Posts Tagged ‘Client Stories: Bound Book and Fragile Media’
Legends of Dutchess County, NY: Digitized Ancient Documents Awaken Stories of the Past
In August 1759, Cornelius Jansen, an enslaved man, presented manumission papers to a Dutchess County court hoping the words would compel the court to grant his freedom from slavery. What makes this case different from so many others? Cornelius’ white father and legal “owner,” Francis Jansen, wrote the papers petitioning for his son’s freedom, completing them with the family seal. The petition was successful; Cornelius was granted freedom. Cornelius’ story – and many others from the 18th century Hudson Valley…
Archiving “The Greatest”: Digitizing Rare History for the Muhammad Ali Center
In a time when the civil rights movement was at its peak and racial divides spread deep and wide, one African American teen and eleven established white businessmen joined together for the sake of success, boxing and the future of “The Greatest,” Muhammad Ali. In today’s blog, we’re combining history and present day to show how knowledgeable teams (in this case, the Louisville Sponsoring Group and The Crowley Company) can provide already successful entities (Muhammad Ali and the Muhammad Ali…
Presidential Material?
Like many of us, I had a home office that was out of control. Making good on one of my New Year’s resolutions – pretty much a first for me – last week I pulled paper shredder and wastebasket close and got down to it. The goal was to weed out the necessary from the unnecessary, keeping only what I needed for today and for the personal archives I thought might be meaningful to future generations – books, pictures, writings…
The Gift of Digitization
With Thanksgiving under my belt (in more ways than one), I’m jumping into the holiday season with two feet. For myself and others across the globe, the next few weeks will be spent combing through aisles of products and relentlessly searching online for the perfect holiday gifts. During my exhaustive search for presents that are both practical and meaningful, I was reminded of a few Crowley clients that gave the thoughtful and useful gift of digitization in the forms of…
Endless Love: Digitizing the Herbst Love Letters
A Tale of Preservation and Family in Honor of National Grandparent’s Day. The letters of Gene and Margaret (Maggie) Herbst have traveled far and wide in the name of love. Through 250 handwritten letters, the couple shared tales of their adolescence, war, happiness and longing. In more recent years, the letters have helped their grandson Eric form a relationship with the grandfather he never met. In celebration of National Grandparent’s Day, The Crowley Company is sharing the story of the cherished…
Raiders of the (Not So Lost) “Ark”ives: Digitizing Religious Archives
As I was preparing for Crowley’s appearance at this week’s annual American Theological Library Association Conference (ATLA), I realized that everything I know about religious archives comes from Indiana Jones’ movies and Dan Brown novels. It’s not a fact I’m proud of since religious entities have been a prominent market for Crowley (and as the daughter of a pastor and a church secretary, I’m no stranger to the goings on of the church) but my perception of their archives mostly…
Digitizing The Reporter: Archives of Akron’s Only African American Newspaper Online
Each February, Crowley highlights a digitization project that has bearing on Black History Month. Today we feature the newspaper digitization of The Reporter, which has been documenting the African American community in Akron, Ohio since 1969. Past posts discuss an 1841 edition of the Morning Star, a Freewill Baptist publication that advocated for abolition, the digitized records of The Central Lunatic Asylum for Colored Insane and the research of tax assessment and slave records of Cecil County, Maryland. Each project, including…
DAR, Darling: Digitizing Revolutionary Ladies
October is American Archives Month, a celebration of America’s history and the archivists, organizations and physical buildings that keep them safe and available to the world at large. Each week this month we’ll highlight a facet of how The Crowley Company partners with archivists and historians to help preserve and share American archives. In a previous blog, we detailed the factions of the National Society Daughters of the Revolution (NSDAR) and the many ways in which The Crowley Company has partnered to preserve…
Typefaces, Animal Rights and the “It” Girl: Wells College Archives Span Art, Humanities and Politics
October is American Archives Month, a celebration of America’s history and the archivists, organizations and physical buildings that keep them safe and available to the world at large. Each week this month we’ll highlight a facet of how The Crowley Company partners with archivists and historians to help preserve and share American archives. I recently spoke with Tiffany Raymond, archivist and reference and instruction librarian at Wells College’s Louis Jefferson Long Library. Located in Aurora, New York, the library…
Crafting the Craftsman: Digitization Brings Important Museum Database Online
In talking with Gary Albert, Adjunct Curator of Silver and Metals at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA), editor of the MESDA Journal and self-proclaimed digestive tract (“the research and archives are the food; the articles are what come out”), one thing is abundantly clear: he loves his job(s). A New Jersey native educated in Ohio, Albert moved to North Carolina and has ironically become a passionate spokesman for historic craftsman and the material culture of the early…