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IU's Digital Library Program receives grant to digitize historic images of Gary, Indiana
June 6, 2000
EDITORS: Sample images from the collection and an example of their presentation are available online at the IU Digital Library site at http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/new/steel.html. You are welcome to publish photos from the site. Please credit the Calumet Regional Archives at Indiana University Northwest.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Indiana University Digital Library Program has received a $19,000 grant to digitize and offer on the World Wide Web a one-of-a-kind photograph collection that documents the history of Gary, Ind.
The images illustrate the creation of the Gary Works, the world's largest steel mill during the height of America's industrial revolution.
From 1906 to 1941, U.S. Steel photographers documented the building and growth of both the U.S. Steel Gary Works and the company town of Gary. Images depict all aspects of life and work in and around the steel mill, from the company-sponsored baseball team to mammoth industrial furnaces. In the mid-1970s, the United States Steel Corp. donated these photographs to the Calumet Regional Archives at IU Northwest.
"The U.S. Steel photographs are among our most important collections," said Stephen McShane, archivist and curator at the Calumet Regional Archives.
The images show the swift growth of this northern Indiana community. Constructed among the dunes by Lake Michigan, the mill was operational just two years after groundbreaking. "You can see the city almost rising from the sand," McShane said.
Digitizing the 1,900 images, now available only as glass negatives and prints, will make them more widely available to scholars and school children who otherwise could view them only if they visited the Calumet Regional Archives, said Kristine Brancolini, acting director of the IU Digital Library Program.
"We're looking for resources that are uniquely Indiana or reflect outstanding areas of expertise on IU's campuses," Brancolini said. "This Web site should have particular appeal to students of Indiana history, from fourth grade through high school."
This project represents the Digital Library Program's first efforts in creating a Web-based learning site for students from grades four through 12 and will be designed to encourage interaction with a collection of archival photographs. The images are expected to be online by July 1, 2001.
The digitization project is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the Indiana State Library.
IU's Digital Library program is a university-wide partnership of the IU Libraries, University Information Technology Services, and the School of Library and Information Science.
More information on the IU Digital Library Program is available at http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/ More information on the Calumet Regional Archives is available at http://www.lib.iun.indiana.edu/crahome.htm
(George Vlahakis, 812-855-0846, gvlahaki@indiana.edu or Eric Bartheld, 812-856-4817, ebarthel@indiana.edu)