Blog topic: Digitization
Friends on tape: A time capsule of Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, David Amram, and Gregory Corso
One of the remarkable things about large digitization projects is that not just formal events are preserved but also informal events are preserved for future access. As a matter of process the Stanford Media Preservation Lab takes part in the preservation of media that captures these special informal events. Recently while working on a portion of the Allen Ginsberg papers many recordings were digitized but (at least) two recordings were re-formatted that informally capture his friendships with other important 20th century figures.
Grover Sales Collection at Stanford in Washington
The Archive of Recorded Sound recently collaborated with the Bing Stanford in Washington program to provide digitized images from the Archive's Grover Sales Collection (ARS.0016) for an evening event at the program in late January which served to launch both a new arts track at Bing Stanford in Washington, and provide students from both Stanford and nearby Duke Ellington School of the Arts with an insight into the role jazz played in African American history and civil rights through the early to middle part of the 20th century. The event featured a display of enlarged wall mounted images of Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, and Ethel Waters, sourced from the Grover Sales Collection, digitized from 35mm negative slides. Grover Sales (1920-2004), a Bay Area author, jazz critic, and teacher, who regularly taught jazz history here at Stanford, amassed the image portion of his collection from various sources for use during his classes.
How Big is a Big Map? Digitizing William Smith's Stratified Map of England, Scotland and Wales from 1815
By Deardra Fuzzell and Wayne Vanderkuil
A historic geologic map, the data for which was compiled over the course of many years by one determined man, William Smith. Completed nearly 2 centuries ago, it remains incredibly relevant.
This is one of the largest and most difficult oversized objects Stanford has digitized thus far.
See how the Digital Production Group went about imaging this unique item.
Issei Oral History Project now streaming online
The Archive of Recorded Sound is pleased to announce the launch of a substantially updated finding aid for the Issei Oral History Project in Watsonville Collection. In addition to many other notable improvements, which include English summaries of each interview from the collection and additional subject headings to aid discovery, the new finding aid now includes streaming audio of each recorded interview. The finding aid is available on the Online Archive of California.
Early video from Ampex Corp collection at SF History Expo this weekend
The San Francisco History Expo is this weekend (March 1-2, 2014) at the Old Mint. Some very early video footage from the Ampex Corp collection at Stanford will be on view there.
This footage -- preserved through the state-wide California Audiovisual Preservation Project -- is special because it demonstrates Ampex's first portable video recorder, the VR-3000. It depicts scenes recorded on a San Francisco cable car going steeply down (probably) California Street in 1967!
Gordon Moore Project Archivist hired
We are pleased to welcome Pennington Ahlstrand to Special Collections. Penny has accepted a position as the Project Archivist for the Gordon Moore project and will be working primarily out of our new Redwood City location.
Fanning Flames : Advice for a lady -- on love, life, and happiness -- inscribed in the folds of her fan
By Astrid J. Smith and Wayne Vanderkuil.
An object associated with demure and lady-like behavior, the captions underneath each detailed etched vignette on this 1797 fan are surprisingly wry, witty, and thought provoking. Once commonplace, no self-respecting Georgian era lady would be without such an object. As Leah Marie Brown states, “Fans were must-have accoutrements for ladies of 18th century. They were used to perform multiple functions: They could offer a gentle breeze in an overheated room, allow the user to spy on people behind her (some fans had small mirrors on their sticks), conceal gossiping lips, and convey a secret (or not so secret) message.”
See how Digital Production Group went about imaging this unique ladies' fan.