision, it was only because I chanced upon someone that cared enough about the collection to work on restoring it. Otherwise nothing would have happened. All previous correspondence was met with NO or no reply at all.

Below are screen shots of what remains of the Daniel D.Teoli Jr. Archival Collection at the Internet Archive.

Edit December 7, 2020

Since this screenshot collection was posted on July 4, 2020, my contributions to the Internet Archive has grown to over 2215 collections with somewhere around 175,000 individual items contributed.

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Daniel D.Teoli Jr. Archival Collection
Daniel D.Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive
Daniel D.Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive
Daniel D.Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive
Daniel D.Teoli Jr. Audio Archive
Daniel D.Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography