Chrissie Rakes and Molly Cuddigan
Technical Managers for the
Omaha Public Library
TransMississippi Digital Archive Project
The Omaha Public Library
Omaha Public Library
TransMississippi and International Exposition
Web Site
These images and other artifacts within the Omaha Public Library collection
became the source documents for the web site. The web site was designed and
developed by students from
Marian High School [http://marian.creighton.edu]
in Omaha, NE. The Omaha Public Library would like to
thank these students for the time, research and creativity that they've devoted
to this project.
The creation of the web site was headed by Chrissie Rakes and Molly Cuddigan.
The web site contains over 5,000 pages of information, including images from
F. A. Rinehart, the official photographer of the exposition, and a complete
copy of the 700 page Secretary's Report, written by John Wakefield in 1903.
Copies of the Omaha Bee and Omaha World Herald for 1897 and 1898 were also
reviewed and information from these newspapers was added to the web site.
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A core team consisting of Elizabeth Kallstrom, Kalle Jones, Kakie McGill, Sara
Gregory, Ann Young, Megan Irwin and Pota Rakes developed the key sections of
the web site. This team was assisted by Andrea Fox, Brigid Dolan and Cathy Lang. Each of the photographs within the digital archive were reduced in resolution and saved as jpeg images. Using the photo archive and some original maps from the exposition, a detailed map of the Grand Court, Bluffs Tract, North Midway, East Midway and Transportation areas were developed. |
| Kakie McGill works on one of the maps for the web site |
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Numerous planning and design meetings were held as the team grappled with
organizing such a large collection of significant information.
In addition to using the TMI maps to navigate the site it was decided to create a photo gallery to serve as an anchor to the other information presented within the web site. The web team quickly discovered that some of the information sources provided conflicting information about the exposition. For example, the Official Program of the Exposition states that the "Camera Obscura" is located on the East Midway, yet tmi00774 shows a "Camera Obscura" on the left side of 20th Street. There may have been more than one "Camera Obscura" or it was moved during the Exhibition, or perhaps the written source was incorrect. |
Pota Rakes looks over the master photo index in preparation for a planning meeting. |
Using the Marian High School CD-ROM production facilities Molly Cuddigan completes another CD for the TransMississippi archive. |
The images on the web site are a compromise between quality and size. The digital archive on CD-ROM is of much higher quality. The average size of an image on the web site is 48 kb while the average size of an image on the archive is 30 mb. The library has made it possible for you to acquire prints of these images and CD-ROM's containing the high quality images. Eventually, ordering will be online, but for now inquiries should be directed to the main branch of the Omaha Public Library. |
Ann Young working on the map section of the web site. |
The web project continues as additional information is acquired. The scanning of artifacts from the Omaha Public Library collection, additional research into TMI sources and artifacts from individuals and other institutional collections are being added to this web site. We hope that you enjoy your visit to the TransMississippi and International Exhibition. Come back soon. |
