April 28, 1998
Contact:
Guy Lamolinara, Library of Congress (202) 707-9217
Karen Sanborn, Ameritech (313) 223-7194
Second Round of Library of Congress/Ameritech National Digital Library Awards Announced
First Collection from 1996-97 Competition Goes On-Line
Eleven libraries, museums and historical societies from
across the United States today have received seven awards
totaling more than $540,000 through a partnership between
the Library of Congress and Ameritech to digitize
historically significant American collections and make them
freely available on the Internet (a list of winners
follows).
The Library of Congress/Ameritech National Digital
Library Competition, a three-year program made possible by a
$2 million gift from the Ameritech Foundation, enables U.S.
libraries, archives, museums and historical societies to
digitize their collections of American historical materials
for inclusion in American Memory. The Library of
Congress/Ameritech competition helps fulfill the Library's
goals of placing millions of items on-line in collaboration
with other institutions and making its digital library
effort truly national in scope.
In the second year of the competition, the collections
will represent a wide range of political, social, cultural
and economic development in the United States -- from
American Indians, the settlement of Nebraska and development
of the Everglades to early advertising in America and the
Haymarket riots that led to the formation of the American
Federation of Labor. In another collection, the Chautauqua
movement provides insight into popular entertainment before
the era of the television.
North Dakota State University, one of the 10 award
winners in the first cycle of awards, today makes available
on-line "The Northern Great Plains, 1880-1920: Photographs
from the Fred Hultstrand and F.A. Pazandak Photograph
Collections." The more than 900 photographs in these
collections document life on farms and in towns of the Great
Plains at the turn of the century. North Dakota State is
the first award winner to add its collection to the American
Memory collections, which make available on-line the most
interesting and important of the Library's materials
relating to the history of the nation. American Memory can
be accessed at http://www.loc.gov.
"Congratulations to the award winners in this round of
the Library of Congress/ Ameritech National Digital Library
Competition," said Librarian of Congress James H.
Billington. "These worthwhile projects to be part of the
American Memory collections will, through the Internet,
provide important intellectual content to students,
educators and lifelong learners."
Lana Porter, President of Ameritech Library Services,
said, "Ameritech is proud to continue its support of the
National Digital Library Program. This effort will
digitally preserve thousands of precious items detailing our
nation's rich history and bring them into libraries, schools
and homes for millions everywhere to cherish and enjoy."
The 11 second-year winners are:
Chicago Historical Society, Chicago, for "Haymarket Affair:
Chicago Anarchists on Trial." Award amount: $57,260. This
collection consists of approximately 5,500 pages/ images,
including the complete original transcripts of the
proceedings of the historic Haymarket trial.
Duke University, Durham, N.C., for "The Emergence of
Advertising in America, 1850-1920." Award amount: $75,000.
This collection consists of 8,500 images relating to the
history of advertising, including Eastman Kodak ads, tobacco
related posters and insert cards, and ephemera representing
ads for bicycles, patent medicines and food.
Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln, Neb., for
"Prairie Settlement: A Story of Determination." Award
amount: $65,464. This collection consists of 5,500 glass
plate negatives of images recording the process of
settlement of Nebraska from 1886 to 1912 and selections from
diaries and letters written by the Oblinger family as they
moved from Indiana to settle in a sod house on the prairie.
Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., for "North
American Indian Photographs by Edward S. Curtis." Award
amount: $49,777. This collection consists of 2,222 plates
from Edward S. Curtis's work documenting the culture and
daily life of about 80 Native American tribes in the 20th
century.
University of Iowa, Iowa City, for "Traveling Culture:
Circuit Chautauqua in the Twentieth Century." Award amount:
$73,348. This collection consists of 9,600 flyers and
promotional pamphlets representing text and images from
performers and public speakers, including educational,
cultural and religious lecturers, politicians and vaudeville
and variety acts.
University of Miami, Coral Gables, Fla., for "Reclaiming the
Everglades: South Florida's Natural History, 1884-1934."
Award amount: $137,188. The collection will include
materials from the University of Miami, Florida
International University and the Historical Museum of South
Florida. The collection documents the history of South
Florida, especially the Everglades, a unique subtropical
ecosystem that has a rich, but troubled history.
University of Washington, Seattle, for "American Indians of
the Pacific Northwest." Award amount: $82,943. The
collection will include materials from the University of
Washington, the Eastern Washington State Historical Society
in Spokane, and the Museum of History and Industry in
Seattle. It consists of 2,350 pictorial images and 6,000
pages of manuscripts, printed ephemera and journal articles
concerning Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest from
1763 to 1920.
Nearly 70 award applications from more than 30 states
were reviewed by three independent panels of distinguished
scholars, educators, archivists, librarians, administrators
and technical specialists.
In formulating the competition guidelines and the
evaluation process, the Library turned to the National
Endowment for the Humanities for expert guidance. Led by
George Farr, Director of the Division of Preservation and
Access of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and
Deanna Marcum, President of the Council on Library and
Information Resources, three successive panels evaluated
applications for historical significance, technical
viability and the relevance of collections to current and
planned American Memory collections.
"The applications presented a marvelous variety of
resources usually unavailable to the general public. The
institutions involved have done a wonderful job of making
these collections accessible to schoolteachers and students
as well as scholars and the general public," Dr. Farr said.
"This year more than ever, the applications
demonstrated that libraries, historical societies and
museums are able and willing to undertake complex
digitization projects and make their historical treasures
available to all," Dr. Marcum said.
Additional information on the Library of
Congress/Ameritech National Digital Library Competition,
including summaries of the projects of the first and second
year award recipients, is available at:
The goal of the National Digital Library Program is to
make freely available over the Internet millions of items by
the year 2000, in collaboration with other institutions.
Ameritech's contribution helps the Library meet that goal by
providing funds to libraries and other institutions to aid
them in the critical, yet expensive, task of digitizing
their unique American collections for access on the World
Wide Web.
The Library of Congress is the world's largest library,
with more than 113 million items, including the papers of 23
U.S. presidents. Its collections are in nearly every
language and format -- from Chinese woodblock prints to
compact disks. Founded in 1800 to serve the reference needs
of Congress, the Library has grown into an unparalleled
treasure house of knowledge and creativity.
Ameritech (NYSE: AIT) serves millions of customers in
50 states and 40 countries. Ameritech provides a full range
of communications services, including local and long
distance telephone, cellular, paging, security services,
cable TV, Internet services and more. One of the world's
100 largest companies, Ameritech (www.ameritech.com) has
73,000 employees, 1 million share owners and $28 billion in
assets.
NOTE: Following are media contacts at each of the libraries
that have received awards:
Chicago Historical Society
Karen Brown, (312) 642-5035, Ext. 360
Duke University
Ilene Nelson, (919) 660-5816
Nebraska State Historical Society
Jill Marie Koelling, (402) 471-4409
Northwestern University
Richard Frieder, (847) 491-4672
University of Iowa
Marguerite Perret, (319) 335-5960
University of Miami
Michelle Garber, (305) 284-1606
University of Washington
Bob Roseth, (206) 543-2580
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PR 98-059
4/28/98
ISSN 0731-3527