Behind the Scenes – Page 5

Morton finding aid online!

The man in this gorgeous Morton image appears to be searching for something, though I’m not sure what. Inspiration? Perspective? The meaning of life? Perhaps he could use a finding aid.
It took longer than anticipated, but a preliminary finding aid for Series 1 of the Hugh Morton Collection of Photographs and Films, “North Carolina Places,” is finally online. We were working out some issues with our new style sheet, which controls the display, but I think it was worth the wait! The design looks a million times better than our old template, and we also think it’s much easier to navigate.
Please bear a few things in mind:

This inventory is by no means a complete representation of the contents of the Morton collection. This is only one series of an eventual nine, and doesn’t yet include the 35mm slides or the moving images. Here are the remaining series, in the order in which they are likely to be added over the coming year: People & Events, Nature & Scenic, Grandfather Mountain, UNC-Chapel Hill, Sports, World War II, Places, Non-North Carolina & Unidentified, and Documents & Objects.
I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that working on this collection is by no means an exact science. So many of Morton’s images are unidentified and/or undated, forcing us to make “educated guesses.” Our guesses may sometimes be off, but we feel that it’s much more helpful to you, the user, if we try to narrow things down as much as we can. Please let us know if you see problems or errors (though if they’re too embarrassing, maybe you should email me instead of commenting publicly on the blog!).
Hugh Morton was also a human being, not immune to his own mistakes and faults of memory. When information is given in quotation marks in the finding aid, that indicates information Morton himself (or in rare cases, mystery people with different handwriting) provided. We maintain those original identifications, even if they may not be entirely accurate, or can sometimes confuse matters (e.g., by calling the same location “Beech Mountain” in one image and “Banner Elk” in another).
You may be thinking to yourself, “sure, an inventory is great, but how do I see the pictures?” The primary answer to that question is that you should come in and visit the North Carolina Collection (though you might want to call first if you plan on doing intensive investigation). The secondary answer is that we are still hard at work on the Morton digital collection, which will enable you to view, browse, and search thousands of Morton images online. Be on the lookout for announcements related to that soon.

So, have at it. Look through the preliminary finding aid, and let us know what you think!

"Field Trip South" blog launched

Wilson Library is becoming a very bloggy building! The latest addition, Field Trip South, comes from the Southern Folklife Collection up on the 4th floor. This blog will be a resource for readers to learn more about the holdings of the SFC, find out about those great SFC concerts and events, and to enjoy some of the sights and sounds of the collection. FTS joins a growing list of Wilson Library blogs. (Warning: I hope you have a few hours to spare if you plan on browsing the list below).

A View to Hugh — Needs no introduction, obviously!

North Carolina Miscellany — Blog of the North Carolina Collection, the state’s premier collection of published materials documenting the history, literature, and culture of the Tar Heel state. Includes regular posts discussing new and upcoming books on North Carolina topics, state history in the news, treasures from the stacks of the North Carolina Collection, and general “Tar Heelia.”

Read North Carolina Novels — A guide to fiction set in North Carolina, also hosted by the NCC.

Southern Sources — Features interesting staff finds, curiosities, old favorites, and other cool stuff from Wilson Library’s Southern Historical Collection.

"Driving through Time" project funded

Exciting news! A new two-year digital publishing initiative called Driving through Time: The Digital Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina has been approved for funding by the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). Work on the new collection begins July 1, and will be heavily based on findings and experimentation from other GIS (Geographic Information Systems)-based projects developed by UNC Libraries and their partners: Going to the Show and North Carolina Maps. (By the way, if you haven’t yet explored these collections, you simply must).
We’re especially thrilled because Driving through Time will include some of Hugh Morton’s Parkway photographs. Here’s a summary of the project provided by the Carolina Digital Library & Archives:

Driving through Time: The Digital Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina will present an innovative, visually- and spatially-based model for documenting the twentieth-century history of a seventeen-county section of the North Carolina mountains. The project will feature historic maps, photographs, postcards, government documents, and newspaper clippings, each of which will be assigned geographic coordinates so that it can be viewed on a map, enabling users to visualize and analyze the impact of the Blue Ridge Parkway on the people and landscape in western North Carolina.
Primary sources will be drawn from the collections of the UNC-Chapel Hill University Library, the Blue Ridge Parkway Headquarters, and the North Carolina State Archives. These materials are especially significant in that they document one of North Carolina’s most popular tourist attractions, but also in the way that they help to illuminate the way that the Blue Ridge Parkway transformed the communities through which it passed. In addition to the digitized primary sources, the project will include scholarly analyses of aspects of the development of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, and an educational component designed for K-12 teachers and students.
Using digital technologies to open a new window on the history of the Parkway and its region is especially timely considering the approach of the Parkway’s 75th anniversary in 2010 and the National Park Service’s 100th anniversary in 2016. This project is certain to be a valuable and popular resource for millions of tourists as well as for teachers, students, and historians, both within North Carolina and beyond.

A Magician's Secrets Revealed!

Note from Elizabeth: Last Friday was Amber’s last day at work on the Morton project. We’d like to thank her immensely for her dogged, patient, and insanely organized work sorting through the slides, and her charming blog posts. We wish her all the best with the rest of her education!

I’ve learned a lot over the last ten months working on this collection. I’ve learned about archival procedure, making many mistakes along the way (the method for organizing the slides changed probably four or five times before I found one that worked). I have found homes for hundreds of “orphan” slides, and processed more than 72,000 slides in total. I’ve also been able to travel to amazing places: Grandfather Mountain, the Fern Grottoes of Hawaii, the McNeil River in Alaska, Galilee at Sunrise, Puerto Rican beaches, and Milford Sound in New Zealand.

I’ve probably learned the most, though, about photography. Hugh Morton was an artist, crafting amazing pictures out of everyday objects. On my two visits to Grandfather Mountain, everyone shared with me tips and tricks Hugh had taught them for taking great pictures. Now, I don’t feel I am betraying any of these secrets, because Hugh took all of the following pictures to document his process.

When I saw the Linn Cove Viaduct, I thought it was a pretty scene. But it lacked something that Hugh was able to capture. (Elizabeth touched on this in a previous post about her visit to the Mountain). I heard from two different people at Grandfather how Hugh would have helpers bring potted plants or hold branches of fall leaves to frame that perfect shot. Below, we can see how he positioned a rhododendron stem just out of frame to create the resulting beautiful picture above.

I also found slides of how he captured his amazing hummingbird pictures. I always wondered how he was in the right place at the right moment to capture that hummingbird going to that flower. Turns out it wasn’t always serendipity! The shot below shows how he set everything up on his deck at home. He would lure the hummingbirds in with a feeder, then add the bottle holding the flower. The feeder would be removed, leaving only the thistle blossom. (His camera was inside pointed out the sliding glass doors so that he wouldn’t scare the little darlings away). He could then snap as many shots as possible without having to wait all day for the right moment.

Some of my favorite shots of the bears were from when they had climbed to the top of the rock in their habitat or on a cliff by the Swinging Bridge. I thought they had done that on their own, maybe to enjoy the majestic view. Nope. Hugh would have a helper lay a trail of peanut butter up the rock for the bear to follow. Often, there would be someone just out of sight luring the bear with more treats. If you look at those pictures now, you can see that the bears are usually peering over the ledge at something.

On my last trip to the Mountain, I had to laugh when I saw a Morton postcard showing a beautiful red fox running through the snow. It was faked! I’ve seen pictures of that same fox, in that same pose, in many different settings — there’s even one of it chasing a taxidermied rabbit! And Julia Morton also shared with us that Hugh carried around moose antlers in Alaska to add scenic perspective.

So, to be a scenic photographer of Hugh’s caliber, I need helpers to stage the scene with potted plants and tree branches. I need some sort of treat to entice the models in my pictures (whether man or beast). And I need a stuffed fox. Oh, and some moose antlers.
I’m going to need a bigger camera bag.

The Wilds of Alaska

Back when I was working on the Morton slides from 1975, I sorted over 350 he took on a trip to Alaska. This was the most daunting and stressful sets of slides I have yet to organize — it appeared that they were thrown into the air and then put back into the boxes however they were picked up. I had all those slides spread out on a big light table for over a week, and there are still quite a few 1975 Alaska “orphans.”
There were some nice scenic shots of Denali and glaciers, but mostly what I remember are endless miles of pipeline (related to Williams Brothers operations, led by Morton’s good friend John Williams, pictured below).

Recently, I came to a batch slides from October 1986 and July 1987 labeled Alaska, and I immediately got a headache. Memories of the pipeline made me think of quitting. It didn’t help when I tried to determine if Morton had photographed caribou or reindeer (for those of you who don’t know, they are the same thing).
Luckily, most of this batch has been better organized and labeled. They appear to be pictures from a trip Hugh took with wildlife artist Richard Evans Younger (top photo), the subject of a series of Morton films. We’re not certain who the cameraman is (see picture below), any ideas? There are film reels from the trip downstairs in storage, still to be cataloged; some of these are labeled “McNeil River Bears” and “Wildlife Artist: Younger Alaska.”

I think Morton must have gotten a bit spoiled by his ability to cuddle and wrestle the bears at Grandfather Mountain. I don’t think the bears in the wilds of Alaska are going to react the same as Mildred, Jane, or Punkin. But this didn’t seem to stop him from getting some amazing pictures of grizzlies at McNeil Falls.

McNeil River State Game Refuge and Sanctuary becomes quite populated in July and August–with bears, not tourists. Every year these bears migrate to the falls to stuff themselves with dog salmon. There are no roads to the sanctuary and visitors must apply months in advance for a chance in the lottery. Only about 250 people get to see this spectacle each year, with a limit of ten at a time. According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, up to 72 bears have been seen here at one time. I count 14 in the picture below!

Morton was a well-traveled man. I’ve shared with you the splendors of Hawaii and Alaska. Maybe before my assistanship is finished I’ll show you Arizona, California, or Florida. Or perhaps China, Japan, the Holy Land, New Zealand and Australia, Italy, or Austria? Let me know where you would like to travel next. Cozumel is beautiful this time of year.

Series 1: North Carolina Places

In my new year’s processing update, I mentioned that I had begun the final pass through the Morton negatives, transparencies, and prints, with the goal of opening them for research use once I was finished. That process is nearing completion for what will be the first series, North Carolina Places, and it’s pretty exciting!
I now have everything in Series 1 re-housed in archival enclosures (see below), labeled, and described in a spreadsheet, and I’m beginning the process of turning my spreadsheet into an EAD-encoded finding aid. Compare these lovely boxes with the ungainly piles I was facing at the beginning of this project, and you’ll begin to understand my glee.

We’ve also been scanning and preparing metadata for a couple hundred images from this series (including those in this post), which we will make available online once we have the front end designed and the search/browse functionality worked out. (I’m hoping we’ll hear more about that soon from this semester’s incarnation of the SILS Digital Libraries class, who will soon be finishing up their work on the Morton project).

We’re aiming for a summertime launch of both the digital collection and the finding aid for Series 1. To tide you over, here’s the basic structure:

"Great Winter Garden" event Mar. 5th

Van Eeeden cover Please join us this Thursday evening, March 5th, for a reception and lecture to celebrate the opening of the newest exhibit in Wilson Library‘s North Carolina Collection Gallery: Cultivating the “Great Winter Garden”: Immigrant Colonies in Eastern North Carolina, 1866-1940. Following a 5pm reception, historian Susan Taylor Block will give a talk entitled “Mules to Mozart: Holocaust Escapees at Van Eeden,” drawn from her 1995 book Van Eeden, which tells the story of a group of European Jews whose lives were saved during the Holocaust when they obtained agricultural visas and moved to a farm in Pender County, NC.
The book’s cover, as you can see, features a Hugh Morton photo of his grandfather Hugh MacRae, whose role in the establishment of NC’s agricultural colonies was explored in a recent post by Stephen.
We hope to see you there!

New year, new processing update

I may have been remiss lately in keeping you updated on our behind-the-scenes progress on the processing of the Hugh Morton collection. The fact is that I’ve been on the job for over a year now, and some days I feel like nothing’s gotten done! So much is going on at once, and no task ever feels “completed” (at least not yet).
But on other, calmer and saner days, I can begin to see things coming together — a glint of light at the end of the tunnel, you might say.
So, in bare bones format, here’s where we are at the beginning of 2009:

Negatives and transparencies: I have begun the third and “final” (grain of salt added) pass through these, with the goal of opening them for research use once this pass is completed. They’re organized into series (and sub-, sub-sub-, and sometimes sub-sub-sub series) and described (at varying levels) in an Excel spreadsheet, from which I will extract the metadata to create a finding aid and a digital collection in CONTENTdm (like the McCauley Collection I mentioned previously).
Slides: these are Amber’s territory at the moment. She has plowed her way through the 35mm slides from the 1960s and 1970s (sorting, describing, and re-housing), leaving the 1950s (already partially plowed), 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s to be completed. However, like a slide ninja, Amber is moving faster and more efficiently as she continues to hone her methods.
Prints: languishing a bit at the moment, still awaiting their third pass.
Motion picture film: also languishing, but not for long — a new School of Information and Library Science (SILS) student will be joining our team soon to tackle the processing, preservation, and description of the films. I’ll introduce her when the time comes.
Scanning: David’s domain, still continuing full steam ahead. We’ve been digitizing a somewhat haphazard assortment thus far (responding to various priorities), but are now ready to focus our efforts on the aforementioned CONTENTdm digital collection, which will feature a selection of “highlights” from the Morton photos.
(David will probably be jealous that I called Amber a slide ninja, so let’s go ahead and proclaim him a scanning ninja).
Photo Identification: an ongoing, constant, mammoth, and never-ending task. All I can say is, we’re doing the best we can. I don’t think this job will ever be truly finished; there will always be more detail to add, more faces to match with names, more people with knowledge and stories to share. Right now, we’re just trying to provide access to the collection as quickly as possible. Then, let the sharing begin!

Hugh MacRae and Castle Hayne

On December 7, 1908 Hugh MacRae—Hugh Morton’s grandfather—addressed a gathering at the Astor Hotel in New York City. Located on Broadway at West 44th Street, the then-four-year-old hotel was a Beaux-Arts architectural gem built by William Waldorf Astor for $7 million ($160 to 180 million today) situated on Longacre (later Times) Square. MacRae’s audience was the North Carolina Society of New York, and the guest of honor was United States president-elect William Howard Taft.
The evening’s theme was “some of the large forces of southern progress” and the speaker’s table included W.W. Finley, president of the Southern Railway, who spoke on “The Railroad and the People”; James Y. Joyner, North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction, who conveyed “What the Public School is Doing”; and Dr. James H. Dillard, president of the Janes Board, who talked about “The Negro and His Training.” MacRae’s topic was “Bringing Immigrants to the South.”

One hundred years later, MacRae’s topic is where my head has been planted for the past few months as I have been preparing an exhibit for the North Carolina Collection Gallery entitled, “Cultivating ‘The Great Winter Garden’: Immigrant Colonies in Eastern North Carolina, 1868-1940.” This exhibit will be opening in early March, and two Hugh Morton images—both likely from the 1940s—will probably be displayed: an outdoor portrait of MacRae (cropped by me) likely dating from the 1940s, and a westward-looking bird’s-eye-view of Castle Hayne and vicinity, a community north of Wilmington originally named Spring Garden that was established by 1861 but later changed to Castle Hayne.

Shortly after the turn of the 19th century, MacRae mounted an effort to bring European immigrants to five agriculturally based colonies in Pender and New Hanover counties, one of which was situated at Castle Hayne. MacRae described that colony, populated primarily with Hollanders, to his New York audience as having “six hundred people making a living, by intensive farming, on a tract of land which has a total of fifty acres.” Morton’s aerial image probably falls just outside the date range of the exhibit, the view provides a unique perspective of the area.
I’ve made two trips to the region photographing a few remaining traces of the colonies that, in addition to Castle Hayne, include St. Helena, Marathon (near Castle Hayne) and Van Eeden along U.S. Route 117, and New Berlin (later renamed Delco), and Artesia on U.S. Route 74/76. Elizabeth’s spring sojourn along U.S. Route 17 also touches on the Castle Hayne story, if you’re so inclined to wander off in that direction. I’m making one more trip to that neck of the woods tomorrow for more research, with camera in hand.

LIFE photo archive online!

As the Guardian reports, one of the largest and richest 20th-century photo collections is now (at least partially) online, thanks to a partnership with Google. The Life magazine photo archive can be searched/browsed from a dedicated Web page, or by doing a regular Google image search with “source:life” at the end.
As mentioned previously, we know that Hugh Morton submitted and published photos in Life — does anyone know of specific issues? His work is not represented in the Google archive as of now, but with plans for 10 million photos to be made available, maybe he will pop up yet?