Scope and methods

For this project, the full twenty volumes of approximately 5000 pages of narrative text were scanned. They are presented integrated with the 2226 scans of the photogravure plates, which in the original Curtis work include 1500 images bound in the volumes and the remainder as loose plates in twenty accompanying portfolios.

Both text and plates were scanned with a digital-back view camera and special book cradles developed by JJT, Inc. to protect the construction of the sewn volumes. All plates are color scans, while the text was scanned in grayscale and down-sampled to bi-tonal format for machine text conversion at University of Michigan.

This project aims to serve the web reader by both simulating and enriching the experience of browsing the pages and oversized plates of the original work.
Images of the original pages are coupled with unedited or “raw” text to increase access to the contents. Text encoding at a medium level of detail allows linking from a table of contents to chapters and subchapters as well as individual plates. A “virtual” edition has been created by integrating components of the original publication mounted on servers from two institutions – Northwestern and the Library of Congress. We have used a METS schema to integrate all metadata on the text and plate files for delivery and maintenance of the digital content. Descriptive metadata in Dublin Core format already created for the plate scans is now maintained within the METS schema, with an individual record for each image. XML encoding and style-sheets deliver the digital content from the METS structure.

Complementing the Library of Congress American Memory web site

The plate scans are also accessible through Library of Congress’ American Memory web site, in the digital collection entitled Edward S. Curtis’s The North American Indian: Photographic Images.

Special features are provided on the Library of Congress site, including browsing and searching of keyword indexing of the portfolio images, contextual essays, and gallery views. This complements the material presented on the Northwestern site, which offers the table of contents and illustration lists following the format of the original publication, plus additional background material. The web user can open a window, consult the image indexing on the Library of Congress site, and return to reading the online publication on the Northwestern site.

Staffing

The project was managed by staff from the Library’s Preservation Department, with the interface and search engine applications executed by the Library Management Systems and web staff. Consulting and contributions came from several other departments of the library as well.