Success Stories

1880's Newfoundland: A Pictorial

Old photographs of Newfoundland now on the Internet

In 1885, Joseph Lawrence received a photo album in recognition of his dedicated involvement in a local Newfoundland Methodist church. The album features photographs by Simeon H. Parsons (1844-1908), one of Newfoundland's earliest professional, self-taught photographers. His photographs capture a wide range of nineteenth century Newfoundland geography and activities. More importantly, the album contains rare photos of St-John's architecture prior to the 1912 fire that destroyed many of the downtown buildings.

Since the photographs are rare and fragile they have been accessible only to researchers through the Centre for Newfoundland Studies at Memorial University. But there were many other potential admirers of this album such as architecture, history and heritage enthusiasts. "There's a huge demand for this (type of document) in Newfoundland. We have many avid amateur genealogists and researchers who want to learn more about the lives of their ancestors" says John White, member of the Newfoundland and Labrador Provincial Information and Library Resources Board (PILRB).

Therefore, when John White and Bert Riggs, archivist at the Centre for Newfoundland Studies at Memorial University heard of SchoolNet Digital Collections, they were ecstatic. The Digital Collections would be an ideal medium to display the album. Not only would it dramatically increase the photographs' accessibility but it also would preserve the album's very fragile state.

The Digital Collections program, funded by the federal Youth Employment Strategy, has enabled over 1400 young Canadians (ages 15-30) to gain valuable work experience in the multimedia sector. By converting significant Canadian content for display on the Information Highway, Canadian youth have not only gained skills for knowledge-based employment but have provided greater access to Canadian holdings located in archives, libraries, museums, associations and other sources.

Under contract with Digital Collections, two young adults, Lynn Thomas and Scott Martin, were hired to digitize the album and post the collection on the Internet. Although they had a good understanding of HTML and web design before they began the project, the Digital Collections project allowed the youth to broaden their experience and in Martin's case, allowed him to discover the diversity of his capabilities.

Having recently graduated from high school, Scott Martin was hired for his web design expertise. "He is really a wizard at it!", exclaims John White who was also director of the project. But Martin had never worked on a project with such depth, scope and not to mention, with so much material. Confronted by deadline pressure, technical mishaps such as a faulty scanner and by a wealth of information, Martin soon realized that web designing entails much more that mere programming.

One of the greatest challenges both team members faced was writing accurate captions that complemented the photographs. With the help of the Newfoundland Encyclopedia and of CNS archivist, Bert Riggs, the duo laboriously researched the various landmarks and buildings displayed in the photographs.

Alas, the tedious process of creating text for the images and the constant revising and editing was finalized. The final product consists of a digital presentation of 168 images from the original album. The photographs are divided according to geographical location and interactive maps supplement each section.

Although the program assisted these two young adults (who have since found employment in the multimedia sector), it also benefited many other people. This unique and fragile document is now accessible to Newfoundlanders and other Canadians. It has also attracted an international audience. The web site has generated feedback from as far as Arizona and England. "The project was good for us [the PILRB] and the results show in the site", says John White. "Pictorial works such as [this album] can be well displayed in an Internet context. We are proud of the work these two young adults have accomplished."

Recently, the site was chosen as Yahoo site of Week (week of July 5th, 1998). Such a designation is well deserved for the hard working duo and the organizations (PILRB, Memorial University and Industry Canada) that supported this innovative project.

Visit the SchoolNet Digital Collections World Wide Web Site at http://collections.ic.gc.ca