Lantern Slides: Opening Windows to the Past

Rebecca PriceArchitecture, Urban Planning and Visual Resources Librarian

University of Michigan Library

Collection Context Univ. of Michigan, Art, Architecture & Engineering Library,

Special Collections College of Engineering College of Architecture & Urban Planning School of Art & Design

Primarily a teaching collection

Grows by donation

AAEL Special Collections

Visual Resources at AAEL 100,000+ 35mm slides Ongoing conversion to

digital

Includes DVDs, CD-ROMs, videos

Open to students & faculty

Visual Resource Collection

History of the Lantern Slide “invented” by Christiaan Huygens, c. 1659

Mentions “la laterne magique” in hisOeuvres completes, v. 22

aka Sciopticon Real development came in 19th c.

http://www.luikerwaal.com

1899, Germany1878, England 1920, Germany

1897 Lantern Slide Show

http://witcombe.sbc.edu/arth-technology/arth-technology5.html

Lantern Slide Collections: when it rains, it pours

Architecture Collection Approx. 10,500 images

Geography Collection Approx. 5,000 images

Caulfield-McKnight Collection Approx. 3,200 images

Travels in India

Housing the Collections

From Analog to Digital Inventory and number slides Clean and repair Catalog Scan Archive Access

Cataloging Images Adopt a database structure or create your own

FilemakerPro 6.0 (moving to 7.0)

Adopt community standards for data description VRA Core 4.0 (Visual Resources Association)

http://www.vraweb.org/datastandards/VRA_Core4_Welcome.html CCO as guide (Cataloging Cultural Objects)

http://www.vraweb.org/ccoweb/

Use authority files Art & Architecture Thesaurus Thesaurus for Graphic Materials And others -- listed on LOC site

http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/resource/228_authfile.html

Particular Cataloging Challenges What is the title? Development of the “worktype” (subject)

as a relational field. Importance of the slide as object

Identifying the slide maker Identifying the slide colorist Identifying the photographer When was the slide created?

Lake Louise, Alberta (maybe?)

John Singer SargentCarnation, Lily, Lily, Rose1885-86Colorist?

Pearl MosqueAgra

Nob Hill HouseSan Francisco

Burns Park PlanAnn Arbor1916

Scanning: Settings & Standards Tiff files 1200 dpi, 24-bit color for photographic images 800 dpi, 8-bit grayscale for graphic (line drawing,

charts, maps) images

Smithsonian Institution Archives Image Digitization Standardshttp://siarchives.si.edu/records/electronic_records/records_erecords_digitization_images.html

Click on the thumbnail to seean enlarged image(this can be en-larged severaltimes)

Click on the worddescription to see the catalog record

Questions?