Seven Archivists, a Digitization Team, and 4.5 Million Images

June 29, 2023 7:17 PM

The Ambitious Plan to Open Up a Treasure Trove of Black History "The archive contains around 5,000 magazines, 200 boxes of business records, 10,000 audio and visual recordings, and 4.5 million prints and negatives that chronicle Black life from the 1940s until the present day."
posted by johnxlibris (4 comments total)

OH MY GOD.

This is absolutely fantastic. I LOVE archives, people preserving other people's stories and sharing them, and this looks like an absolutely fabulous approach to this massive but utterly monumental project.

“In general, both institutions can do this easily without the other. But what makes this a really unique and dynamic experience is that we’re relying on each other’s strengths,” said Steven Booth, the [Getty Research Institute]’s [Johnson Publishing Company] archive manager.

The photo of Dr. Mae Jemison is so great. Just imagine how many thousands of other amazing photos are in there.

I am thrilled to know about this, so very pleased at the expertise and collaborative attitudes noted in the article, and immensely heartened by the proposed outreach programs. Also I cannot wait, personally, to get to visit the archive website and poke around as soon as it's online.

Thank you so much for posting this, johnxlibris. This is my Good News for the day, and will be my topic of the week when talking to relatives about Things Other Than Politics and Depressing Events.
posted by kristi at 7:35 PM on June 29, 2023 [4 favorites]

kristi, so glad it made your day! Yes, the whole time I was reading this I was thinking (1) this is going to completely change how we teach US history and (2) please please PLEASE don't let anyone ruin this. =)
posted by johnxlibris at 8:17 PM on June 29, 2023

It's Getty rather than J. Random Clueless Stereotype-Bound Journalist writing this, so I'm not surprised, but I sure am gratified at the emphasis on exactly how much ACTUAL FREAKIN' WORK this is.
posted by humbug at 5:44 AM on June 30, 2023 [3 favorites]

If I may piggyback a related project announcement onto this, I got a press release yesterday:

"Queens County Clerk Audrey I. Pheffer today joined Bronx County Clerk Ischia Bravo, Queens Public Library President Dennis M. Walcott and other local officials at the Central Library in Jamaica, Queens to inaugurate www.NYnaturalizations.com, which provides remote access to naturalization records dating from 1795 to 1952 maintained by the County Clerk’s offices in Queens and the Bronx.

This online archive, comprising well over 250,000 historical records documenting the legal process of immigration to the U.S. by foreign-born citizens... can be instantly retrieved by the public –– from researchers to family members –– to view, save and print via an online database that allows users to search by petition number, the individual’s year of arrival or their country of origin"

posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 8:24 AM on June 30, 2023 [3 favorites]