Hudson River Valley Heritage – Online Digital Archive!
Hudson River Valley Heritage (HRVH) is a website that provides its users access to digitized versions of documents and photographs from libraries and archives across Dutchess, Ulster, Sullivan, Greene, Columbia, Rockland, Westchester, Orange, and Putnam counties. HRVH was created by the Southeastern New York Library Resources Council (SENYLRC). The site aims to bring the archives of libraries, historic homes, and museums in the Hudson Valley to the public via digitization efforts. While at Historic Huguenot Street (HHS), I contributed to this website by adding documents from the Roelof J. and Ezekiel Elting Family Papers collection. Some other notable contributors are the Hudson River Valley Institute, the Locust Grove/Locust Lawn Estates, SUNY New Paltz, and Bard College. The central issue of this website is to make historical documents and collections items accessible. To accomplish this, institutions work to upload documents, photographs, and other items from their archives to the site. Historic Huguenot Street is in the process of obtaining grant funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to digitize more of their documents for upload to HRVH and other sites. Digitization is an important aspect of public history because it allows for primary documents to be accessible to researchers, students, and genealogists from around the world.
Documents can be digitized in several different ways. Depending on the size of the item, a flatbed scanner, word processor, or camera could be used to get primary sources online. Large items that will not fit safely onto a flatbed scanner will require the use of a camera and studio lighting. Smaller documents are placed onto the scanner and then transcribed. While at HHS, I used both methods to digitize sources. The process that I followed to digitize had five main steps. First, I traveled to the archive and selected a document. Next, I scanned the items and sent them to the computer. I then worked on cropping, straightening, and editing the images in Photoshop. Once the document was edited, I transcribed it and then started the metadata creation process. Metadata is information about the data that is presented in the document. It includes data such as the holding institution, creator, contact information, search tools, and information on the origins and content of the item. Metadata was created in an online database called Content DM. Finally, HHS’ archivist and librarian, Carrie Allmendinger, proofread the transcript and metadata. The document was then uploaded to HRVH. In total, I uploaded fifteen documents from the Roelof J. and Ezekiel Elting Family Paper collection. Other institutions that contribute to HRVH follow a similar process to digitize their primary sources.
Hudson River Valley Heritage aims to make the local history of the Hudson River Valley accessible to all through their website. In addition, HRVH also works with Omeka to create online exhibits on topics such as African American history in New York and the Locust Lawn estate. These exhibits feature historical documents, photographs, and resources for educators that come from the archives and libraries of Southeastern New York. This website is a great resource for anyone interested in American and local history. It allows its visitors access to the archives of the region without having to leave the website. A diverse collection of photographs, documents, and special collection items are on display for the enjoyment and research of the entire Hudson Valley.
All of my posts on HRVH can be found at: https://www.hrvh.org/cdm/search/searchterm/Minieri,%20Jessica/field/all/mode/all/conn/and/cosuppress/
One of the documents from Historic Huguenot Street’s archive that I worked to upload to HRVH.
The first document that I uploaded to HRVH
Another example of a document that I digitized.