Digitizing the Collection

This Web presentation is based on the sound recording Where Home Is: Life in Nineteenth-Century Cincinnati, released in 1977 by New World Records (www.newworldrecords.org External). Recordings were augmented by adding digitized sheet music and illustrative images. In addition, the original liner notes for the recording, by Kathryn Kish Sklar and Jon Newsom, were adapted and augmented to introduce each section of this presentation.

Paper Materials and Photographs

The paper items in this collection (sheet music and other music materials) were scanned by the Library of Congress's Information Technology Services (ITS) Digital Scan Lab. An uncompressed TIFF scan of the original archival item with no compression was made. High resolution scans were made in color, with a few exceptions, at 24 bits-per-pixel and 300 dpi using the Phase-one FX camera. Derivative Truecolor images were made from the TIFF files by Library of Congress Network Development staff. The digital images online are JPEG images (quality level 80) in 5 sizes with an average compression ratio of 10:1 (the compression ratios may vary slightly depending on the size of the derivative). Additional illustrative images were scanned by The Library of Congress Presents: Music, Theater and Dance staff.

Sound Recordings

WAV files were made from original source CD by the IHAS staff. MP3 streaming files were created from the WAV files. The EQ was adjusted with Sound Forge 5.0. The files were then de-clicked, amplified, and beginnings and ends faded using Cool-Edit Pro 1.0. The derivative files were generated using Sound Forge 5.0. with the MP3s at 96K.