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Digital restoration of a classic

Beyond Image Capture

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In the realm of preservation, it’s essential that a digital file—a digital representation of the original object—accurately captures the current state of a physical object. The image file should effectively serve as a placeholder, an equivalent representation to the original object. That, along with secure storage and access, make up the field of digital preservation. For many original documents, this type of digital file is sufficient for reading, examination, and study.

However, some original documents are not suitable for study or examination with only a preservation master image. Yes, a digital record of the object exists, but no one can use it.

In these cases, a digital file provides an opportunity for editing, enhancement, and even restoration without any harm coming to the original document or preservation master image. When presented alongside the preservation master, these files provide a fuller, more complete picture of the object itself. They might even reveal details that are not discernable when viewing the physical document.

Here are some of the situations you may encounter and remediate with the help of digital archivists.

Ultra-Faint Text

Frustrated that time or sun exposure has faded the ink on an original document? Perhaps the original author wrote only in faint pencil. Even documents written today will eventually fade if the originals are kept in sunlight or the ink isn’t color-fast. Regardless of how the damage happened, collectors or family members are left with a one-of-a-kind original that they can’t read.

Thankfully, there are methods to enhance what little detail is available. If you’ve ever used a copy machine, you’ve likely played a little with brightness and contrast. Sometimes, adjusting the amount of light on an original is enough to draw out the faded text. Ultra-faint text can require far more digital manipulation to bring out the writing and can result in images that no longer accurately represent the original.

To retain visual context, these often-colorful copies should be reviewed in addition to the originals. Hyper-enhanced digital files are by no means a replacement the preservation master image, the digital files may offer more functionality than the original.

Inaccessible Original Text

It’s difficult enough when bound items don’t have the range of motion sufficient to fully open, but when the binding is set over the text or the original author scrawled notes deep into the gutter, capturing the entire document can feel impossible.

Acquiring seemingly inaccessible text depends on your preservation priorities.

  • Does the bound, complete object provide more historic value than a deconstructed version? It may be preferable to hire a conservator who is trained to relax the binding while keeping the original intact.
  • Were printed periodicals bound as a form of collecting, as was common for journals and newspapers? Disbinding could be the best option to restore and capture their original state.
  • Is capturing the text more important than maintaining the integrity of the physical document? Evaluate how much and what kind of damage you are willing to accept in order to create an complete digital record.

That said, there are many reasons why a collector may not want to unbind or deconstruct a physical object. In these cases, it’s up to the digital archivist to explore solutions with the collector to make inaccessible original text clear.

Not all digitization suites are as sophisticated as the one performing reconstructive X-rays on ancient locked letters, but most are equipped to help bring initially inaccessible original text to light. A book cradle used in conjunction with high-resolution photography can capture the interior of books that don’t have a large opening range, and comparisons with the physical pages can help a digital specialist recreate areas cut off by binding.

Original map from The History of the Roman Empire, Volume I.

Restored

Reversing Damage

Looking at an aged and time-worn document can feel disheartening. Once a document has been damaged, it is unlikely that it will ever reflect its former state again, even with pricy restoration. For many historical documents, the condition of a document is just as important to capture as the information it contains. Conservators can address physical damage to a document without erasing what time has done to it, stabilizing it for the future and buying time for it to be digitized.

Even if originals cannot be repaired or restored, there are numerous reasons why a collection owner may wish to have their damaged originals digitally restored. Many restored digital files are not expected to replace the preservation master image, but are used for side-by-side display, easy access copies, easier study, or historically-accurate reprinting and republishing.

Digital restoration can provide collectors with any level of visual corrections, from undoing stains to digitally compiling multiple torn pieces of paper together. These digital versions can be made “clean” again, erasing hundreds of years of handling and wear without disturbing the physical object.

This option isn’t for everyone or every collection, and it certainly should never be used as a master preservation file. That said, there is a time and place for this important digital work!

 

If your collection is nearing the point of potentially unreadable digitization, there are some solutions you can try. Until the collection can be digitized, store originals out of sunlight and away from any other environmental exposure. Consult with a conservator to see if tightly bound material can be loosened, folded items relaxed, and torn items repaired.

When beginning down the road of digital preservation, it’s important to consider your goals for the collection, including potential roadblocks like damage or difficult-to-read text. Keeping long-term preservation goals top of mind will guide you to the appropriate solutions for your needs. Explore the many digital restoration options with experts to make your digital collection functional as well as preserved.

 

Are you ready to discuss your collection’s potential? Give Anderson Archival a call today!

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A Cat’s Mark on History from The Hill

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What do you do when tragedy befalls a one-of-a-kind document?

Accidents are bound to happen, but it’s devastating when they happen to rare materials. Birth certificates and diplomas can be reissued, but unique, antique, or otherwise precious pieces of history don’t always have a simple—or successful—solution when the worst happens.

Kelienne “Kelli” M. Miriani-Ripple was faced with a calamitous situation in the fall of 2020 when an invaluable piece of family memorabilia was damaged in a cat-related incident.

For Kelli, remaining homebound due to the COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to go through her numerous boxes of family memorabilia.

Among other treasures, Kelli discovered a framed proclamation from the Mayor of St. Louis that celebrated the anniversary and community involvement of Kelli ’s grandparents, Helen and Anthony Colombo. Pleased with what she had uncovered, Kelli leaned the document against the wall in her family room, indicating to her husband where she would like it hung in her new family museum.

Enter Tommy the cat. The framed document was in a prime location for Tommy to take notice, and no more than a minute had passed after Kelli set down the proclamation when Tommy was there, marking his territory. There wasn’t any way to clean such a foul liquid from the document, and Kelli certainly didn’t want to display her cat’s contribution on the walls.

“I felt so stupid,” Kelli told Anderson Archival.

Protect your historical documents from cats and more. Learn the best way to preserve your documents in storage.

Anthony Colombo and Helen Negro on their wedding day on January 7, 1940. Image provided by Kelli Miriani, and used with permission.

The document in question not only commemorated a milestone in her grandparents’ lives, but also provided a vital piece of her family’s history in St. Louis.

Kelli’s great-grandfather, Emilio Negro, journeyed to America in the early 1900s. He settled in St. Louis, Missouri, and began to build a life for himself. Due to the way Italians were treated at the time, he started a house-building business under an alias. Many of those houses remain in the family today. Emilio raised his family in the St. Louis neighborhood The Hill, which is steeped in the history of its Italian immigrants. Emilio and his wife Luisa’s daughter, Helen, was born in 1917, and she grew up to marry Anthony “Tony” Colombo, who was born in 1918.

Tony Colombo, like his father-in-law before him, was an integral part of the The Hill’s closely knit community. Around 1946, he returned from WWII and opened Colombo’s Tavern, which still stands on Manchester Road today.

Tony became very active in politics and was well-connected in St. Louis. Though he only had an eighth-grade education, Tony had a reputation in his community for treating everyone with respect, from politicians and police officers to the downtrodden.

Whatever you need, Tony will take care of you,” Kelli recites.

Helen and Anthony. Image provided by Kelli Miriani, and used with permission.

The Tavern offered many services: financial aid, check cashing, and more. If someone came in needing help, Tony would use his connections in the community to do whatever he could for them. Tony prided himself on taking care of his community and his family. “They called me ‘Crash’ because I was accident-prone,” Miriani recalls. “Grandpa was always there to finance repairs.”

Helen was also involved in community politics and worked for the St. Louis Municipal Courts system. The combined influence of Helen and Tony contributed to the legacies of many local politicians still active today.

Following the tradition of families on The Hill, the Colombo family always had four generations living close together. Being a beloved granddaughter of Tony and Helen, Kelli herself contributed to the larger community by helping with political work and babysitting during community events.

When Helen passed away, Kelli swooped in to rescue what items she could and rummaged through them to pull out items for display.

The original Proclamation, bearing Tommy the cat’s mark on history.

After Anderson Archival’s digital restoration.

 

The wedding proclamation wasn’t the only one-of-a-kind piece of family memorabilia found in these bins. Seeking to restore the cat-sodden proclamation allowed Kelli to consider fixing another document. A resolution regarding the Colombos’ anniversary in partnership with the damaged proclamation had a typo in Helen’s maiden name.

Kelli’s husband was the one who found Anderson Archival online. He’s an avid researcher who takes his time to read reviews and evaluate potential vendors in all aspects of his life, so Kelli had high hopes that something could be done to preserve her documents. “The worst that could happen would be that they say no.”

Always eager to accept a challenge, Anderson Archival said, “Let’s see what we can do.”

Though the proclamation was discolored, blurred, and permanently damaged, Anderson Archival was able to digitally reconstruct the text at the bottom of the document. Careful scanning of the oversized document allowed for a clear, perfectly editable image. Digitally restoring the document preserved the original in its cat-branded state but also provided a clean replica that Miriani could reprint and display for posterity.

What is digital document restoration? It may be the best solution to returning digital scans to their ideal or original condition.

The resolution document was another challenge, because the typos in the original required digital replacement of several letters that needed to match the spacing and coloring of the document around them. This typically isn’t the kind of undertaking most digital preservationists on their doorstep, because most preservation projects emphasize protecting the original content of a document. But since Kelli was intending to use this digitally-corrected document for personal display, she wanted the replica to have the correct information.

The walls of Kelli’s family room tell the stories of family members no longer alive, her own small family museum. This collection highlights the personal impact of her grandparents’ lives to both their family and community. The Colombo-Miriani museum will continue to grow as Kelli discovers new family artifacts, and now has two more beautifully restored replicas that honor Anthony and Helen Colombo.

The original Resolution, typo marring the family significance.

After Anderson Archival’s digital restoration.

Do you have family memorabilia or historical artifacts you’d like to display but are stained, waterlogged, or otherwise damaged? Digital restoration may be exactly what you need! Contact us today to see what we can do for your special item.

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Quotables: Digitizing the Stars: Harvard University’s Glass Plate Collection

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Check out Anderson Archival’s recent contribution to bloggERS! The Blog of SAA’s Electronic Records Section. Digital Archivist Shana Scott presents a case study from Harvard University’s preservation of night sky photographs.

Scott tells the story of astronomer Dr. Henry Draper, his wife Anna, and the women of Harvard’s Observatory who were dedicated to the preservation of this incomparable collection.

Click here to read the full article!

Do you have a historical document collection that you’d like to make more accessible, relevant, and impactful? Anderson Archival uses proprietary methods to digitize collections so they are easily searchable, ultimately accessible, and even more meaningful to as wide an audience as possible. Let us help you today! Give us a call at 314.259.1900 or email us at info@andersonarchival.com.

What are Quotables? This is a category in our posts to highlight any professional publications that benefit from our expert archivist experience and quote us in articles for their readers. 

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Don’t Lose Your History: Utilize Historical Document Preservation Services

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Recorded history is a treasure that can never be replaced. That’s why our team is dedicated to preserving historical documents with accuracy and quality.

Time wears pages thin, and the valuable information recorded there becomes indistinguishable from the page itself. Light discolors the pages, and their edges crisp, fray, and eventually crumble. Dust can damage them, while flood and fire, theft, and other catastrophic events can destroy them forever.

Frequently, our own use of the pages eventually fragments them. Published pages, records, photographs, and hand-written letters were meant to be passed on to posterity, but the more they’re used, the more likely they are to sustain irreversible damage.

Here at Anderson Archival, we are committed to protect and save your precious collection with our historical document preservation services. We professionally preserve each page by digitizing it as an image and combining it with readable, searchable text, so you can continue to enjoy the contents well into the future while simultaneously adding functionality.

Save Your Historical Documents from Extinction: Digitize!

While books and documents eventually fall apart, at Anderson Archival we know how to make their contents live again. Digitization allows you to use, catalogue, share, print, and copy these preserved historical documents much more easily than using the materials themselves. And with easy search tools, you’ll be able to find topics instantly.

Don’t Lose Your Collection to Time or Disaster!

Think of the ancient scrolls of Alexandria lost forever to flames or the historical records incinerated during the book purge in Nazi Germany—volumes forever lost to future generations. Destroyed and damaged libraries such as these are incalculable cultural and intellectual losses. So many irreplaceable volumes have become lost. Don’t let this happen to your library!

Preserving historical documents has never been easier for experts, nor has it ever been so important. Let us help preserve your historical collection forever.

Historical treasures constantly come under threat. Over the last few years, catastrophic flooding in the Midwest and South has impacted areas thought to be safe from rising waters. The record flooding produced by Hurricane Harvey, the largest cyclone in US history, put previous safe havens at risk for the future.

University of Texas Library said, “With any storm of Harvey’s magnitude and destructive impact, staff are paying close attention and preparing for potential issues, but in the case of this hurricane and the position of its landfall, most proactive considerations gave way to planning how to react to whatever damage would inevitably be wrought upon the library and its collections.” The library was rescued as teams jumped in to save it almost immediately.

But what if it had been lost?

The Howard-Tilton Memorial Library of Tulane University was also greatly affected when Hurricane Katrina flooded it with over 8 feet of water, and “As a result, in the Howard-Tilton building alone more than 700,000 of the library’s individual print volumes and recordings were submerged underwater.” Eventually the library was able to salvage and restore 629,711 archival items, which is incredible. But that means over 70,000 items were lost.

When disaster strikes, people are the main concern. But what happens to the private collections stored at their homes another local place affected by the disaster? Unfortunately, many times the owners come back from safety to find the collections damaged beyond repair.

Catastrophes Can Happen Anywhere

Natural disasters aren’t the only cause of damage or loss to historical documents.

On September 11, 2001, the terror attacks not only took the lives of thousands of people; history was lost as well. The Library of Congress states,

The Pentagon sustained damage to its library, which contained more than 500,000 books and documents and a historical collection that dated to the early 1800s. The report said a private disaster recovery company was contracted to help stabilize the collections. The restoration efforts, which cost $500,000, were ultimately successful in saving about 99 percent of the book collection….

The extent of loss in private collections and some public collections may never be known.

Such unexpected horrors could happen anywhere, at any time. The moment of a tragic event is not the time to figure out how to save your historical collection. Let us help safeguard your treasures, so when disaster strikes, your collection is one thing you won’t have to worry about.

Do you have a collection you would like to keep preserved forever? Our digitization process will help you keep your documents safe and secure.

Anderson Archival Can Preserve Your Collection

Our historical document preservation services include (but are not limited to) the following documents:

  • Books
  • Hand-written letters
  • Journals
  • Documentation
  • Photos

Preserving historical documents is a multi-step process. Your documents are scanned to create top-quality images. We use Optical Character Recognition processes to clean and analyze the documents, and then our team proofreads for word-for-word accuracy. This level of true preservation quality is unique to Anderson Archival. After the proofing comes watermarking and adding metadata, leaving you with a digital document that can be indexed and searched.

Let Anderson Archival help you preserve your historical collection for generations to come.

Would you like to learn more? Visit our historical preservation services page for more information, or contact us at 314.259.1900 to talk to a preservation expert today.

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Stack of vintage books with glasses

Anderson Archival: The Best Quality Digitizing Services

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Welcome to Anderson Archival!

Here historical documents are turned into readable text using quality digitizing services, which  preserves precious works for future generations to enjoy. Passion, dedication, and a certain perfectionist attitude fill each member of our trained staff, and they transfer those same qualities to all the digitizing services we offer.  As a division of Anderson Technologies, Anderson Archival has the expertise to provide outstanding document scanning and digitizing services to ensure your collection is updated into a format that will best survive into the future.

Anderson Archival is as enthusiastic about preserving history as you are, and we want to help preserve your collection in a lasting and easily accessible way. We know it’s not merely about creating a digital copy; it’s about creating an electronic collection that supplements and enhances the experience of your audience. Anderson Archival offers a number of services to allow you the freedom to craft the perfect digital collection.

Document Scanning and Image Cleanup

Whether you need to digitize paper documents without the bells and whistles, or you need a collection scanned into specially formatted electronic files, Anderson Archival can handle any document scanning services.

Raw scans aren’t always viewer ready, or maybe another document scanning company provided poor quality image results. Either way, we can make those images clean and audience-presentable.

Document Scanning | 1910 Postcard      Document Scanning | Page for OCR

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Proofing Services

OCR is a process which takes a scan of typewritten words and turns it into a searchable text document, but poor OCR leaves you with less searchability than expected. When we digitize paper documents, we always include text-verification by one of our staff to make sure your documents are as accurate as the software can make it.

Unfortunately, text-verification through OCR software can only go so far, and incorrect words might not get flagged for review. To ensure top quality searchable PDFs, our trained proofreaders also perform word-for-word comparisons when a collection calls for utmost accuracy.

OCR Services Example

Metadata Tagging PDFs

Metadata allows your PDFs to go beyond mere text search and offers a wide range of organizational support for otherwise similar files. We can add a wide variety of metadata to the PDFs in your collection such as titles, authors, descriptions, keywords, and more.

Website / Database Creation and Document Storage

The best part of a digital collection is the ability to present it to a wider audience. We can build you a simple online database or completely revamp your website so your collection can reach as many people as possible. As an additional backup, we can provide consultation and organization for underground document storage to ensure that if the worst happens, your collection will still be preserved.

We want to provide you with a digital collection that is accurate, accessible, and only as complex as you need. For a better look at our quality digitizing services, view our sample collection of classic documents and historical memorabilia. It was your dedication that brought your historical collection to life—allow us to bring it into the future.

Stay connected with Anderson Archival by watching our blog, signing up for updates using the form in the upper right, or contacting us directly by phone at 314.259.1900 or by email at info@andersonarchival.com.

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