Collections Digitization at The Henry Ford: Network Detroit, 9/26/14
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Presentation on The Henry Ford's digitization efforts, presented at Network Detroit conference 9/26/14.
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Collections Digitization at The Henry Ford: Network Detroit, 9/26/14
- 1. Collections Digitization at The Henry Ford Ellice Engdahl, Digital Collections & Content Manager Network Detroit September 26, 2014
- 2. The Edison Institute, Founded 1929 Francis Jehl, Thomas Edison, President Herbert Hoover, and Henry Ford at Menlo Park Laboratory in Greenfield Village, 1929 (P.O.4556
- 3. Henry Ford Museum, 1953 (P.B.3002) Five Venues Henry Ford Museum Greenfield Village Benson Ford Research Center The Henry Ford IMAX Theater Ford Rouge Factory Tour Old Car Festival, 1959 (2005.0.9.18)
- 4. Marchant Calculating Machine, Model ACR8D, 1943 (86.142.5) Numbers • People – ~300 full-time staff – 1100+ part-time staff (summer peak) – Over 600 volunteers contributing nearly 100,000 hours annually • ~236 acre campus – Museum = 600,000 sq. ft. (plus 45,000 sq. ft. for IMAX) – Village (developed) = 81 acres – ~80 historic structures – 12+ non-historic structures
- 5. • ~250,000 objects • ~25 million archival documents and photographs • Historic audio and video • 238 objects on loan to 64 institutions • ~21,700 artifacts on display in Museum and Village (~5-10% of non-archives collection) • More than 30 distinct collections storage areas totaling nearly 200,000 sq. ft. Our Collections: “The Bottomless Pit of Wonderfulness” Eye Portrait, circa 1800 (61.151.40)
- 6. Pre-2010: “Random Acts of Digitization” • Digitization usually tied to grant projects with varying requirements for cataloging, imaging (incl. format), & access (!) • Video and audio converted to digital formats and stored on various network drives & physical media (!) • Digitization records often stored outside of a centralized collections management system (!) • Legacy hard copy images dating to 1920s and digital files dating to 1980s (incl. digital collections photos stored on CD) (!) Bear Approaching a Man with a Camera, circa 1955 (93.12.21)
- 7. The result
- 8. • Digitization tied to the strategic goals of the institution with standard requirements for cataloging, imaging (incl. format), & access • Slowly attempting to get physical and intellectual control of digital video and audio • Moving at-risk digital assets from physical media to backed-up server storage • Centralized collections management system = repository of record for digital collections 2010-Present 1927 LaSalle Roadster (81.142.1)
- 9. 32,109 objects digitized Circus Poster, Barnum and Bailey Present "Marvelous Performances of the Troupe of Trained Cats and Pigs," circa 1895 (35.784.119)
- 10. Digitization Output By Type 3D Objects Photographs Documents Video/Film By Location Archives Museum Village Admin Storage Ford Motor Company Highland Park Plant Showing One Day's Output of 1000 Cars, 1913 (94.112.1)
- 11. What Encompasses “Digitization”? Edison Automatic Mimeograph, No. 51, 1896-1905 (62.170.2) Conservation Imaging/AV Studio photo Camera stand Scanner AV capture Metadata Optional Description Specs 360°
- 12. Our System EMu (collections management system) SQL DB APIs WEB MOBILE KIOSKS Mr. C. Burr Forrest in Ford Model T Automobile, using Telephone Connection with Rural Telephone Line, 1910 (P.O.1077)
- 13. 2014 project: John Burroughs John Burroughs at the Door of His Chestnut Bark Study at Riverby, 1919 (00.1764.11) John Burroughs' Album of Pressed Wildflowers Gathered during the Harriman Alaska Expedition, 1899 (93.205.123) John Burroughs at the Grand Canyon, 1909 (93.205.66.1) Letter to John Burroughs from Louise Bache, a Student Thanking Him for a Nature Walk, May 16, 1901 (93.205.125.6)
- 14. 2014 project: IMLS grant communications equipment Bell Laboratories Helium-Neon Gaseous Optical Maser, 1963 (63.173.1) Edison Phonograph, circa 1922 (29.2003.25) Radio Receiver Used on the USS George Washington During President Wilson's Trip to France for Peace Negotiations, 1919 (36.557.1) Commodore 64 Personal Computer, 1985 (2009.102.1)
- 15. 2014 project: Greenfield Village building documentation Back View of Cotswold Cottage at Its Original Site in England, 1929-1930 (EI.1929.249) Ford Dealers in Greenfield Village for the Presentation of Farris Windmill to Henry Ford, November 6, 1936 (P.O.5949) Ackley Covered Bridge Dedication, Greenfield Village, July 2, 1938 (EI.1929.14)
- 16. 2014 project: Political buttons & badges Benjamin Harrison Campaign Stickpin, 1888, 1892 (72.31.241) Hazen Pingree Campaign Button, 1896, 1898 (75.168.2) Roosevelt-Fairbanks Campaign Button, 1904 (72.31.290) McKinley-Hobart Campaign Badge, 1896 (72.31.262) William Bryan Campaign Button, 1908 (72.31.275)
- 17. 2014 project: Jenny Young Chandler glass plate negatives Tomboy of Darby Patch, Nellie Punching Bag, 1890-1915 (32.351.251) Boys in Brooklyn Children's Museum, 1899- 1915 (32.351.38) Girls at a Used Book Stall, New York, 1890-1915 (32.351.20)
- 18. 2014 project: Silver & pewter Baby Rattle, 1720-1730 (62.73.3) Compote, Made by Paul Storr, 1811-1812 (30.1729.5) Inkstand, 1791-1792 (35.2.105)
- 19. 2014 project: Dave Friedman collection Dave Friedman Collection--Photographs--Slides--1963 Indianapolis 500--Item 51 (2009.158.427) Dave Friedman Collection-- Photographs-- Digital Images- -1962 Pacific Grand Prix-- Item 436 (2009.158.317. 2334) Dave Friedman Collection-- Photographs--Digital Images-- 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans--Item 612 (2009.158.317.3708)
- 20. 2014 project: The Henry Ford on television Broadcasting the "Howdy Doody" Show from Greenfield Village, Camera outside Scotch Settlement School, October 25, 1955 (S.T.2770) Filming a Laser Show at Menlo Park Laboratory in Greenfield Village for ABC-TV's World of Discovery, May 25, 1989 (P.B.103705.2) Filming Television Series "Window to the Past," Marion Corwell Shows Toys from the Collection, Henry Ford Museum, August, 1955 (P.B.10533)
- 21. Whittier Percussion Revolving Rifle, circa 1840 (00.3.1742) 2014 project: Firearms Wheel Lock Musket, circa 1725 (00.3.15231) Air Rifle, circa 1650 (2014.0.11.1)
- 22. Future State: “Digital Content Engine” • Move from database-only to storytelling • User-centric approach • Blending of physical and digital • Integrate collections with the rest of our digital presence • Showcase connections between artifacts, people, ideas • New data outputs (e.g. 3D printing) Buck Rogers Comic Strip Characters and Space Vehicles, Cocomalt Premium, circa 1934 (2001.49.1)
- 23. Working Challenges • Mass digitization vs. “special” treatment • Institutional vs. external requirements • Curatorial expertise vs. user interaction • Archives content vs. material culture content • Scholars vs. general public • Partnerships vs. going solo Big Bird Puzzle, 1973 (96.103.2)
- 24. Grants, Internships, & Volunteer Opportunities Simmons Graduate Internship Program: For current graduate students pursuing careers in museums, archives, historical agencies, conservation labs, or related fields; stipend for a minimum 12-week full time internship Henry Ford Trade School Students at Ford Exposition, New York World's Fair, 1939 (64.167.232.1656) For-Credit and Volunteer Internships: Opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to participate in cultural heritage career-related work through for-credit and volunteer internships Clark Research Grant Program: Support for research using the automotive history collections of The Henry Ford; applications accepted through November 15, 2014, for research to be completed during 2015
- 25. Thank you! Ellice Engdahl Digital Collections & Content Manager, The Henry Ford @ErisuEEE
Hinweis der Redaktion
- Thank you! Thrilled to be here and to share what we’re doing.
- Bit about us… Currently called The Henry Ford, but founded 1929 by Henry Ford as Edison Institute, on 50th anniversary of Thomas Edison’s invention of electric light Henry interested in significant achievements of industrial history (like Edison’s) but also everyday life for Americans before changes from automobile and industrialization.
- Five venues: Large museum Open-air historical village Benson Ford Research Center = portal to our collex, incl. reading room and behind-the-scenes tours/access IMAX theater – largest screen in Michigan Run Ford Rouge Plant factory tour for FMC Also onsite is Henry Ford Academy, a public charter high school with 485 students (interesting employee dining room)
- Figures for sense of scale: Large staff (slightly fewer in the winter when the Village is closed) Lots of volunteers donating lots of hours Physically large campus with lots of bldgs
- Quote from Curator of Public Life Donna Braden– gets at both good & bad things about vast collection About ¼ million objects--estimates vary depending on how you count, but that’s estimate for accreditation Educated guess for our archives #—but lots, plus historic audio/video in prob any format ever existed Vast storage facilities chock full of material
- “Random Acts of Digitization” quote fr Gunter Waibel, Dir Smithsonian Dig Prog office--gets at the chaos museums both created and inherited from early days of the web Early digitization often tied to grants--what was captured in images/metadata varied; also where/how material was stored -- not always captured in centralized system or consistent way Access provided via Reading Room or microsites (not updated/maintained) VAST legacy digital/hard copy data on collections not in CMS
- Result: In part, what our web presence looked like in 2014 Slide borrowed from boss, to illustrate how many sites we currently support—many using different backends, few cross-searchable, etc. Maintenance nightmare.
- Coming up to our present push: 2010: THF announced intent to digitize all holdings 2011: Began using EMu as collex mgmt system and now repository of record for collex info + consistently sized/formatted imgs for web Since 2010, have been selecting digitization projects based on strategic needs of institution—for ex. exhibits, programs, material for marketing, etc. Trying to rescue most at-risk digital assets--move to better, if not perfect, conditions In 2010, 300 artifacts digitized; as of last week….
- 32,109 objects! Image for this slide = this is what digitization sometimes feels like. Note cats boxing and leaping through rings of fire.
- Couple of ways to break down what we’ve digitized By type: majority = photographs, with slightly over a quarter material culture objects; only a small amount of film By location: majority = archival stacks with second most common location in storage. Archival stack materials (mostly) avail through Reading Room, but objects in storage are mostly inaccessible—except digitally. Stats for ref: By type: 27% are 3D material culture artifacts, 57% are photographs, 15% are documents (e.g. archival items that are not photos), and less than 1% are video/film. By location: About 71% in archives stacks. About 5% on display in Museum; about 1.5% on display in Village. About 2% in administrative or processing-type locations—conservation department, photography studio, on loan, on display in non-public areas, etc. About 20% in storage. 21,729 artifacts on display in the Museum and Village; 2164 digitized (16545 on display in Village; 5185 on display in Museum)
- How we define something as digitized: Objects evaluated for conservation needs; treatments undertaken minimal (minor dusting/cleaning) to extensive. Must have at least one image Photo studio captures objects Most archival imaging done via rapid capture with copy stand and mounted camera. One-offs, on-demand (incl. outside requests), and some transparent archival materials are captured with a flatbed scanner For AV, volunteer currently performs most AV capture fr original physical media to digital files. Have general standards but still ways to go in ramping up volume and establishing best practices. Metadata follows two streams For objects and some archival material, we use the Cataloging Cultural Objects (CCO) standard used by many in the cultural heritage community, Also use a more minimal approach to some archival items: titles, subjects, etc. applied en masse based on collection’s finding aid and/or applied at a folder level. Balance between findability and access. Optional details we create for certain collections: Narratives = 60-word descriptions adding context re: historical significance to about 60% of digitized objects Specifications = Additional rubricked information for certain types of objects—e.g horsepower or miles per gallon for cars; stitches per inch for quilts. 360° files for about 30 cars—allow user to virtually “sit inside” vehicle.
- Quick look at how digitized content is created : metadata stored in EMu; every two weeks exported to SQL db. SQL database and APIs fuel 3 end-uses: 20 touchscreen kiosks in Driving America on Museum floor containing whole dig collection, incl all DA artifacts mobile collections site (mc.thehenryford.org) collections website (collections.thehenryford.org) Each interface has diff features (some only available in one) & displays different fields--capture info once and use slightly differently in different circumstances
- Now, some of our 2014 projects (just a sampling) Project was suggestion from archivist as “hidden collection” John Burroughs: Naturalist, friends w/ Henry Ford, member of “Vagabonds” camping trips (w/ Henry, Harvey Firestone, Thomas Edison). Have digitized ~250 artifacts, particularly photos and letters, thus far and about 75 or so still to come
- 2013 = awarded $150K, 2-year grant from IMLS to conserve, catalog, photograph, rehouse some communications collex. All located in one storage area that had past issues with climate control and mold; not reviewed in many years. Previously considered this second-rung communications equipment (primary stuff in another location), but found highly significant equipment we weren’t aware we had. One example is “maser” in the upper left—presentation version of a laser that predates the use of the term “laser.” Finding lots of gems. Have digitized about 400 objects so far; 1000 by end of 2015.
- Project that started with internship--grad student worked w/ curators this summer to create centralized documentation for 80 historic structures. As part of project, we digitized photos of bldgs on original sites, photos of dedication ceremonies, images of people related to building. Only tackled a handful so far, but will continue through at least some of remainder Note: bored kid at Ackley.
- Another intern project—student met at Network Detroit last year cataloged some of our political button collection. Note: Hazen Pingree.
- Big fave of mine Jenny Young Chandler = 25-year-old widow in 1890, began to support herself & infant son working as photojournalist for New York Herald Have ~800 of her glass plate negatives, which intimately depict everyday life on the streets of Brooklyn, New York. Wonderful images of children; also different cultures and ethnicities Digitized ~300 images thus far from collection & continuing with remainder Good example “random acts of digitization”—were imaged about 8 yrs ago, but housed locally & only avail thru Reading Room. Now “rediscovered” and have been adding to our website.
- Project tackled because shelving and exhibit labels in silver/pewter exhibit in Museum were being redone. Not every piece in exhibit was digitized (challenging/laborious to photograph because it’s reflective), but we did about 160 pieces, about 30%.
- Dave Friedman collection = auto racing collection containing hundreds of thousands of photographs, slides, negatives, documents, programs, & published material, incl many prev digitized by donor Tens of thousands on Flickr; ~7500 on collections website Digitizing upon request—if researcher/curator is interested in a race, we’ll post that set (fr few doz to few thousand imgs) Captured w/ the more minimal metadata style—note titles based on finding aid hierarchical metadata, to folder level Also interesting re: copyright--some photos were taken by Dave Friedman, who gave us rights, but others are third party photographers (e.g. LA Times, etc.). Limits what we can do with them and sometimes whether we post online.
- Shameless plug—our new TV show THF’s Innovation Nation premieres on CBS TOMORROW morning, 8:00 AM in Detroit (diff times in other markets). Hosted by Mo Rocca, and one segment in each show takes place on campus, with other segments filmed around the country on stories of innovation. In advance, curators/archivists looked at material, esp photographs, on previous television endeavors Digitized about 60 images covering variety of TV at THF, incl. 1989 laser light show at Menlo Park Lab in the Village (fave)
- Another example of laborious project—only have few dozen firearms in digital collections—photography is challenging because of shape/materials. Took excellent detail shots.
- From current state to where we’re headed…. Just about to start (next week!) project to develop a “digital content engine.” Taking our digitized collections beyond database to provide more synthesized context and stories for objects—how they relate to other objects, places, people, etc. and why they’re significant. Want to allow users to form their own connections with our digital content—to understand, to share socially, to interact in new ways—e.g. 3D printing, crowdsourcing annotations or tagging. Want to think more broadly about “digital content”—come up with coordinated content plans to define how and what we’re creating for all interfaces—blog, Flickr, YouTube, our main website, our collections website, our magazine, our e-mail lists, etc. One output eventually will be new, more robust collections website (no sooner than 2015)
- Some challenges we’re still working through (and will continue to)…. Balancing mass digitization/access with more labor-intensive, “special” treatments to showcase items. Balancing our internal needs and industry standards with what the average user might want or expect. How to take advantage of curators’ expertise, but also allow users to share their stories or information—and stay comfortable with this. As museum and archives, how to allow users to navigate seamlessly between related photos, documents, and objects—but still highlight unique value of each type of object? Also want to integrate finding aids with individual archival items we’ve digitized. Project last year made this work in our collections management system, but haven’t yet translated to web. Related: how to support both scholars and general public? When to tackle something in-house and when to partner with another org (for-profit or nonprofit)? Hoping we’ll be able to increase digitization bandwidth through such partnerships.
- Opportunities for students--couple of funded positions every year: Simmons Internship, 3 month internship for grad students with stipend. 2014 Simmons intern just finished researching and documenting a new clothing collection we recently acquired. 2015 program should be opening for applications before too long. Clark grant, focused on our automotive collections; researcher has to publish or publicly present findings, comes with travel money. Applications are due for 2015 by November 15. Also provide customized opportunities for students through for-credit or volunteer projects: Let us know if you’re interested in THF--will see if we can find an appropriate project. Additional info on both the funded opportunities on our website; also will have handouts throughout the day with more details and sample projects so see me if you’d like one.
- That’s it! Couple of ways to contact me--feel free to contact me with questions today or any time. Thanks so much!