About the ProjectNORMAN archive

ProjectNORMAN is preserving and making the Norman Rockwell Museum art and archival collections accessible to researchers, curators, students and the general public. The decade-long project, begun in 2003, advances the collection care, management and accessibility to Norman Rockwell’s work and cultural importance. ProjectNORMAN (New Online Rockwell Media Art & Archive Network), is a ten-year, comprehensive online publishing project to preserve, catalogue, computerize and digitize its collection of original artworks, and over 150,000 archival objects, making them accessible to researchers.

Conservation Planning
Since its inception, the Norman Rockwell Museum has considered collections care and management among its highest priorities. The Museum was a founding member of the regional Williamstown Art Conservation Center (WACC) and used WACC conservators for its first conservation survey in 1978, examining the original 300 paintings given to the Museum by the Norman Rockwell Art Collection Trust. Subsequent surveys examined Rockwell’s Studio structure on South Street before and after its move, Studio contents, public Museum spaces, paintings and works on paper, and archival collections in 2003. The archival survey reinforced the Museum’s knowledge of the exposure of original materials by users, and of the fragility of many materials. Conservation recommendations have been continuously implemented as funds and staffing allow. Following the archival survey in 2003, the Collections Care and Conservation Plan was formulated and accepted by the Board of Trustees.

In 2001, the ProjectNORMAN team, comprised of the Director, senior staff, curatorial staff, and the technology manager, was assembled to research, coordinate, and oversee the project. The core team was joined by new employees, including the Manager of Collections & Registration, an Assistant Curator, Curatorial Assistant, and a Cataloguer. Recently, the project team has expanded to include education staff, communications personnel, an intellectual property consultant and humanities advisors to assist in realizing the potential scope of the project.

Financial Support
The Museum submitted proposals to National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Stockman Family Foundation, and a corporate foundation, to add to the initial funding awarded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the Henry Luce Foundation. NEA, the Stockman Family Foundation and Save America’s Treasures awarded the Museum grants for acetate negative copying, digitization and preservation totaling $400,000. The Museum received a grant of $500,000 over two years from an anonymous foundation. Fundraising for ProjectNORMAN continues, with total funding needs projected for $3-5 million.

Training Staff and Preliminary Testing
In 2005-06, the Museum hired new staff who were thoroughly oriented to the institution, the collections, ProjectNORMAN, and the collections care project. Following extensive research by the ProjectNORMAN team, the Museum purchased new computers and the Vernon Systems Collection software. Existing databases with collections information were migrated into the new system. The digital scanner was upgraded to accommodate oversized photographs and large first-use tear sheets.

Collections staff attended workshops and conferences conducted by the Williamstown Art Conservation Center, the Society for Imaging Science and Technology, and the Northeast Documents Conservation Conference School for Scanning. Specialized equipment, including a hygrothermograph to monitor temperature and relative humidity, was installed in the archives. Curatorial staff ordered acid-free boxes for archival housing and heavy-duty flat file storage units. Team members adjusted the work plan, adding: sampling (test) digitizations; backup and fragility of data solutions; the need to arrange and describe archives as an accompaniment to cataloguing and digitization; and the choice of a vocabulary/nomenclature for classification of artworks to allow standard research retrieval for the broadest possible audience.

Acetate Negative Collections
The digitization of archival collections began with film-based materials. The film-based objects in Rockwell’s “picture” files, the artist’s references for individual paintings and drawings, were identified, organized and re-housed, entered in the database, and integrated into the negative collection that had already been processed (identified, organized and re-housed) in preparation for digitization.

Doug Munson, principal of Chicago Albumen Works (CAW) and an internationally-known photographic conservation specialist used by major museums and the National Archives and Records Administration, was chosen to lead digitization of the 18,000 acetate negatives. The negatives are the most fragile archival materials and at the highest risk of deterioration. The CAW team worked with NRM staff to determine digitization standards, preservation philosophies and methods, with multiple digital files made to accomplish various purposes, and in the interest of long-term preservation. The physical film-based objects were sealed in air-free, neutral materials and placed in long-term storage in a conservation-approved Kelvinator professional freezer. The enormous task of retrieval, organization, cataloguing into the collections management database, digitization and permanent storage for the negatives has been underway since September 2005. By fall 2007, all the images will be uploaded into the system and all the sheet and roll film-based objects will be housed in freezer storage. Reel-to-reel film was preserved by an audio archivist by transfer to CD.

A Digital Catalogue
The Museum now has digital accession records on all of the artwork in its collections as well as digital images associated with the records. An updated physical inventory of the Museum’s collections of artwork was completed in preparation for expanded entries into the new collections management software. Cataloguers have entered all of the 4,000 Definitive Catalogue records and all of the 672 addenda records of documented artwork into the collections management database, digitized, uploaded into the system, and associated with their digital records. These addenda records, compiled since the publication of the Definitive Catalogue in 1986, include new works, possible new works, dubious works, fake works, or works mistakenly attributed to Norman Rockwell.

The Studio
Staff are currently scanning or digitally photographing two- and three- dimensional collection objects in Norman Rockwell’s studio and associating these image files with their digital accession records. To date, there are 20,238 objects accessioned. The Studio objects will then be uploaded, accessioned, and associated with digital collection records.

Future Projects
Grant applications are pending or will be submitted to organize, describe and create finding aids to the archival collections consistent with international library/technology standards, known as MARC and EAD. The Museum seeks to maximize the capacity of the Research Center by installing compact storage shelving furniture.