Digitization of the Decorative Arts Collections in Study-Storage

FAIN: PW-50931-11

Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, PA 19101-7646)
William Weinstein (Project Director: July 2010 to November 2013)

Digital photography of 9,858 American and European decorative arts objects and the addition of images with accompanying cataloging information to the museum's online collections database. The digital content would be freely available for use by scholarly, educational, and general audiences.

This proposal seeks a grant of $228,080 over two years to support the digital publication of the American and European decorative arts collections that remain in study-storage and are consequently not available to the public. Significant portions of the decorative arts holdings date from the founding of the PMA in 1877, comprising collections of exceptional coherence and integrity. While these collections total 12,041 objects, approximately two thirds of European origin and one third American, 9,858 have yet to be photographed and published online. The proposed project would photograph these objects, vet object information, add the images and update the information in the Museum’s object database The Museum System (TMS), and upload the content to the website and to online libraries such as ARTstor. The new digital content would amplify the Museum’s capacity to meet internal and external research needs, and enrich its educational and interpretive resources.