Posts Tagged ‘Crowley Imaging’
Honoring A Legacy: Celebrating 50 Years of Mekel Technology
You might expect a company in the business of preservation to have an extensive archive of its own history. Surprisingly, that’s not always the case. As Mekel Technology, a Crowley Company, (also known as Mekel Engineering until 1999) celebrates its 50th anniversary, we find ourselves reflecting on a remarkable journey that began with a small team of visionaries and on the importance of preserving the history that brought us together. From its modest beginnings in a garage to becoming leaders…
Mount Vernon’s Digital Decade:
10 Years of Scanning Projects with The Crowley Company
Nearly 10 years after The Crowley Company’s (Crowley) original blog on digitizing collections with George Washington’s Mount Vernon, the two institutions continue to share the legacy of George and Martha through digital preservation. Since then, Crowley has assisted in six Mount Vernon scanning projects (producing over 20,000+ digital images). While the materials have changed and the technology has advanced, the process and partnership have remained constant. In honor of the first ever State of the Union address (given by George…
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…
Celebrating Chip Clark: Digitizing Natural History’s Famed Photographer
Today would have been Chip Clark’s 71st birthday. Born on August 20, 1947, his name will bring a smile to, or ring a bell with, anyone in the world of museum photography. For 37 years, Clark served as a photographer at The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). No matter which world you orbit, the chances are more than good that you’ve seen at least one photo from his vast body of work. Recently, several employees of The…
National Parks Preservation (the Digital Version)
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. Last March my husband and I ran away. We flew into Miami, I sweet-talked (badgered?) him into renting a convertible and we followed the sunshine over some of America’s most stunning waterways,…
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…
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…
Massive Microfilm Inventory Underway
Crowley Imaging recently began a year-long project to inventory, barcode and inspect an archival collection of 75 years-worth of government microfilm records located in an underground mine in Pennsylvania. The inventory and inspection process will generate an accurate collection listing of over one million reels of microfilm along with a corresponding barcode database that describes 25 different characteristics of each film reel including the record name, years contained, film types and length of each roll. The resulting information will support…