Contributed by Hillary Kativa
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) has begun a two-year project to enhance description and discovery of its graphics materials and promote the linking and sharing of content among institutions and scholars. This project is funded by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission’s Innovation in Archives and Documentary Editing program.
As part of the project, HSP will digitize 500 political cartoons and develop a sophisticated image tool, which will allow users to search for cartoons on specific topics, analyze individual cartoons in depth, and follow links between cartoons and related contextual material. The tool, an update to the open-source Bischen image viewer, will improve HSP’s ability to manage and describe its digitized images and make it easier for the public to access them. The project will also include educational resources for teachers and students, as well as descriptive content that will be shared among the wider digital community. The overall objective is to make archival graphics more accessible for online users and encourage other repositories to adopt the new tools and practices.
For more information about the project, contact Hillary S. Kativa, Digital Collections and Rights Manager (hkativa@hsp.org).
Delaware Valley Archivists Group 