From low-tech to high-tech
Digitization brings rubber-band bound slides to public

BC History Digitization Program supports project to preserve slides Kate Carson (top, left) is working at Royal Roads University part-time to lead the Bateman Digitization Project. Below, left, is an example of a digitized slide, this one depicting dried grass and used as a reference by Canadian artist Robert Bateman (right).

by Lynda Chambers, InRoads editor

Remembering Debra Barr . . .

In February 2008, Royal Roads University archivist Debra Elaine Barr learned she’d been successful in applying for a $12,600 grant from the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre under the BC History Digitization Program. The BC History Digitization Program provides funds to scan and convert original and historical documents - including images, sound or print materials such as books and documents – to make B.C. heritage accessible, via computer, to the public. As collections manager for art and documents being donated to the university by artist Robert Bateman and photographer Birgit Freybe Bateman, Debra Barr could now begin her long-planned project to digitize hundreds and hundreds of important and historic photographic slides from the Bateman family. Loss of colleague is shock to RRU Tragically, on October 13, 2008, Debra passed away following complications due to a rare heart infection she contracted on the Labour Day weekend. Her work had barely begun but her professionalism and intensity of purpose has provided colleagues both within and outside Royal Roads with the energy, momentum and direction they need to continue with the legacy she started. If you would like to join in creating a lasting legacy to honour Debra, please consider a donation to the Debra Barr Memorial Fund. The goal is to raise enough money to create a Debra Barr Archives Room where priceless items that will be held in the Bateman Art Gallery will be preserved and managed.

Kate Carson  has been sorting and sifting through thousands and thousands of slides by, and of, Canadian artist Robert Bateman and his family, friends and colleagues.

Some are similar to snaps many families collect.

These are slides that document birthday parties and seasonal holidays; vacation travels and reunions.

Many, though, differ wildly and widely to typical memoirs on film.

There are slides that show Bateman with Jane Goodall on Salt Spring Island and slides that depict, in incredible close-up detail, dry grass. There are slides of Africa and India and the Queen Charlottes and Monaco. There are slides of Bateman in hip-waders and slides of him in a tuxedo as well as slides that show the Batemans on horseback and on canoeing trips, and in a more serious vein, on treks to Clayoquot Sound and the Carmanah Valley as part of their environmental protection initiatives. While many are easy to identify because they are well-stored and labeled, hundreds of others are bound in stacks with elastic bands or lined up, by subject, in box lids.

“I’m using a variety of clues, including any dates and sequential numbers printed on the cardboard mounts, to determine which belong together”, says Carson. “Then I’m scrutinizing the content of the images for additional clues. For instance, sometimes we can guess at the identity of persons by items of clothing – if we know from a close-up that a canoeist in a red jacket is Birgit, we can extrapolate for the rest of the slides taken on the same day.”

Carson says the artist and his wife have been very generous with their time in assisting with slide identification.

Painstaking but rewarding

The sifting and sorting has been a painstaking process but rewarding; and not simply from the satisfaction that comes from clarifying eclectic content. Once sorted, the slides – more than 3,000 in all – are being scanned so their digital doppelgangers can be entered into a free online Canadian archival repository.

The result will be easy access for all to the rich legacy of Robert Bateman. It will mean academic researchers interested in his work and his pivotal role in the history of Canadian environmentalism will have almost instantaneous access to hundreds of digitized images as will the general public. The records will also house – for the first time in one place – a wealth of important material reflecting the role Robert Bateman and Birgit Freybe Bateman have played in environmental protection in this province. Eventually, as well, the historical record will be accessible from the website of the Robert Bateman Art and Environmental Education Centre and many of the images will be made available for exhibits, catalogues, posters, and other retail initiatives.

For now, with $12,600 from the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, only slides from time periods that represent the British Columbia portion of the Bateman’s lives, work and environmental activism are being digitized.

“Included, for example, are slides of animals and birds photographed by Bateman as well as slides of his paintings depicting B.C. landscapes and wildlife along with slides of the artist posing next to these completed works. There will be slides of Bateman in his Salt Spring studio and elsewhere in B.C. as well as slides of his travel in and around the province, including family outings, various community and organizational events and trips tied to environmentalism,” says Caterina Geuer, the RRU Legacy Campaign’s manager of environmental and sustainability projects.

Quality is key

So far, about 1,500 raw digital images have been produced. Scanning technician Colin Rutherford says it’s slow work because quality is key. Each slide must be carefully cleaned and labelled before digitizing and a list noting the condition of each is also maintained. Are there paint flecks? Are there imperfections?

"Any and all imperfections are, unfortunately, magnified because I’m scanning at 4,000 dpi, a very high resolution,” he says. “It means, though, that the images can later be reproduced, if required, to publication quality at a large size.”

The work is not over when the scanning is complete, either. The digital images will require editing to remove dust and scratches and to make sure the colours are accurate.
“Robert has been active in Canadian conservation groups since the 1960s. These photographic records will be a tremendously important resource for those studying the history of Canadian environmentalism,” says Geuer.