Imaging the Gould Collection

Exploring the History of Nineteenth-Century Ornithology and Scientific Illustration through the Works of John Gould

The KU Libraries John Gould Collection, housed in the Spencer Research Library, includes preliminary drawings, watercolor paintings and tracings; lithographic printing stones with bird images and several hundred uncolored and hand-colored lithographic proof prints. The collection also includes nearly complete holdings of the resulting large-format published volumes. The original scope of the digital imaging component of the Gould Project was thought to be approximately 6300 images created from the aforementioned primary resource materials, In the end, however, 20,500 high-resolution archival images were created and preserved. This discrepancy is due in large part to the decision made to fully digitize each volume, including all pages as well as the bindings, rather than the lithographic plates only and also the realization that the Gould Collection included 61 volumes rather than the expected 47.

The original estimate for student hours necessary to digitize 6300 items (20 hours per week) was approximately 750 hours over nine months. At that time we hoped to produce at least 10 archival images per hour. Ultimately, the project took approximately 1570 hours. It would be 22 months before the Gould imaging was complete, however, this includes significant non-productive time due to the need for training and experience in order to master the complex imaging workflow, additional training due to image capture equipment and software purchases, student turnover, planned/unplanned absences, finals, breaks and Image Lab renovations. This brings the productive working time to 19 months. Students digitized 20,500 items in this time, an estimated 13 archival images per hour.

The first scanning technician for the Gould imaging project was hired at the end of July, 2011. After an initial training period in use of the original camera scanning attachment, the month of August was spent testing the equipment and software in order to provide the highest quality capture. After extensive testing, scanning began in September, 2011. Digitization of the first Gould volume, Birds of the Himalayas, 300 pp., was completed in October, 2011. A second technician began work on the imaging project in late November, 2011. In 2012, with the purchase of faster and more efficient image capture equipment and software, capture time and transfer time were exponentially shortened and production levels increased.

• Over 2500 original Gould drawings were digitally photographed. The drawings came in many forms such as rough sketches, heavily annotated drawings, water-colors (both rough and highly finished), tissue drawings and tracings. Many of the drawings were fragile, some oversized and several had drawings on both the front and back of the page.
• Two shots of each of the twelve lithographic stones were captured: one overhead shot of the image on the stone and one shot taken at an angle to capture the size and three-dimensional aspect of the large stones.
• The 61 Gould Bird Books in the collection were digitized, cover to cover.  The resulting digital surrogate of each volume contains the original lithographic plates, which present the “final” version of the original drawings; all associated text and blank pages and the bindings – front, back and spine.

The digitization workflow for Gould materials is as follows:

• Proper placement of original
• Camera set-up, including pre-capture color management settings
• Image capture: focusing, page turning, cropping, item readjustment
• Image processing: file transfer, filenaming, file conversion, re-sizing post-capture color management
• Saving and transfer to long-term storage server

Many lessons were learned over the months spent photographing the John Gould Collection. Working with such an extensive, largely-unprocessed collection brought surprises and challenges. The Imaging staff worked closely with the Conservation staff to determine proper care of fragile items; handling of tightly bound plates and drawings on tissue. Imaging technicians resolved issues with image integrity, workflow modifications and lighting effects. Unexpected treasures were discovered, processed and folded into the queue and the Gould project managers coordinated all the pieces and kept the project on track. KU Libraries would like to extend its sincere thanks to the three KU undergraduate students responsible for photographing the John Gould Collection:

Cale Moore
Alexis Griffith
Travis Young

With training from professionals in the KU School of the Arts, the Spencer Museum of Art and the KU Libraries and through their own talent, attention and determination, a digital representation of this magnificent collection will soon be available to researchers around the globe.