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Manhattan Beach Historical Society Hopes To Digitize Historical Newspaper Archive

Monday, January 9th, 2012

Local Historians Hope Digitization Will Make Newspaper Archive

Accessible To All

Archive Documents A Century Of Local History

Meet Gary McAulay. As a board member of the Manhattan Beach Historical Society, Gary is one of the lucky few who currently have access to the Society’s small storage space, which is nestled between the men and women’s restrooms at Polliwog Park and filled with a century’s worth of Manhattan Beach history. The newspapers are kept in bound archives on three small bookshelves, each one four rows tall. The old papers document Manhattan Beach history, starting with the city’s founding in the year 1912.

In the photo seen here, McAulay sifts through the papers, stopping at the headline “Rain storm of week un-paralleled in beach history,” on the front page of the March 1, 1913 publication of the Manhattan Beach News. Another day’s top story simple led with ““Popular girl will soon be married.” McAulay and his colleagues at the Manhattan Beach Historical Society hope that the collection of historical newspapers will soon find a new home, as plans for the new Manhattan Beach library continue to develop. Local historians recently met with representatives from the Los Angeles County library to discuss the feasibility of bringing the collection to the new library, and digitizing it via a type of photo scanning technology.

The collection was moved about two years ago from its former home in the Historical Society’s cottage museum to its current, less prestigious and less accessible spot in the park bathroom storage space. This move was decided upon by the members of the society, who feared that a fire or other natural disaster affecting the cottage museum might destroy these precious articles of history. The papers have been “sadly inaccessible for some time,” said McAulay. “We have a history in this town. When you put it out there, people say, ‘Hey, that’s pretty cool,’ and become more interested.” Even when the papers were in the Historical Society’s museum, they were only accessible to regular folks during the museum’s six hours of public access each week.

Ultimately, the Historical Society would like to use digital photo scanning technology to preserve the papers and make them available to the public on a website, but the funding just isn’t there, McAulay said. Each of the historical society’s 150 members pays $20 each year in dues. Scholars at Cal State Dominguez Hills have expressed interest in obtaining the archives to keep in the university’s regional history collection. But local historians are hesitant to let go of the collection, fearing that that they would be too far away for Manhattan Beach citizens to see and enjoy. “I’m concerned that once it goes away from town, the only people who would ever go out there are the most dedicated of historians,” said McAulay.

Some have suggested that the collection could be housed in a glass case in the new Manhattan Beach library. Visitors could sift through photocopies, or view the actual collection with assistance from a librarian. County librarian Margaret Todd said she’d ask her staff to look into grant opportunities to fund digitization of the archives. “I’d rather digitize them and have them available that way,” said Todd. “Newspaper is fragile, once it’s gone, it’s gone.”

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Presidential Wheels: A Photo Retrospective

Monday, March 14th, 2011

Rolling With The President

These Days, Presidents Prefer The Cadillac

Needless to say, the President of the United States travels in style. The last several Presidents have all ridden around in Cadillac limousines, but look back a bit further and you’ll find that the Presidential wheels have varied quite a bit over the years. The first president to choose horsepower over actual horses was William Howard Taft, who took office in 1909. His White Motor Co. Model M is pictured above, in a classic image that has been immortalized through photo scanning by the Library of Congress. The White Motor Co. Model M was a roofless 7-seater and extremely modern for its time – the automobile had only been around for a few years after all. This 40 horsepower beauty holds the honor of being the first Presidential State Car, and the only steam-powered car ever to carry a President.

In 1918, Woodrow Wilson became the first President to ride in a Cadillac. Warren Harding would abandon the Caddy in favor of a Packard Twin Six, but Calvin Coolidge chose the 1928 Cadillac Town Car as his wheels of choice. Two 1938 Cadillacs called the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth carried Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Dwight Eisenhower, but all three presidents had other cars as well. The Queen Mary is shown in the second picture, which was also scanned to digital by the Library of Congress.

FDR favored a 1939 Lincoln Sunshine Special V12, which was the first car built specifically for presidential use. It offered a number of special safety features, including a siren, a two-way radio, and grab handles and running boards so Secret Service agents could ride standing on the outside of the vehicle. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, the Sunshine Special was given armor plating, bulletproof glass, and storage for submachine guns. While the Sunshine Special was being modified, the President Roosevelt rode around in a heavily armored Cadillac that was confiscated from the infamous gangster Al Capone.

Perhaps the most notorious Presidential ride of all time is the 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible, dubbed SS-100-X, in which President Kennedy was assassinated. Surprisingly, the car continued to be used by later Presidents. For obvious reasons, President Johnson added a glass roof, which President Nixon swapped for a metal one with a sun roof.

Not surprisingly, the SS-100-X was the last convertible Presidential vehicle. The last five presidents have ridden in Cadillac limos, including President Obama, whose 2009 Cadillac Presidential Limousine is the first State Car to not be based on a specific mass-produced model. Nevertheless, it features unmistakable Caddy styling, and about 5-inches of armor plating. Obama’s wheels are certainly safe, but not exactly green, as the limo uses a huge engine from a GMC commercial truck. Will the President abandon his Caddy for an armored Prius? It would certainly be a significant political statement, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

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Photo Resolutions for the New Year

Thursday, February 10th, 2011

Photo Resolutions for the New Year

I have a few photo-related resolutions that I hope you’ll consider adding to your to-do list.

Scan Your Pictures
Scanning is a great back-up tool for your images. Scan at a minimum of 600 dpi, save as a TIFF file and make sure your image area is at least 100 % scale (that’s the same size as your picture). You can do this yourself or have ScanDigital do it for you. Need a small scanner to use when you’re visiting relatives, then try the Flip-pal. It produces 600 dpi jpeg image,and it’s pretty handy to have around. I carry it with me.

Use Proper Storage Containers
When buying storage boxes or sleeves watch for the key words–acid and lignin free, and non-pvc plastic. These items will be safe for your pictures. Thankfully, it’s easier than ever to find this material. Try Light Impressions for a full catalog of products.

Label Your Photos
As you go through boxes and albums, take a few minutes to write an identification on the back. Use a soft lead pencil for heritage images on card stock and a special pen labeled fade-proof, water-proof and quick drying for those twentieth century resin coated pictures. These are not Sharpie’s. I prefer Zig markers available at most office and art supply stores.

A typical label should include the following: name of the person depicted, life dates (if known), where and when it was taken and your name and date. You want your descendants to know who labeled the photo.

Set a Goal: Identify an Image or Two
I know how time consuming it can be to solve your photo mysteries, but instead of tackling a whole box at once set a simpler goal. Try one or two photos.

Thank you for listening! I’ll be at several major conferences this year. Please stop by and say hello.

Contact Maureen Taylor

Maureen Taylor AKA the Photo Detective is a professional genealogist, author and journalist on the topic who’s written tons of books and magazine articles, as well as being a contributing editor at Family Tree Magazine and editorial board member of Legacy Magazine. She’s also been a featured expert on CNN, the Today Show and in Martha Stewart Living. Maureen can be contacted through her website Photo Detective or on Twitter.

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Police Use Photo Scanning And Facebook To Reopen 1968 Murder Case

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

Huntington Beach Police Ask For Help On Facebook

Jane Doe’s Identity Still A Mystery

The Huntington Beach Police Department is using photo scanning and Facebook to solve crimes. On March 14th, 1968, an unidentified young woman in her 20s, who came to be known simply as “Jane Doe,” was found murdered in Huntington Beach. There was little evidence available, and crime-scene investigation techniques of the day were not nearly as advanced as they are today. The woman was never identified, and the case was never solved.

Now, over 42 years later, police have turned to Facebook for help. The department posted the above composite drawing of the murdered woman, and asked for the public to offer forth any possible leads. The police also posted several photos, which were digitized via photo scanning, that were found in a purse near the crime scene on the day Jane Doe’s body was discovered. Until recently, it was believed that the purse may have belonged to Jane Doe, and that the photos inside might help identify her, or possibly even lead to her killer. After posting the photos to Facebook, however, the police received communications from several people who recognized the photos, and were even able to interview some of the people who were in the photos. Ultimately it was determined that the purse and the photos did not belong to Jane Doe. This may seem like bad news for those trying to solve the case, but eliminating a potentially confounding piece of evidence actually helps the case move forward. 

The police have reopened the Jane Doe case many times over the years, but have never made much progress before now. Huntington Beach Police Lieutenant Russell Reinhart told the L.A. Times that the department now has “some workable clues,” as a result of the Facebook campaign, and that these new leads may actually lead to the discovery of Jane Doe’s identity. 

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=182749291754372&id=148382285206345

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The Northern Lights As You’ve Never Seen Them

Monday, December 6th, 2010

Aurora Borealis: New Images

Photographer Kristján Unnar Kristjansson Sheds New Light On The Night Sky

The photo above shows the Northern Lights or “aurora borealis” illuminating the sky behind a World War II era lighthouse in Seltjarnes, Iceland. The image was captured by photographer Kristján Unnar Kristjansson, who has spent the last nine years of his life photographing the incandescent display in the night sky of the northernmost parts of the world. The aurora borealis, so named after Aurora (the Roman goddess of dawn) and Boreas (the Greek name for the north wind), is governed by sun storms, and best observed at night. 

Caused by the collision of charged particles that are directed by the magnetic field of the Earth, the aurora borealis is a natural display of light that is most visible in the polar regions. This phenomenon is most visible within the Arctic circle, between 65 and 72 degrees latitude, partially because polar regions have long periods of darkness, and partially because they are more strongly affected by the Earth’s magnetic field, being so close to the magnetic pole.

During his endeavor to capture the beauty of the Northern Lights, Kristjansson has used a wide variety of technologies including film photography, photo scanning, and digital photography. “It is really hard capturing them,” he told a UK newspaper. “They require bright lenses, highly photosensitive cameras, warm clothes, and a whole lot of luck.” Whether captured via digital photography or by film and photo scanning, Kristján Unnar Kristjansson’s photos are not artificially enhanced in any way. It is hard to imagine looking up into the night sky and seeing such a sight. “No words can properly describe the experience,” said Kristjansson. “Even though I’ve seen them now and again throughout my life, I’m still awe-inspired and flabbergasted every time they show up.”

Although the auroras are sometimes visible from Kristján’s home town of Reykjavik, he and his friends often venture out on long journeys to capture the light displays in all their glory, sometimes driving as far as 9,000 miles. That’s three times the distance from New York to Los Angeles! But this time his efforts have paid off, and Kristján calls his latest photos some of his “most favorite” that he’s taken in years.

To see more of Kristján’s photos, click here.

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Photo Scanning Technologies Used To Restore Some Of The Oldest Known Photographs

Thursday, November 18th, 2010

University Of Rochester Develops New Methods Of Microscopic Photo Restoration

Hi-Res Scans Of Early Photos Deliver Startling Detail

This is a digital scan of an early photograph of the Cincinnati waterfront, taken by Charles Fontayne and William Porter in 1848, over a decade before the Civil War began. We first came across this photo on the blog of NPR’s  Robert Krulwich, who stumbled across it on the University of Rochester website. Experts at the University used advanced computer photo scanning methods to restore and enhance the photo, which contains a remarkable amount of detail.

 The researchers the university explained that the photo, which is the property of the Cincinnati Public Library, is just one part of a large, eight-piece panorama made from an early photographic process called daguerreotype. This process, which is generally considered to be the first true method of photography, involves exposing images onto treated copper plates. Each of the eight copper panels used for this panorama contain as much clarity as a 140,000 megapixel digital image – this is a staggering number that cannot be matched (or even approached) by high-end commercial digital cameras. This is the largest daguerreotype of its age, and one of the oldest photographs of an urban area in existence.

In order to protect the 162-year-old plates from further deterioration, conservators at the George Eastman House in Rochester teamed up with computer vision experts at the University of Rochester to develop a new method of restoration involving microscopic photo scanning. Because the copper panels were too fragile to clean, the computer vision experts wrote special software that used a powerful computer to automatically identify and repair imperfections such as scratches and specs of dust, which obscured some of the photographic information. 

To see the astounding results of this work, visit http://www.rochester.edu/news/photos/daguerreotype.html. The university has set up an interactive web page that allows viewers to zoom in on and pan across four of the panels. You’ll be amazed at the levels of clarity and detail available in such an old photo.

We would like to point out, however, that there is at least one photo of an urban area that dates back even further. The photo below was taken in 1838 by Louis Daguerre, the inventor of the daguerreotype process. It is a view of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris, and also happens to be the oldest known photograph of a person (most early photos only showed inanimate objects, because the exposure period took about ten minutes, instead of the instantaneous “snapshots” we have today). Although some primitive forms of photography predated Daguerre’s process, his was the first ever to capture the image of a human being (the man in the picture appears to be standing still to have his shoes shined). To learn more about the daguerreotype, visit http://www.daguerre.org/.

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Museum of Tolerance In Jerusalem Gets Fresh Start

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

Museum of Tolerance In Jerusalem Gets Fresh Start

New Designs Revealed

For six years, world-famous architect Frank Gehry was slated to put his stamp on Jerusalem. The first image above, created with a combination of photo scanning and computer graphics technologies, is Gehry’s design for a new Museum of Tolerance in Israel, which would have cost $250 million to build. When Gehry Partners signed on as architect for the project in 2003, the economic climate was very different, and the museum’s Board of Trustees approved the plan with enthusiasm. But at its November 5th 2009 meeting, the board decided unanimously to scrap the Gehry design in favor of something more affordable, announcing that the redesign would “reflect today’s world economic realities.”

The Museum of Tolerance project took a huge step forward last week when the new designs were finally unveiled by the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The new museum structure, which is expected to be completed around 2014, was designed by Israeli firm Chyutin Architects. Using a combination of photo scanning and computer-generated imagery, the firm created the above two images of what the museum will look like when completed. The six-story building will be half underground, comprise over 150,000 square feet of space, and include a theater, an educational center, and a sunken garden amphitheater in addition to the exhibition space. The Center’s current largest facility, located in Los Angeles, has roughly 110,000 square feet.

Expected to cost roughly $100 million, the new design is still a costly endeavor for the center, but much less so than the Gehry design would have been. So far, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has raised about half of the required $100 million, but founder Rabbi Marvin Hier expects to raise the remainder once construction has begun. Rabbi Hier, who is also dean of the Center and the Museum of Tolerance, said that the center held a competition of sorts among three Israeli architecture firms, and that Chyutin’s design was the unanimous choice.

The front of the museum will face a commercial area filled with shops and restaurants, while the back of the structure will have stunning views of Jerusalem’s Independence Park, thanks to its strategic location and floor-to-ceiling windows.

For more information, visit http://www.museumoftolerance.com.

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LA Times Photo Blog Gives Old Photos New Life With Photo Scanning

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

LA Times Photo Blog Gives Old Photos New Life With Photo Scanning

“Framework” Uses Photo Scanning To Celebrate Photojournalism

The Los Angeles Times has a must-see photography and video blog called “Framework,” which takes full advantage of the joys of photo scanning by featuring old Times photos from the paper’s enormous archive. The blog highlights the diverse and fascinating moments captured by Times photographers through the decades, and according to the Times, “celebrates the power and explores the craft of visual storytelling.” The Framework blog page also features more current photojournalism, and serves as a kind of online resource hub for photography enthusiasts who can discuss the tools and techniques used in the trade. 

The above photo, featured in a recent Framework article, was taken in 1962, and given new life via photo scanning in 2010. It depicts comedian Jackie Gleason with Los Angeles Times Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper, during Gleason’s $80,000, 10-city train trip from Los Angeles to New York on “The Great Gleason Express.” A massive public relations stunt, the 4,337-mile rail excursion was an extravagant promotion for a new CBS show called “Jackie Gleason’s American Scene Magazine.” The show was a huge success, becoming simply “The Jackie Gleason Show” in 1966, and running until 1970.

When this photo was taken in 1962, Gleason was already making an unprecedented $100,000 a year from CBS, and his career was climbing steadily. His most popular character was the brash bus driver Ralph Kramden, who first appeared in a comedy sketch on “Cavalcade of Stars” on October 5, 1951. That sketch later became the hit series, “The Honeymooners,” which gained such popularity in syndicated reruns that even today, a life-size statue of Gleason (dressed in Kramden’s bus driver uniform) can be seen outside the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City. In 1961, not long before the above photo was snapped, Gleason performed one of his most memorable film roles, portraying pool-shark Minnesota Fats in the critically acclaimed Paul Newman drama The Hustler.

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Back To School: The Return Of Home Economics

Monday, August 30th, 2010

The Return Of Home Economics

It’s Back To School For Home Ec

As summer comes to a close, kids are gearing up to head back to school. But it looks like kids may not be the only thing coming back to school after a long absence. Home Economics classes, or “Family and Consumer Sciences,” as they are often called outside of California, are becoming popular again after years of perceived obsolescence.  Some educators are even pushing to make these once-forgotten electives part of the mandatory high school curriculum, suggesting that basic cooking skills, which are being taught less and less in the average home, are essential for healthy living.

The above photograph, which has been preserved via photo scanning, shows a home economics lab at the University of Wisconsin in 1948. The second photo, also digitized via photo scanning, shows an Indiana home ec classroom in 1931. Test kitchens like these were once commonplace in high schools across the country, but have become forgotten relics of another time as recent decades have shown a significant decrease in the percentage of American high schools offering home ec. But recent trends suggest that home ec is on the rise once again. According to Patricia Scott, a longtime teacher and home economics expert for the Los Angeles Unified School District, says that the home ec program in her district is one of the most popular electives offered. Scott believes that the image of cooking has changed, and that the advent of the Food Network and popular cooking shows like Bravo’s “Top Chef” has made it seem cool to know how to cook.

According to a recent survey conducted by the National Coalition for Family and Consumer Sciences Education, the number of high school students enrolled in home economics classes is currently close to what it was in the late 1950s, though the classes themselves have changed. In the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s, home economics classes were composed almost entirely of female students learning a curriculum of traditional homemaking skills. But home ec is no longer about teaching girls how to become good housewives; the classes are often very specialized, and focus on topics like catering as a business, international foods, or food service and hospitality careers.

Alice Lichtenstein, a nutrition scientist at Tufts University and the co-author of an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association entitled “Bring Back Home Economics Education,” is one of many educators who believe that home economics, especially basic cooking skills, should be a mandatory part of high school curriculum. According to Lichtenstein, the disturbing rise in child obesity and the generally poor diets of young people in America could be combated by teaching youths how to cook and eat well. She suggests that adolescents rely on packaged and fast food at least in part because they lack the skills to prepare food themselves. Lichtenstein goes on to suggest that “(t)he only way to really ensure that more kids get this type of instruction is to have it mandatory.” She and other educators believe that school should prepare students not only for careers, but also for life, and that important life skills like cooking should not be left out.

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Photo Scanning Captures American Awkwardness

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

Photo Scanning Captures American Awkwardness

AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com Features American Families In Their Most Hilariously Uncomfortable Moments

Thanks to the wonders of photo scanning, the Internet is full of photo-based blogs and Websites that feature pictures of e everything from classic cars and Hollywood stars to sports legends and recording artists. But there is one increasingly popular photo blog that is all about depicting scanned photos of the average American, or more specifically, the average American family.

We all love our families. These are the people we most identify with, the people we trust. But as Mike Bender and Doug Chernack happily point out on their blog at AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com, family is also awkward. Just because you share a last name, that doesn’t mean your personalities don’t clash. And when the inevitable uncomfortable moments get immortalized on film (and digitized through photo scanning) an awkward family photo is born to the Internet. 

Childhood friends Mike and Doug launched the blog in May of 2009, after the two laughed at an awkward vacation photo in Mike’s parents’ house. The two friends realized that everyone must have these hilariously awkward family images, and decided to make a Website devoted to the sharing of the little gems of awkwardness in an open forum. What began with about 10 of Doug’s and Mike’s own family photos has now become a viral Internet sensation. This endlessly entertaining compendium of uncomfortable poses, creepy smiles, bad hair cuts, and crying or frightened-looking children attracts hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of visitors each day, along with hundreds of daily photo submissions coming from Brazil, Russia, China, and everywhere in between.

In May of 2010, just one year after launching their site, Mike and Doug released an Awkward Family Photos book, which has been both critically acclaimed and extremely successful. Following the format of the website, the book features comically uncomfortable family photos, accompanied by witty captions provided by Mike and Doug. Book reviewer Jennifer Weiner called Awkward Family Photos more than just a book: “it’s a public service on the page, a living, breathing, laugh-out-loud reminder that no matter how badly you dressed, how oddly you posed, and how weird Uncle Dave who lived in the basement was, somebody out there had it worse. Particularly the girl on page 77.”

Therein lies the real appeal of these Awkward photographs – as much as we hate to admit it, they remind us of our own families, so we can all relate even to the most bizarre of the bunch. Filmmaker Judd Apatow put it most succinctly, saying, “This is the best book of embarrassing and strange photos of people who look like my family that I have ever seen.”

To see more embarrassing family photos that have been immortalized through photo scanning for all to enjoy, visit http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/.

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