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Family records

Repairing Gaps in History

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Anyone who’s dabbled in genealogy knows the frustration of trying to find information many generations back, but African Americans seeking information on their ancestors have unique problems. Those who trace their roots back to enslaved people often struggle to find any records or even names to continue their search.

Director Marybeth Niederkorn of the Cape Girardeau County Archive Center sat down with Anderson Archival again to explain what she’s doing to help those searching for records in the Cape Girardeau, Missouri, area.

The Slave Index

Niederkorn first noticed the records in her care weren’t serving the needs of researchers when an out-of-state genealogist contacted the Archive Center for information. He’d traced his family back to slaves born in Cape Girardeau. Niederkorn explains, “Dealing with any kind of research into genealogy of people who are descended from slaves means names are a problem. If you don’t know what name the enslaved person was under at the time they were purchased or transferred or inherited, you basically have very specialized problems.”

Since Niederkorn doesn’t have any specific training in genealogy of African American ancestry, she began going through all the materials the archive has that pertained to enslaved individuals in Cape Girardeau County. She quickly realized how difficult is to cross search the records and that many records pertaining to enslaved people are incomplete.

“We had slave schedules that were drawn from census records. Census records are kind of challenging, because all they give are gender and age range for up to a certain time frame. We don’t have actual names. We just have the owner’s name and the age ranges and genders of the people who were in his household. So that’s really challenging, you have to extrapolate a lot of information from that.”

Records are only as good as the people who kept the records, where the records were stored, and how they’ve been brought forward through the years.”

The Archives Center sources information from more than just census records, though it’s sometimes difficult to connect the dots. Thanks to the late Margaret Mates, a Cape Girardeau-area researcher, the Archive Center also has already-compiled county probate records from the 1800s.

“Margaret and her staff went through probate records . . . to find names, ages, genders of all enslaved people who were part of a deceased’s estate. And it’s not always clear if the enslaved persons were sold or inherited, so sometimes she had to just notate that as incomplete information in the record.”

In addition to the census and probate records of the time, the archive also possesses copies of valuable narratives from the 1930s Works Project Administration’s (WPA) Federal Writing Project. Under this program, the WPA sought out former slaves to record their stories and experiences. The out-of-state genealogist that had contacted the Archive Center had one of these narratives of his ancestor.

“It was actually one of his direct ancestors talking about his parents and who had owned them, who owned him, where he had lived, who his neighbors were. And that kind of information is really precious when you’re dealing with uncertainty around tracing a person,” Niederkorn said.

The problem with this wealth of useful data is that very little is indexed. This leaves both archive staff and researchers missing connections that could help them with their search.

I think one of the terrible legacies of slavery is such an erasure of history of the black community.”

Rather than accept the inefficiencies in how they researched enslaved people, Niederkorn decided to begin a master index to help researchers track down people.

“I started indexing those narratives and . . . was able to compile an index pretty quickly, and that helps with cross checking against Margaret Mates’ information. Now, I’m working on indexing records from a mission church that was a Catholic Church established, roughly between the 1940s and the 1960s, to serve Cape Girardeau’s black population. I’m looking through all these records of Catholic churches, and I’m seeing a lot of very familiar families.”

Collecting African American History

The importance of creating this index for researchers cannot be understated. For those genealogists seeking a connection to their family’s past, every little tidbit of information is a step forward.

“For a lot of people who are starting to research their genealogy, they are looking to answer questions about their family history. I think one of the terrible legacies of slavery is such an erasure of history of the black community. I can only go back to about the mid-1800s, because all of my ancestors were immigrants from Europe, but the thing is, those records exist. They’re just in a language I can’t read. Somebody doing comparable genealogy into an African American ancestor—those records probably simply don’t exist, and that is a very difficult situation. If there’s anything that we can do to help, I want to at least explore that.”

As word of Niederkorn’s efforts spread across the regional archival community, she’s gained new sources of information, and it’s becoming easier to inform researchers that they do have information on the people they asked about. While Niederkorn knows how helpful the index is, she says the response has been enlightening for her.

“All kinds of avenues for research that are readily available for white communities are not necessarily available for black communities, and I think there is a lot of generational pain that goes with that. Any information we can find and put together in such a way that it’s accessible, . . . it’s one of those things where I don’t think I realized the impact before I started working on this. The response from the people I am able to help has been pretty surprising, but shouldn’t have been surprising to me. People are learning a little bit about their families, and they had no real expectation of being able to, and that is tremendous.”

Niederkorn recalls one memorable example of how a little bit of information can lead to important discoveries. While Niederkorn searched for information on the previous researcher’s ancestor, a newspaper article ended up shining light on his family name.

“I work closely with Sharon Sanders, the librarian from the local newspaper, the Southeast Missourian and . . . Sharon found a story about [a descendant of the requested ancestor], but who wasn’t a direct ancestor of this researcher.

“But there was a little, tiny newspaper clipping about three/four inches long, about how a gentleman had been driving on South Sprigg Street in Cape Girardeau and had hit a cow. The cow belonged to a black gentleman who lived down on the south side of Cape, and [the clipping] mentioned the cow’s owner by name and where he lived. I said, ‘Oh, this guy is probably like a three times great uncle of this researcher I’m working on,’ so I asked if I could forward that newspaper clipping to this researcher.

“What was really helpful about that is this gentleman’s first name had become a family name, and the first name happened to coincide with a name that was mentioned as being the first name of a neighbor in the slave narrative. It was a very interesting kind of, ‘Oh, the neighbor’s name became the grandson’s first name and became other people’s first name.’ This researcher had wondered what the significance of this name was and I was able to tell him. It was just a random happenstance that it made it into the newspaper at all and that Sharon found it as I was researching the family. It was a very cool moment that was able to shed a little bit of light on one of those questions that he didn’t realize he had until the answer presented itself.”

People are learning a little bit about their families, and they had no real expectation of being able to, and that is tremendous.”

As more requests come, Niederkorn finds new sources of information that she can make more accessible through the index. Unfortunately, it’s not just poor recording on enslaved people or the black community in the area that stymies researchers. Many courthouses in the area were burned during the Civil War and some records were removed from known locations for safekeeping only to be lost.

“Records are only as good as the people who kept the records, where the records were stored, and how they’ve been brought forward through the years. We’re never going to have a perfect record of the enslaved people who were brought here, who built here, lived here, established families, and who made an incredible contribution that their names can’t necessarily be put to. I’m going to do my best to get as many names with as many actual people and stories and narratives that I can. That’s my end goal.”

 

Wouldn’t it be helpful to make records more accessible for research? Digitization is a solution that combats both inaccessibility and poor storage conditions. If you’re ready to work towards a digital solution for the records in your collection, let us know. We’ll provide a free consultation and estimate based on your unique collection and needs.

Digging into Cemetery Records

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How do organizations decide to digitize regularly used collections?

Infrastructural organizations like libraries, hospitals, schools, churches, and nonprofits rely on accurate, accessible records. Putting collections of essential records to the side for processing isn’t always feasible, and digitization isn’t fast when done correctly. Once an organization moves forward with digitizing their collection, decision makers often have to jump through hoops every step of the way to get the necessary funding approved.

To better understand the needs of nonprofits and other organizations that use their collections every single day, we spoke with recent Anderson Archival client Bernie Lockard. Lockard is on the board of Oakland Cemetery, which came to our firm with a collection of books dating back to the cemetery’s founding.

A Reverence for Records

The 34 wooded acres of Oakland Cemetery opened in 1864 in Indiana, Pennsylvania. “It’s been around for quite a few years,” Lockard says, “run by a nonprofit board and volunteers.” At the time the region needed more space to bury and honor their fallen Civil War heroes, and today the cemetery is the final resting place for around 20,000 souls.

An astonishing amount of record-keeping takes place in cemeteries. “The last thing you want to do is go to bury a body and there’s someone else there,” Lockard says. Oakland Cemetery’s collection consisted of deed books, board meeting minutes, and cemetery lot records that stretched back to the 1800s. “We would access them if there was a question on deed ownership or the exact location of an interred body,” Lockard explains. “Some of these [plots] are in old sections [of the cemetery]. You might happen to sell an unsold lot in an old section, so you’d have to open the book to record on paper that happened.”

As one can imagine, materials of that age don’t hold up very well to regular use.

We knew that we couldn’t access them physically much longer… Every time you opened that book, you lost a piece of history.”

“They’ve previously just been stored in a safe and accessed when necessary, particularly the oldest one that was starting to fall apart,” Lockard says. The pages of this oldest and largest record book—an armful measuring nearly 24”x18”—were brittle and flaking at the page edges, leaving an outline of paper shreds behind if the user wasn’t careful.

Journal held together with duct tape. Image used with permission.

Massive lot book. Image used with permission.

 

 

 

 

Digitization was the logical preservation solution for these essential records, but getting this collection to our scanners would not be an easy feat. Lockard first had to present the project to the rest of the board of directors. “From a nonprofit board,” Lockard describes, “when we’re investing money into assets that will create revenue for us, it’s one thing. When we’re investing money into projects like this that aren’t going to produce revenue, it’s something we have to be more careful with. We’re not worried about cutting grass next week, [but] it’s important for us to remain proactive.”

What was it like to convince the rest of the board that digitization was crucial? “Well, it took two meetings,” Lockard says. “[In] the first meeting, we had some objections as to did we really need to do it? It wasn’t so much the money, it was the need to have it done. Again, that speaks to having to be careful with money spent on non-revenue projects like this.”

The second meeting about the project was more effective. “We actually showed some of the board members the books so they could understand the shape they were in. Then they pretty much agreed that part of our stewardship is to maintain these records.”

A severely-damaged original. Image used with permission.

Investments Uninterred

That stewardship was the final piece needed to convince the board of directors. In fact, Oakland Cemetery had encountered digital preservation in the past for this reason. “We had undertaken a project about five years ago to digitize all our records. We have a database now that we have access to these books for that purpose,” Lockard says. “This is kind of the final step of this modernization project. Our goal now is taking these books to store inside one of the crypts, hopefully never to be accessed.”

As it turns out, the inconvenience of sending important and frequently used records away and budgeting for their digitization is a part of the stewardship that Oakland Cemetery’s board is used to. Cemeteries require endless expenses and investments that industry outsiders might never consider. “Trees and vegetation around the cemetery cost constantly as they need to be replaced,” Lockard says. “Trees are expensive, but we feel like it’s part of our part of our image.”

Investing in digital preservation is a part of Oakland Cemetery’s dedication to its patrons, both alive and interred. Lockard explains this best using the example of Chief State Supreme Court Justice John P. Elkin, an Indiana native who died in 1916. “His wife got this grand mausoleum for him and her family,” Lockard says. “In the early 1960s, the family gave the mausoleum to the cemetery.” As the structure aged, it started to rack up a list of expenses: a new roof, new pointing, patched leaks, and ventilation issues. “We spent $150,000 to fix it up. And it’s another one of these things that’s not income-producing but is part of the image.” Cultivating the cemetery’s environment as a whole includes preserving that history through paper records as well.

Oakland Cemetery’s new additions to its digital records database is currently serving the community in more ways than trees and plots. “Now that we have this [digital collection] we are sharing those files with a local historical society,” Lockard says. “At some point, access to this is going to make its way into our website as well. We are creating a historical tour of the cemetery that will probably link to the digital files, so you see the actual deed transfer that occurred or how someone passed.” The collection of massive record books and meeting minutes may have found their final resting place, but the digital versions live on to enhance the experience of the cemetery’s day-to-day operations—and hopefully patrons in the near future.

“We still have some books to get done yet,” Lockard shares. “The board didn’t approve all the money yet, but hopefully, that’ll happen in the next month or so. You know, when you have a cemetery with a board of old men, things take time to happen.”

 

Are you having trouble deciding how to preserve the collections your organization use every day? Give Anderson Archival a call to get the expert advice you deserve.

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Everlasting Ti Amo – Italian Love Letters Preserved

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These days, some might consider letter writing an outdated form of communication or even a lost art. But at a time when one couldn’t simply send a text or email to a faraway love, these collections are a testament to everlasting human relationships. Correspondence has the ability to tell a story, and a collection of letters can keep a romance alive even after death.

We spoke with Carla Pasetti, whose family recently brought her collection to Anderson Archival for digitization help. The collection included hundreds of handwritten items from her father Armando to her mother Evelina, written in Italian. While this collection of letters and other paper miscellanea like postcards and translucent notes was in fairly good condition and enjoyable for the team to work on, it presented some other preservation challenges. We discuss working with a conservator to help organize and stabilize a collection before digital preservation occurs as well as the future of this romantic digitized collection.

AA: To start, what would you like to tell our audience about your collection and its history?

This was a collection of letters that my parents wrote to each other back in the early 50s. My father came to the United States back in 1938. He was fourteen years old and came from a small agricultural town of San Martino dall’Argine near Mantova, Italy. He came over to work for his uncle and aunt on The Hill [in St. Louis, MO].

On one of his trips back to Italy—which weren’t very frequent at that time, you know—he met my mother [whose] sister was engaged to be married to his brother. That’s how they met. I guess they immediately connected. When [my father went] back to St. Louis, they corresponded over about two and a half years before he went back to Italy and married her. And then a few months later, she came to join him in St. Louis.

There were quite a few letters and postcards, [which] I think totaled 473. We always knew that they were around, you know, just in a cigar box in the basement. My mother passed in 2019, and my father passed in late 2020. We wanted to just leave [the collection] until he had passed, but we always had an intention to do something with it.

Did you anticipate any particular challenges to digitizing these letters?

I knew that, in the end, I wanted to make a master book of the letters, and I knew that I wanted to use something like Shutterfly or Snapfish. I wanted this to be an homage to their correspondence back and forth. I was like, ‘I’m not going to alter these or edit at all. I just really want to have a picture of each letter that is clear enough that I can read.’

Now, some elements of the collection weren’t letters. Can you speak to some of these other items, like the postcards and translucent materials?

I think one of the ones you’re referring to might be the Easter card. [In the photo book] I just want to see their handwriting and what they’re saying to each other, so I didn’t [include the Easter card]. But I am glad that my mom especially sent a lot of postcards. That breaks up the collection in a way.

Translucent card

With a creative approach to capturing all details

All images property of Carla Pasetti and Angela Holland.

Images used with permission.

How does working with a conservator fit into this story?

During one of my many trips to St. Louis, we contacted [Conservator] Noah Smutz and brought the collection to him. He’s very, very experienced and was able to restore them, flatten them, and unfold them. [The letters were on] this very thin paper that was folded up, and back then they used different paper, especially in Europe. I don’t know if it was because of the weight of the airmail in that time. It took him about three and a half months to do, but he did a great job. He was actually the one that recommended Anderson Archival. He just said you guys know what you’re doing, and really, that’s what we needed.

So you connected with a conservator for the physical letters and you had a rough plan to create your photo book. How did Anderson Archival bridge the vision to the reality?

Well, I knew that I wanted a book of them. But you guys were able to really narrow it down to, ‘What kind of file do you want?’ So really [for] the digitization of the collection, you guys were very helpful. We decided to go with the JPEG form and definitely higher resolution because they’re kind of hard to read, some of them.

Another way that Anderson Archival helped was guiding us in how the files were organized. That was something that, I mean, it was like, ‘Do you want all the postcards in one folder?’ We wanted them in some sort of sequential order so that I could just pull them into the book.

Planning can be the trickiest part—aside from imaging itself, of course. Some of the translucent materials proved to be new challenges for our team.

I feel like you guys did a great job of doing that with the black background. It took a little bit of [emailing and approvals] back and forth, but not a whole lot. The timeliness was great. Everything was just a good experience.

A thin letter (with illustration) from Evelina to Armando. Property of Carla Pasetti and Angela Holland. Used with permission.

Did working with Smutz during the conservation steps of the project help you find anything new about your collection?

I guess back then there weren’t zip codes. My mom would write ‘St. Louis, MO’ and then in parentheses write ’10.’ And I’m like, ‘What the heck is that? Like, did she make a mistake?’ But it’s the final two numbers of the zip code, because where my dad was, was 63110. The ‘10’ was the post office’s way, before they had zip codes, to identify where in St. Louis they were. I had no idea.

[The letters] had all been folded, and so they were curved, and they were not in any sort of order. They did a great job, my parents did, really preserving the sequence of these letters. They were very good about putting the day, the month, the year, the time of day, and the place. We literally brought the cigar box to Noah, and he kind of carefully opened it and saw what we had.

What’s it been like to share such a personal collection with experts like Smutz and our team?

You know, going through them and reading some of them…I feel kind of like [I’m] reading somebody else’s mail, you know? But [my parents] were very sweet and tender with each other, loving words and stuff like that. It was very innocent, but just really special and very caring. Because they had the common family members, they kept tabs on each other’s family. My father was sending money back to Italy to help out his family.

Even just their salutations…I mean, you don’t have to know a whole lot of Italian [to understand]. But…my dad would throw in English [too], like [writing] ‘“Ti amo” that means “I love you” in English.’ This is very sweet.

What is it like to work on the photo book now that you have the collection conserved and digitized?

I’m very happy with it. The book is enormous, 11”x14”. This whole process, because I had to do them letter by letter, took probably about 10 to 15 hours of time. Now I think that because I know the layouts and how they look after getting the hard copy, I think it’ll take me a little bit less, maybe 10, for the other two. I’ve been able to break it up with their postcards, but I think in the next couple of volumes, I’ll add in more pictures of them when they were young and that sort of thing, just to mix it up a bit.

But it’s turning out really good. At first my middle sister was like, ‘Oh, I’m not interested in having a copy.’ But then she took a look at Volume One and was like, ‘No, I’ll take one.’ My kids want to look at them. They don’t read Italian right now, but it’s part of their history so I am happy that we are archiving them.

Was there anything else new that you discovered maybe about your family, or just about the collection itself, once you had the digitized files in front of you?

Like I said, I’m only [on] Volume One. I think I learn things every time I do this. I haven’t read every single letter, but I do try and read parts of every few. And that is, like I said before, it’s really emotional, and that I find things about them in their youth that, of course, I didn’t know. I think that’s super special and the reason why people should do things like this.

I was telling a friend about the collection, and she said she has letters that her uncle who was in the US Army wrote and she is putting together a book [with the original hard copies]. I was like, ‘Yeah, you should digitize everything, and then make this book,’ in order to preserve them instead of (or in addition to) just using the hard copies in a book. This way she can make multiple copies and share this part of her family history with her extended family members.

 

Have a vision for your collection that you’d like a little assistance bringing to life? Let’s talk. Call us today at 314.259.1900.

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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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Capturing these photographs was essential

Who Can You Trust with Your History?

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Recent Anderson Archival client Steve Brunkhorst found himself the caretaker of four old family albums. Like many others in the same situation, he didn’t know how to share the collection with his family in a way that was fair and sustainable for the materials.

But the biggest challenge was finding someone he knew he could trust with his collection during the project. Steve didn’t want to ship the albums to someone he didn’t know, because these were important family heirlooms. He wanted to find a digital preservation firm that would take personal accountability for his collection.

Even home collectors with amateur scanning experience can benefit from reaching out to a digitization firm to ensure they have the longest lasting file formats and image quality. We sat down with Steve to talk about trusting in the process, trusting that the physical items will be well taken care of, and trusting in the enhancement and digital versions of this history.

AA: Can you describe the collection and its significance to you?

My mother passed away last year at 93 years. She had a very long, very healthy, and pretty happy life. I live in St. Louis, so I ended up with many of her cherished possessions, including this collection of [four] photo albums. One was put together by her mother, one was hers, one was my father’s, and one was my mother and father’s from the time they met until the time they started having children.

Four albums filled with family memories

Four albums filled with family memories. Image from Steve Brunkhorst’s collection and used with permission.

AA: That’s a lot of history in just four albums! I’m sure they piqued the curiosity of other family members too. Did that influence your decision to digitize them?

I have a brother and two sisters. Everyone has some interest in these old photo albums, so this was a problem staring me in the face. I was trying to find a way to share the albums in a way that was equitable and could be appreciated and easily accessible. And I do have a little bit of knowledge about scanning. I’ve got a fairly good amateur flatbed scanner, and I’m interested in photography a little bit, so I have Photoshop Elements, which allows you to correct images.

AA: With that knowledge, what was your original vision for digitizing the albums?

 I had some knowledge of what I wanted done, but I knew I did not want to do it myself for a couple of reasons. One, my flatbed scanner does not have a large enough bed for the size of some of the albums. [Also] one of the albums did not come apart, as it was bound. And the third reason was, I just simply didn’t want to put that much work into it myself.

I knew there were scanning companies where you would send a shoebox full of photos in and they’d send you something back. I was looking for a local company because I did not really want to take these irreplaceable albums and put them in the mail to someone I did not know. I was hoping I would [physically] hand [over] my documents and feel like there was some personal accountability rather than putting a box in the mail.

AA: Did you receive that personal touch you were looking for?

This [project] was being done while COVID was still a big concern. I did not actually enter your facility beyond the entry lobby, but I was just blown away. [Principal Mark Anderson] came over and talked to me a little bit and gave me a lot of confidence that I was for sure in the right place.

AA: Can you tell me more about what the digitization process was like from your perspective?

The idea was that I’ll give [the albums] to my brother and two sisters in the digital format, so this was a dilemma of how to do that. The dilemma [could be] solved by scanning everything, so everybody gets everything in a digital format, and then each of the brothers and sisters gets another piece in the old historical legacy format.

I didn’t know exactly what I wanted in the way of PDFs or JPEGs. [Content Specialist Marcia Spicer] offered a standard package of PDFs and JPEGs at different scan densities and even TIFFs. That was something that I didn’t know to request, but due to her experience, it was offered. That worked out very well.

AA: I know that one album could not be easily unbound, and a handful of photographs throughout the albums had silvering issues from age. What was your approach to these physical challenges during digitization of this collection?

What happened is that Marcia sent me some test [images] and scans. Some were just pretty neutral scans how the equipment was able to digitize, and then there were some enhancements. I looked at the enhancements, and what I found even at home doing some digitization on these photos was that, depending on the condition of the photo, that different photos would require different kinds of enhancements to improve them a bit.

Family Photo with Silvering

Image degradation with silvering

Family Photo Edited to Reduce Silvering

Silvering minimized through editing

Another Family Photo with Silvering

Image degradation with silvering

Photo Edited to Reduce Silvering

Silvering minimized through alternate capture angles

AA: How would you say the digital versions of the albums helped you see the collection and its history in a new way?

[Before digitization] I had [only] glanced at these photos. My sister had looked at the albums with my mother to try to identify some of the people [in the photos], and she had stuck little post-it notes on the pages of the album. What I did is remove those notes, keeping track of which photos they were related to, which page they were on. After I received the PDFs [from Anderson Archival], I was able to use a PDF program called Nuance to insert digital comments on the pages. It looks really nice and was much nicer than scanning the post it notes.

Later on, I was looking page by page to make a few notes and understand [for] myself when these photos were taken. Looking at these photos kind of got me interested in going back to some other [historical family] documents I have scanned, to go back and understand what year these events happened. I was able to do that, going back to my digital files, finding dates, and other reference information, and then making small notes on the PDF version of the albums. That was something which I never thought I was going to do, but it kind of evolved out of it. I was giving them something that was as complete and interesting as it could be, so that turned out to be kind of a fun benefit of having the collection digitized.

Family Photo

Family Photo

Family Photo


Family Photo

Family Photo


Back then, the earliest photos were very small and not very crisp. Over the course of the photo albums, you can see the technology improves, the knowledge about how to take a photo and move [the camera] closer [to the subject]. In a way, you’re also seeing the evolution of photography.

AA: I hadn’t thought about it that way, but the movement through time is very apparent when looking at all the albums together. Did you learn anything new about your family from the digital albums?

I knew my grandmother pretty well when I was growing up, because my grandmother lived with my mother and father. It was more of an integrated family situation back then. I knew my grandmother from birth until I left home at 18 years old, but she was always this old grandmother to me. She wasn’t quite as old, really, as I know it now.

Looking back at her photograph album, I see photos of her and her friends with tennis racquets and cameras, in the park, in boats, and taking pictures, which is very much like social media today. I realized when my grandmother was younger, she was quite a hot young woman and her friends [were] very attractive. They were smiling and laughing and having a lot of fun. And I just never thought that about my grandmother until I looked back at these photographs and said, ‘Yeah, they were having a good time. They were having a nice life.’ That was kind of a rediscovery for me.

AA: How do you think your family will use the digital files going forward?

I’ve downloaded all of the digitized content onto my PC, and I purchased some thumb drives to store the files. [Each sibling] can send that thumb drive on to their children, who can also store it on their own electronic devices and have a copy of it. Even if they don’t look at it today, they’ll have it for some time in the future when they do.

AA: Thank you for trusting us with your collection and sharing your story. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I enthusiastically recommend that people [who] have documents, photographs, or anything else that needs to be organized get in touch with you and see what you can do for them. Everybody’s got a big cache of photo albums. People my age still don’t want to just throw things away without having some copy or some reference to it, so I’m looking forward to telling other people about Anderson Archival and showing them what I’ve received. Hopefully, it’s a solution for some other people to know.

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Digitized Register for Cayuga Asylum

Adopting Digital Preservation for a Legacy of Caring

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Technology is so engrained in our everyday lives that it can be hard to imagine a time when the only evidence of one’s ancestry was a single handwritten line in an archive across the country. But before the age of virtual records and digital paper trails, this was the only option for some people hunting down their history—or the history of esteemed historical figures.

Anderson Archival sat down with Laurel Bennett, executive assistant at Cayuga Centers, a nonprofit founded in 1852 as a home for destitute children. Over the last 165 years, Cayuga Centers has become not only a temporary support system for children in need, but also an organization that provides every kind of support possible for children and families regardless of circumstance.

This collection also has significance to history on a larger scale, but we’ll let Bennett explain in her own words.

 

AA: Can you tell our readers a little bit about Cayuga Centers’ history and mission?

[Cayuga Centers] started in the early 1860s as an orphanage. Three of the prominent families of Auburn, New York—one of which [were] the Sewards, who you might know through Henry Seward, the secretary of state to Abraham Lincoln. They saw a need for an orphanage so they created one [here].

Over the years, Cayuga Centers evolved into what it is today, which is a nonprofit that is chosen to help children, families, and individuals to grow at home. I’m going to read you our mission: ‘To grow as independent, healthy, and productive citizens through quality counseling, residential, and support services. We do this in partnership with those we serve, as well as government agencies and other social services providers.’

We have programs for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, we have our foster care programs in Florida, Delaware, and upstate New York and New York City, and our biggest program is actually our migrant foster care program for unaccompanied minors that come into the US without an adult. This is a big contract that we have with the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

AA: That’s quite the task list! How did you end up working for Cayuga Centers?

I’ve been here for about a year and a half, and I’m the executive assistant to our president and CEO. What drew me to Cayuga Centers when I first got out of college was that they don’t just provide foster care for these children—they also provide counseling, they provide schooling, they provide any and everything that they need.

Cayuga Centers legacy of caring digitized

Cayuga’s legacy of caring dates far back in history. Image from Cayuga Centers’ collection and used with permission.

[The children] are at a disadvantage when they go through the foster care system, and that’s what really drew me into it. If I had children and somehow they got separated from me, I would want them to go to a Cayuga Centers foster home. For the children that come over the border, we make sure that they’re in a home that speaks their native language as well.

AA: How did you decide to reach out for digitization services?

One of my duties [when] I came into this job [was] to look after our archive, which is located in our headquarters in Auburn, New York. [It’s] this big old library, and before COVID happened, people liked to come in to view the records from back in the orphanage for genealogical purposes. Our staff also likes to look through them because they’re really cool old books. After researching how to properly store these [books] and what we can do to best preserve them, I found Anderson [Archival] and sent them off to be digitized.

AA: When you were looking for a digital preservation vendor to help you with this project, what specific challenges did you know going in that your collection would have?

They’re very fragile. When you look through them, some of the pages are falling out, some of them are torn up, some of them are very faded.

Finding a company that was able to capture the image and make sure it was the best it could [be] was really key for this particular collection.

I was looking at different providers, and you guys fit exactly what we needed. [Anderson Archival’s facilities] have everything in house. We can just send them to you and [know that] you take good care of the books. They are very fragile, they’re from the 1800s. You scan every page and then send us those files for us to keep on file for ourselves. I like that you guys are all in-house and just seem like a good reputable business. And that’s why we chose you.

AA: Did you learn anything new about your collection through digitization?

It’s a lot bigger than we originally thought it was. We see it and where it’s stored, and then seeing all the individual files…there’s so many of them. The books are a lot thicker than they look in real life.

Also, there was a prominent figure in Auburn who was the head of the orphanage, and they actually had an all-female board that ran it, which was very cool and rare for the time. I found that when looking through the old annual reports.

AA: If these books were available for the public to come in and look at, are the newly digitized files something that you’ll be using in that way?

Yeah, sometimes people have to get permission from us to come in to view them. But some people haven’t been able to come in because they’re from all over the country, and they have an ancestor that stayed in the orphanage and they wanted to come here and find their files. Now that they’re digitized, we can find the specific year and the register that their ancestor, parent, or grandparent lived in and can send that to them.

Also, we have staff from multiple locations throughout upstate New York, Delaware, and Florida. Not everyone has been able to come in and view the collection, so we make it available for our staff to be able to look through whenever they have the interest to. That’s something our staff would really like, to be able to see from wherever they are, especially because of COVID. People haven’t been able to travel as much as they used to.

AA: Are there any other ways that you foresee using the digital collection in the future?

One of our books actually has Harriet Tubman in it because she adopted a child who I believe is blind and that’s how she came to live with her and fostered her at home here in Auburn. Just looking through [the collection] one of our staff found [that record], and then we were able to find out that Harriet Tubman was involved in the early history of our agency, which is very cool.

Harriet Tubman appears in the Cayuga Register

Cayuga Centers’ relationship with Harriet Tubman displayed in this record. Identifying names have been redacted. Image used with permission.

It makes sense because Harriet Tubman was very involved with the Seward family and Auburn. I believe they were involved in the founding of the original orphanage, which was [originally] called the Cayuga Asylum for Destitute Children.

We want to think of a way that we can share it on our website, like the Harriet Tubman register or the scrapbook, for more particular interest to the agency and our history. We’re thinking of ways to share them with the public [too].

AA: Can you share any other stories about these personal connections to the past?

[There are a few stories of] people that have come in to view the collection that have been able to see parts of the digitized collection before it was finished. We had a woman whose aunt stayed at the orphanage as a child, and she wanted to try to find everything she could. They were going to the state to try to find her adoption papers and everything. Looking through the books, it was actually very hard to find her because your eyes miss things. But as it was digitized, I was actually able to find the exact page that her aunt was on, and I was able to print and send that page to them because it was digitized. They were out of state, so she was so grateful. Because the image was so clear I was able to print them out a blank one and then I also printed out one where I was able to highlight where she was in the page.

AA: That has to be really special for people, to have that physical manifestation of their ancestor. What other impacts has the digital collection had so far?

Another gentleman came in, and some of his cousins, I believe, stayed [at Cayuga]. He came in and was looking through the books but wasn’t able to find anything. But then, after it got digitized, I was then able to more easily find where they were. He said that he cried because he was so happy he was able to find more about them, because they actually had siblings that also came in through here.

A lot of people come in because they have some sort of family connection to Cayuga. There’s a big cemetery in Auburn where we have a few of the graves of the orphans that unfortunately died from illness when they were staying here, [and it’s] the same place the Sewards are buried, that Harriet Tubman is buried. A few years ago on our 165th anniversary, we had a little ceremony there.

AA: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me.

Thanks so much for being interested in us, and thank you guys for doing a great job.

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Antique Stopwatch

2020: The Time Capsule

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For many different reasons, 2020 was a year to remember. The world handled a global pandemic, upheaval of normal life, and social unrest. How do we preserve the memories of this unique year and the lessons learned for generations to come?

Time capsules may seem like childhood fancy or relics of the past, especially when social media has become an essential part of documenting our personal and professional lives. Many see social media as a scrapbook of sorts, but sometimes these platforms fail to meet that need. And while Facebook and Instagram may seem ubiquitous now, there may come a time when neither is available to serve as documentation of the past.

Even if you like to post every thought and photograph online, when a year as revolutionary as 2020 comes along, it may inspire you to document this chapter of your life in a more tangible way.

Some folks found themselves with the time and opportunity to travel to their childhood home or visit extended family members to spend lockdown with. Others had to manage the belongings and collections from loved ones lost. Rummaging through old family heirlooms may have uncovered time capsules from other eras, like the box of letters your grandparents wrote to one another or the storage locker of collectibles you knew your dad kept but had no idea of the scope and detail of the history behind it. Every collection serves as a time capsule in its own way, offering a snapshot of a particular moment in time.

Professional archivists and amateur historians alike often share the mentality of collecting everything now so that the value of that collection can be fully realized in the future. In ten, twenty, or one hundred years, you may be shocked by what you saved that holds resonance.

This printout has some great starting points if you’re not sure what’s worth recording, or follow NPR’s Life Kit podcast’s advice and make a throwback ‘zine about your 2020 experience!

Been taking lots of photos of your pet’s daytime activities that you haven’t typically been home for? Try creating a digital scrapbook of cat snapshots or a website gallery you can share with friends. Photos that capture the feelings of isolation, candid masked selfies, the heat of a local protest, or tranquil pockets of nature can all prove valuable to future historians (or future friends and family) as a record of 2020. A printed photo book that can be flipped through might make a good gift for a family member who missed out on social activities. Something tangible might make a nice change as memory of a year that was spent so much online.

Even the small things hold meaning and memory. Remote work became a staple of many workplaces in 2020 out of necessity when the world seemed to shut down overnight. This was a major change for a lot of workers, and it came with its own set of mental, technical, and security challenges. For those of us lucky enough to work from home since the lockdowns began in early 2020, it might be fun to document some of the experiences you’ve undergone with that change. Ask to take screenshots of your office Zoom lunches to document the ups and downs of connecting with your coworkers in a new way.

Regardless of how you choose to document this year, here are some tips to make sure your 2020 capsule will last:

Back up all digital media. Two backup methods are always better than one! On top of keeping a physical copy on a flash drive or external hard drive, saving your time capsule to the cloud not only assures that you won’t lose the images and documents if the physical method fails, but it also makes it easier to share with friends, family, or on social media. Don’t forget to save your materials in file formats that will stand the test of time.

Organize as you go. Not only is doing this best preservation practice, but it will also make viewing and using your time capsule in the future much easier. If you decide to add metadata to your collection in the future for improved searchability, labeled and sorted materials will make that step all the easier. There’s nothing more frustrating to the personal historian than opening up a folder or album years later and finding unlabeled, unfamiliar faces. Documentation will be a key part of enjoying your collection and passing it on.

Use appropriate storage materials. All physical items in your time capsule should be stored in acid-free, archival-grade boxes, envelopes, or storage containers. The storage environment is equally important. Make sure your time capsule is safe by keeping it out of humid or variable temperature environments like attics or basements. As fun as it might be to bury your capsule, unless the vessel is secure and meant for that environmental stress, you might be sending your valuable memories to decay.

And one last tip: Consult the preservation experts! Anderson Archival is always available to field any preservation questions you may have about documenting one of the most unforgettable years of this century. And if part of your year involved introduction to an existing collection that hasn’t been digitally preserved, the time is right to read about the ways to keep it available for the future.

As we kick off 2021, Anderson Archival is here for your digital preservation needs. Contact us at any time: we can’t wait to hear about your pieces of history.

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Quotables: Extraordinary History, Extraordinary Value (DigitalEdge)

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Principal Farica Chang’s post in DigitalEdge covers the basics of moving to a paperless office. This process can feel confusing or downright overwhelming, especially if you don’t know what your goals are or how to start.

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 a wide audience. Let us help you preserve your legacy 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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Quotables: Best practices for digitizing historical books and paper documents (GCN)

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Founding Principal Amy Anderson’s post in GCN covers the basics of moving to a paperless office. This process can feel confusing or downright overwhelming, especially if you don’t know what your goals are or how to start.

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 a wide audience. Let us help you preserve your legacy 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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