Some Dark Place

January 14, 2019 12:41 PM

Some Dark Place
The Christopher L. Jorgensen Collection: A digitized and cataloged private collection of historical cabinet cards and CDVs. Updated daily.

I don't make new year's resolutions, but one of the resolutions I didn't make for this year is to blog daily and to learn to manage/design a website. I'm doing pretty much everything on Some Dark Place. I'm doing the design, the CMS templates, the scanning, SEO/sitemaps, accessibility, the image manipulations, the cataloging. I'm trying to post images as fast as I can, with a minimum of two a day, but since I have at least a thousand cards, and I am still acquiring them, it's gonna take a while.

My partner is doing some individual research on some of the more interesting people, including census data, graves, genealogy, and life events. At some point we'll probably post her research as well. I have a lot of plans for the site, but the more I implement, the less time I have for actual cataloging.

I am trying to teach myself as much as I can about the time period, the photographic processes, the fashion, archiving, and authenticating/dating images. Long term I want this to be a resource for information relating to my collection and to the subjects as well (when known). I've done a lot, but still have a lot more to do.

Criticism or feedback is welcome (as are questions and suggestions). I have a change log, so if you are wondering if I already know about something, you can check there.

Role: Collector & Designer

posted by cjorgensen (3 comments total)

Thanks. I have tons of plans for it, but time is the major inhibitor (along with lack of knowledge). I figure as I get to know more, and get the site locked down the way I want, the posting will go faster. Heck, I may even hire someone to do some of the data entry for me, but so far I've been enjoying that as well. It forces me to spend time with each card and actually see it.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:44 AM on January 20, 2019

This is very cool. I don’t know how copyright works for collections posted online. Would these be available to draw? If so, I could likely send you some traffic from a sketch group I’m part of. ( I love the recent little girl dancing/posing.)
posted by Nancy_LockIsLit_Palmer at 10:45 PM on February 3, 2019

The cards themselves would be in the public domaine. The only real copyright would be in the scanning, image manipulation, cataloging, and writing. I'd have no issues with people wanting to sketch any of the subjects. I honestly don't have issue with people using the images for derivative works. My main concern is someone just taking the site wholesale. If you need a higher resolution image of any of the photos, reach out.
posted by cjorgensen at 5:07 AM on February 5, 2019