What has been done so far:

So far I have scanned in the 1238 slides that are clearly labeled with a catalogue number (such as 31.B.7) and I’ve typed up the entire catalogue that came with the collection, regardless of whether or not I had found the slides. The catalogue contained a listing of the numbers as well as the comments written on the slides themselves. Needless to say, the catalogue was very handy thing, and I have tried to keep the structure of the catalogue intact on this website.

 

What is left to do:

Short answer: lots.

Long answer: Just roughly estimating, I would say I’ve managed to scan about half of the glass slides in the collection. All the unscanned slides lack the handy number and corresponding catalogue entry. Since I’ve finally got through the easy part, I’ve started looking back through the collection at the unlabeled things, and I have noticed a few that should belong with the numbered slides, and that their number had likely just fallen off. Beyond this smaller task there are a number of much larger tasks to do involving this collection. There are a few hundred ‘location’ slides, ones labeled something like: ‘Ohio O-4’ or something like that, however, most, if not all of these types of slides don’t have any text with them. There are also a few hundred really old glass slides dated from about 1890 to 1900. I hope to scan these ones in as well, but again, they don’t have any text with them, so I’ve neglected them so far. Of course, this collection doesn’t contain just slides, but also hundreds of old photographs which do have text with them and that text has already been entered into a word processor by someone other than me! So scanning those also fall under the To Do. Finally, the glass slides I’ve scanned were filed using a filing card, and many, though nowhere near all, of these filing cards had the source of the picture cited and/or where the negative could be found. So adding these references or finding the negatives is another addition to this. I have begun adding some of these references in italics on the catalogue listing. Beyond these additions to the collection on the web, I’m also trying to make the site itself more streamlined and more conducive to scholarly research than just look-see at old slides. Any suggestions on improving the site in that way would be appreciated.

 

Who is this ‘I’ and what possessed her to do this?

“I” am Kathy Huwig, a senior at Case Western Reserve University, and I’m double majoring in Geology and Evolutionary Biology, with a minor in Religion, though my main interests lie in planetary geology, particularly meteoritic particles. As for why I’m doing this: Insanity. I mean, I’ve been doing this for the past year and a half for a few reasons. First, scanning the slides and setting up this website started as an archival senior project that I did for my second major, Evolutionary Biology. Secondly, I was paid for a small portion of the labor. Finally, and really the reason I’m still at it after 1238 slides, is because I just really love this collection, and it really deserves to be available to more than just a few people who are either insane or bored enough to go through it.

Last updated by Kathy Huwig on 4/5/2004