Books
Too Fragile to Open, World’s Oldest Multicolor Printed Book Is Digitized
The 17th-century Manual of Calligraphy and Painting (Shi zhu zhai shu hua pu) is so fragile that until digitization no one was allowed to open it.
Digitization
News
Preserving the Templates for Historic Stained Glass Found Around the World
To organize the many pieces that form just one stained glass window, artists often create full-scale drawings of the final work that serve as maps for the intricate process.
Art
The Freaks and Fascinations of 18th-Century Entertainment
Last week, the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford launched an online portal to over 115,000 open-license images from their collections.
Art
Determined Scholar Reassembles a 2nd-Century Medical Manual
The 11-volume On the Mixtures and Powers of Simple Drugs by 2nd-century Greek physician Galen, with its ancient guidelines for pharmacology, was standard reading for centuries in the medical profession.
Art
Broadsides for Broadband: Digitizing the People's Literature of the 17th Century
Considered the "people's literature" in the 17th century, broadside ballads were sold for a penny or halfpenny, their pairing of a comic or satiric song alongside a woodblock illustration making them popular bawdy amusement across classes.
Art
A Historic Manuscript on Aztec Life Is "Virtually Repatriated"
One of the major textual resources on pre-Columbian Mexico is now online in a digital platform launched this month.
News
Hood Museum Digitizing 4,000 Indigenous Artifacts
By this summer, Dartmouth College's Hood Museum of Art plans to have over 4,000 Native American art objects digitized.
News
More Than 6,000 Wallpaper Designs Digitized
Wallpaper has been the subject of exhibitions at institutions like New York's International Print Center and Manchester's Whitworth Gallery, and artists like Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst have even created their own designs.
News
Tate Digitizes 52,000 Artifacts from the Lives of British Artists
Around 52,000 letters, sketchbooks, photographs, and other ephemera of 20th-century British artists will be accessible online by next summer. The first 6,000 items were revealed this month as part of the Tate Archive.
News
30,000 Digitized Documents Retrace the Origin of 'The Origin of Species'
The digitization of Charles Darwin's scientific archive is half completed. When it's finished, the project will allow researchers and anyone who's curious to follow the steps that brought the 19th-century naturalist to formulate his evolutionary theory.
News
800,000 Pages of Patient Art and Mental Health Archives Are Going Online
A few weeks ago, the Wellcome Library announced a new initiative to digitize more than 800,000 pages of material from British psychiatric hospitals. Dating between the 18th and 20th centuries, the trove includes examples of patient artwork and writing, as well as patient-produced publications.
News
Getty Adds Thousands of Art Historical Images to Growing Digital Library
Getting museum and library archives digitized is one thing; uniting them on a platform that's uniform and accessible is another.