University Research

Academic department

University Libraries

Description

The purpose of this two-year project is to digitize and make available online for research and discovery the photographs of Horace and Evelyn Stewart from The University of Akron Archives & Special Collections. The Stewarts were a husband-and-wife team of professional Black photographers who owned and operated Stewart’s Photo Studio in Akron, Ohio. Their photographs visually document the rich history of the Black community in Akron, northeast Ohio, and beyond, from 1897 to 1978. The collection consists of 37 boxes containing approximately 46,000 historic black and white and color photographic prints and negatives that capture Black personalities and families; religious, social, and cultural organizations; and civil rights. The grant will allow us to hire a vendor to digitize the entire collection of prints and negatives, a part-time temporary staff member to manage the project, and student assistants to create metadata for the images and upload them to our digital repository.

Funding (Grant Information)

Digitizing Hidden Collections: Amplifying Unheard Voices

Funding Status (Grant Information)

Awarded

Unstructured Data (Data Management)

The source collection we are nominating for digitization is the Horace and Evelyn Stewart Photographs. The photographs were taken by Horace Stewart, a Black photographer from Georgetown, British Guiana, and graduate of Queens College and the New York Photography Institute, and his wife, Evelyn Poole Stewart, Akron representative for the Call and Post, a Black newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. The Stewarts owned and operated Stewart’s Photo Studio in Akron, Ohio at 11½ N. Howard St., a thriving Black neighborhood just north of downtown Akron. At the time, the Stewarts were among the few Black professional photographers in the country. During the period they were active, Akron was known as “the Rubber Capital of the World” and was one of the fastest growing cities in the nation. It was a destination for many Blacks fleeing the mostly rural, segregated Jim Crow south in hopes of securing jobs in the booming rubber industry. The images, which date from 1897 to 1978, visually document the rich history of the Black community in Akron, northeast Ohio, and beyond. The collection consists of 44 records storage boxes (approximately 44 cubic feet) containing over 54,000 items including approximately 46,000 original historic black and white and color photographic negatives on cellulose acetate, cellulose nitrate, and polyester film base housed in 32 records storage boxes (box numbers 6-30 and 36-42). The collection also includes five records storage boxes (box numbers 1-5) containing approximately 4,300 photographic prints, which were more than likely made from the negatives. Therefore, the prints will not be digitized as better-quality scans can be obtained by digitizing the negatives. The collection also includes five records storage boxes (box numbers 30-35) that are labeled “copies” and appear to be copy negatives. Therefore, these boxes are not included in the scope of this project either as they appear to be duplicates. The last two boxes (box numbers 43-44) contain routine paperwork regarding the collection and the Stewart’s business, and will not be digitized as part of this project.

Measurement Technique (NIH requirements for data set)

We propose to digitize all original photographic negatives in the collection. This includes 5x7, 4x5, and 2x2 black and white and color negatives on acetate, nitrate, and polyester base. Duplicate negatives and photographic prints in the collection, which are more than likely created from the original negatives, will not be digitized.

Research participants (NIH requirements for data sets)

Photographs of Horace St. John Stewart and Evelyn Poole Stewart

Metadata schema (NIH requirements for data sets)

Dublin Core

Demographic of participants (NIH requirements for data sets)

Horace St. John Stewart and Evelyn Poole Stewart (later McNeil) were a husband-and-wife team of professional Black photographers who owned and operated Stewart’s Photo Studio on N. Howard Street in Akron, Ohio.

Size of Data (NIH requirements for data sets)

Size of collection in cubic feet: 37

Methodology (NIH requirements for data sets)

The outcome of the project will be the digitization of the entire collection of photographic prints and negatives from the Horace and Evelyn Stewart Photographs. All images will be captured at high resolution (600 dpi) and saved in TIFF format for master files, which will be resized to 150 dpi JPEG files for online access, as recommended by the National Archives & Records Administration’s “Guidelines for Digitizing Archival Materials.” Cost estimates were obtained from two reputable digitization vendors that we have worked with extensively in the past. This includes ARS Video in Tallmadge, Ohio and the HF Group Digital Services in Greensboro, North Carolina. As we do with all digitized content from the Archives, we will store the high-resolution master files on our cloud-based server, which is funded by the University and backed up regularly, and maintain a backup on external hard drives, which will be provided by the grant. The other outcome will be the creation of metadata for all images and uploading them to our digital repository. All metadata will follow Dublin Core standards and will be performed by student assistants following our Metadata Manual and under the direction of the project manager and department staff. Keywords and subject headings will be taken from the Library of Congress’ Thesaurus for Graphic Materials, Subject Headings, and Name Authority File. Assistance will be provided by the University Libraries’ Cataloging Department. Metadata and images will be batch uploaded to our digital repository. Currently, the Archives is using CONTENTdm (please see www.uakron.edu/libraries/archives/digitalcollections), but we are in the process of migrating to JSTOR Forum (see https://www.jstor.org/site/university-of-akron/). Digitization is estimated to take one year and metadata creation and uploading to the digital repository to take two years, although some work will happen concurrently.

Estimates for digitization were provided by the vendors, which have extensive experience digitizing a variety of archival formats for large and small institutions. Estimates for metadata creation and uploading were calculated based on past digitization and metadata projects, including a National Endowment for the Humanities funded project to digitize 23,000+ negatives from our Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company Records. The total number of images was estimated by counting the number of envelopes in a box and multiplying by the total number of boxes to get the total number of envelopes. The number of negatives per envelope was determined by sampling envelopes from different years in different boxes and then multiplying by the total number of envelopes and boxes. In order to raise awareness of the collection and the project various presentations will be made on campus and throughout the community. The project will be promoted through press releases and postings on our website and social media accounts, as well as announcements in local, state, and national publications. This includes the websites, newsletters, and email blasts of professional archival organizations as well as regional news outlets. This will engage specific audiences including faculty, staff, and students from UA and surrounding colleges and universities, the local community, and the broader scholarly community.

Location (NIH requirements for data sets)

North Ohio, including Akron, Cleveland, Barberton, Columbus, Kent, Toledo, Warren, Youngstown

File Format(s) (NIH requirements for data sets) 

TIFF at 600 DPI

Document Type

Research Report

Publication Date

2024

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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