American Memory | The Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers

The Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers: Building the Digital Collection

The Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers were digitized in three formats: the original manuscripts, microfilm, and the glass plate negatives. The digitization process and specifications were different for each format.

- Creating the Digital Images: Scanning the Original Items
- Creating the Digital Images: Scanning the Microfilm
- Creating the Digital Images: Original Glass Plate Negatives


Creating the Digital Images: Scanning the Original Items
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This selection of the Wright Papers was scanned as 300 dpi grayscale images which were compressed using JPEG compression, producing images in the JPEG File Interchange Format (JFIF). Typically, the National Digital Library Program (NDLP) has used grayscale to digitize historical manuscripts because of its ability to capture and display the diversity of tones in manuscript papers and the varying nuances produced by handwriting, pencil, and ink. The grayscale format can also often suppress the bleedthrough typical of handwritten documents in the Wright Papers. Because JPEG images require considerable time to download, grayscale GIF images were created as well for convenient access using the NDLP page-turner feature.

The materials were scanned onsite by the NDLP paper scanning and text conversion contractor, Systems Integration Group of Lanham, Maryland. The PULNiX MFCS-50 H/S Digital Overhead Scanning System, a fixed-array device capable of scanning 8-bit grayscale and bitonal images, was used to digitize most of the items in the collection. These included manuscripts, bound volumes, and oversize materials. A few unusually large oversize items were digitized by staff from the Library's Information Technology Services (ITS) Digital Scan Center. The Wright production team, the ITS Digital Scan Center, and Systems Integration Group staff worked with the Library's conservators to ensure proper handling of the manuscripts during the physical processing of the collection and subsequent scanning.

Because efforts were made to preserve the appearance of the original documents, digital images reflect their physical condition as well. Such conditions include the following:

  • Due to age and past handling, many of the original materials are discolored, stained from water damage or dirt, or fragile. Their digital images therefore may show discolorations, heavy fold markings, and various tones in the paper.
  • Those items made from unusually thin paper sometimes show bleedthrough--where the ink or printing on the verso (back) of a page can be seen on the recto (front)--which even the grayscale format could not suppress.
  • A few letters written on colored paper have produced images darker than usual because they have been digitized in grayscale format and not in color. Correspondence written on paper that has turned a dark brown due to acidity produced dark scans as well.
  • Some digital images of correspondence appear to have light or faded text that might be difficult to read. This is often because either the handwriting strokes are very thin or the ink or pencil has faded on the original materials.
  • Carbon copies of letters, on delicate, almost tissue-like paper, appear throughout the collection. Not only may the coloring of the scan be different, but the text will often appear blurry because of the spotty or smudged ink.
  • Finally, many photographs and postcards either have faded over time or were originally dark and, consequently, their digital images may be dark as well. Especially-fragile, bound, and oversize items as well as newspaper clippings were treated in particular ways for this project:
  • During scanning preparations, some of the more delicate materials were housed in acid-free paper sleeves, from which the items were removed for scanning. Clear mylar sleeves protected extremely fragile or brittle items and allowed scanning without removal of the items.
  • In general, images of pages were split for large bound and book-like items for better readability, but not for double-paged correspondence.
  • The finding aid for the original collection lists oversize documents in a separate series. These items are housed separately, in larger boxes, and placeholder sheets in the folders from which they were pulled alert researchers to their location. Because the digital environment takes away the need to separate items by physical size, these items were digitized in sequence and appear online within their original folders. Therefore, they are not listed separately in an oversize series.
  • Manuscript Division staff made preservation photocopies of disintegrating or fading items, generally old photostats and newspaper clippings. The original copies may or may have not been discarded. In most cases, the original item has been scanned; however, if it has been discarded or is too faded, the preservation copy has been scanned instead.


    Creating the Digital Images: Scanning the Microfilm
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    The Diaries and Notebooks Series and the Scrapbooks Series of the Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers were microfilmed by the Library of Congress Photoduplication Service in the late 1970s. All of the Diaries and Notebooks, comprising one microfilm reel, and the first five Scrapbooks, comprising five reels, were scanned. Digitization of the microfilm was performed offsite by Preservation Resources of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, under contract to the National Digital Library Program.

    This portion of the Wright Papers was scanned as 200 dpi, 8-bit grayscale images that were compressed using JPEG compression, producing images in the JPEG File Interchange Format (JFIF). GIFs were generated from grayscale TIFF images by Preservation Resources.

    The quality of the microfilm of a manuscript collection can affect the resulting digital images. The Wright Papers microfilm was scanned from a duplicate negative microfilm, which was copied directly from the archival microfilm and produced for scanning by Preservation Resources. The negative can reduce the appearance of flaws such as dust in digital images. Preservation Resources took pains during the duplication process to compensate for the high density range of the master microfilm.

    Preservation Resources made special efforts to ensure that all images are visually accessible. To the best of their ability, the contractor stitched together large items that had been filmed in segments. Notebook or diary pages containing text not oriented for reading in the microfilm were reoriented for reading as digital images. The contractor also reversed negative photostatic images to positive to enhance visual access. While the pages of the diaries and notebooks were not split, pages in scrapbooks were cropped to the clipping or group of clippings for better readability.

    Please note that targets, folders, rulers, archivists' notes, and duplicate images in the microfilm have been omitted from the digitized collection.

    Among the materials scanned from microfilm, the selected Wright Scrapbooks presented a special challenge. In many instances, a set of several documents, ranging from news clippings to notes and papers to pamphlets and other materials, are adhered to a single scrapbook page. These pasted documents are folded and overlapped, often obscuring layers of items underneath. In order to preserve the "experience" of the scrapbook, a special online navigation architecture was designed. An image of a page from a scrapbook is presented as it would appear to someone looking at the actual scrapbook, with the items as they were originally attached. To one side of the image is a list of links to items that are hidden or require unfolding or opening for a complete viewing. A click on one of those links takes the user to a pageturner for that particular item where a series of its images appear.


    Creating the Digital Images: Original Glass Plate Negatives
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    JJT, Inc., of Austin, Texas, scanned the original glass plate negatives using an overhead capture MARC II digital camera in May 2001. Each negative was scanned at a resolution of 10,000 pixels on the long side with the short side scaled in proportion. Though the original negatives are black-and-white, the scans were produced using RGB color to facilitate a specialized book publication project. Each color channel was scanned at 12 bits per pixel and archived at 16 bits per pixel with an uncompressed size of approximately 260 megabytes per file. The uncompressed archival images available online were generated from the RGB master images.

    The image deterioration visible on some photos occurred when the glass plates were submerged for several days in the 1913 Dayton, Ohio, flood. In order to prevent further damage, the negatives were scanned emulsion "up", with the glass side of the negatives placed directly on the scanning surface. The images were then digitally reversed to be right reading. All of the negatives were scanned "as is." No attempt has been made to digitally clean or replace damaged portions of the image.

    Specifications for the glass plate negatives:

    Online Uncompressed Archival Images
    Spatial resolution: 5,000 pixels on the long side with the short side scaled in proportion for file names ending in u.tif (17-20 megabytes)
    Tonal (pixel depth) resolution: 8 bits per pixel (grayscale)
    Image enhancement: None
    File format: Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) ver. 6.0
    Compression: None

    Compressed Service Images
    Spatial resolution: 640 pixels on the long side with the short side scaled in proportion for file names ending r.jpg (40-50 kilobytes); 1024 pixels on the long side with the short side scaled in proportion for file names ending v.jpg (90-100 kilobytes)
    Tonal (pixel depth) resolution: 8 bits per pixel (grayscale)
    Image enhancement: Mild sharpening
    File format: JPEG
    Compression: Compressed to yield an average compression ratio of 10:1

    Thumbnail Images
    Spatial resolution: 150 pixels on the long side with the short side scaled in proportion for file names ending in t.tif and t.gif (approximately 20 kilobytes)
    Tonal (pixel depth) resolution: 8 bits per pixel (grayscale)
    Image enhancement: Mild sharpening
    File format: Archived copy: TIFF-Tagged Image File Format
    Online copy: GIF-Graphics Interchange Format
    Compression: Archived copy: Uncompressed
    Online copy: Compression native to the GIF format

    Master Archived Images
    Spatial resolution: 10,000 pixels on the long side with the short side scaled in proportion (approximately 260 megabytes)
    Tonal (pixel depth) resolution: 16 bits per pixel (RGB)
    Image enhancement: None
    File format: Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) ver. 6.0
    Compression: None

    American Memory | The Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers