News & Events
Steelmakers in Cyberspace
06/01/2000
June 2000
Steelmakers in Cyberspace
Indiana University’s Digital Library Program Receives Grant to Digitize Historic Images of Gary, Indiana
The Indiana University Digital Library Program 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, Indiana.
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 Corporation donated these photographs to the Calumet Regional Archives at Indiana University Northwest.
“The U.S. Steel photographs are among our most important collections,” says Steve McShane, archivist and curator at the Calumet Regional Archives. 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 says.
Digitizing the 1,900 images, now available only as glass negatives and prints, will make them more widely available to scholars and schoolchildren who would otherwise be able to view them only if they visited the Calumet Regional Archives, says Kris 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,” she says. “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 World Wide Web-based learning site for students from grades 4 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.
For more information:
Sample images: http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/steel/
Calumet Regional Archives: http://www.iun.edu/~lib/crahome.htm
IU Digital Library Program: http://www.dlib.indiana.edu
Steelmakers in Cyberspace
Indiana University’s Digital Library Program Receives Grant to Digitize Historic Images of Gary, Indiana
The Indiana University Digital Library Program 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, Indiana.
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 Corporation donated these photographs to the Calumet Regional Archives at Indiana University Northwest.
“The U.S. Steel photographs are among our most important collections,” says Steve McShane, archivist and curator at the Calumet Regional Archives. 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 says.
Digitizing the 1,900 images, now available only as glass negatives and prints, will make them more widely available to scholars and schoolchildren who would otherwise be able to view them only if they visited the Calumet Regional Archives, says Kris 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,” she says. “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 World Wide Web-based learning site for students from grades 4 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.
For more information:
Sample images: http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/steel/
Calumet Regional Archives: http://www.iun.edu/~lib/crahome.htm
IU Digital Library Program: http://www.dlib.indiana.edu
