A Video Collection Digitization & Archive project completed in 2022 for the Cass Gilbert Society

The Cass Gilbert Society Video Collection:

A Video Collection Digitization & Archive project was successfully completed in 2022 for the Cass Gilbert Society. The Cass Gilbert Society's mission is to preserve and enhance the nation’s cultural heritage through advancing scholarship and appreciation of Cass Gilbert’s contribution to American architecture. Cass Gilbert is well known in Minnesota as the architect of the Minnesota State Capital which is still in use today, and was fully restored in 2017. 

This archive project resulted in the creation of digitized video and audio files for over 20 years of Cass Gilbert Society sponsored lectures and presentations for historical, educational, and research purposes. The digitized files will eventually be available through the Cass Gilbert Society archive at the Minnesota Historical Society and through the Cass Gilbert Society website. The Finding Aid to the collection was created so that the collections content and descriptive metadata will be searchable by our potential audience of scholars, students, architects, preservationists, and other interested parties.  Because of the digital conversion, this valuable scholarly resource will be preserved and available for long-term use.

Kathryn Hujda at the Minnesota Historical Society receives

from Marjorie Pearson the Cass Gilbert Society Video Collection files

Minnesota Media Arts, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, provided collection care and management services for the project under the direction of Cass Gilbert Society member Marjorie Pearson, PhD. The first step in the process was to create a visual inventory spreadsheet that recorded the visible information on each tape and its case, as well as photographing each asset in the collection. Society members Ted Lentz and Herb Grika aided in the cataloging and identification of duplicate tapes. Grika was also the videographer for many of the tapes.

Mark Stanley at MN Media Arts reviews video assets and photographs 
each label and case as part of the visual inventory process
 to collect metadata and preserve context.

Saving Tape was chosen as the vendor to digitize all the originally recorded videotape assets from many formats: VHS, Hi8, miniDV, and DVD-R discs. Two digitized versions of each tape were created: a high quality Preservation Master, and a lower bandwidth Access distribution file for sharing online with researchers, historians, and students, as well as educators and interested public. Copies of the digitized video files have been transferred to the Minnesota Historical Society for its archive.

Finally an updated catalog was created based on the metadata collected about each video recording, describing the presenter of the lecture, the specific topic, and the buildings of architect Cass Gilbert that were discussed. An online Finding Aid based on the catalog records has been published online to help researchers locate this video collection on Cass Gilbert and his works.

The Cass Gilbert Society may be contacted for more information about the project on their website at https://cassgilbertsociety.org/education/video-collection.html

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This project was made possible in part by the people of Minnesota through a grant funded by an appropriation to the Minnesota Historical Society from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Additional project funding by The Cass Gilbert Society.