The first release of Schaefer’s die study (RRDP) was just the binders. NOW you can see all the analyzed specimens! All digitized clippings have been uploaded to Archer, the ANS archival portal, in batches of 100 Crawford numbers. Again, using CRRO is the best way to find the images of a type. Just like you’d do to find a specimen in the Binder (direction here), you just go to the bottom of the CRRO page and click the link to Archer.
[Using RRC 300/1 as an example.]
Processed clippings means that they represent photographs of die-analysed specimens that for MOST issues represent dies are already illustrated in the binders. Typically Schaefer left the two specimens that best represented a die in the binder and then placed the rest in his drawers (output).
To scan the drawers Dr. Richardson dealt out the images with the first image in the drawer at the top left corner of the scan and then down in a column before then starting an new column. This allows you to reconstruct a drawer. Some types took more than one scanner page. You will need to consult the binders for the die study, in particular to match die names in the processed clippings to the die names on specimens in the binders.
The exception to all this is ODEC (One Die for Each Control Mark). These types are only processed clippings and do not have corresponding pages in the binders. For example, you might check out my favorite, Papius (RRC 384/1).
For ODEC the order that the images are laid out in the scans are the die study. The die names are also labelled and should always be double checked against layout. (Human error is real, esp. in a project of this scale)
Is that it? Has Schaefer’s archive given up all its treasure? Sadly no.
Schaefer has thousands and thousands of un-analysed (prepossessed) clippings only a very small fraction of these could be scanned because of time constraints. Dr. Richardson did put together a spreadsheet documenting the extent of this collection. The clipping are organized by type, just not die organized.
Things to expect in the future.
A full finding aid to the collection incorporating and refining much of the preliminary information archived here on my personal blog in draft form.
Disambiguation to improve links on CRRO. Schaefer did not always use Crawford’s subtypes (a, b, c…) and this means that it is more difficult to create links from CRRO pages that follow Crawford to the right Schaefer pages. HOWEVER, just because you don’t see a link in CRRO doesn’t mean there aren’t pages in Schaefer’s Archive. It more likely means we’ve not yet manage to create the links. I welcome emails to help identify these types. For clippings you can easily find these yourself, but if you cannot locate the right binder, I’m happy to provide this service.
Have a question? Check here first. If that doesn’t answer it just email me!
With deep gratitude to Ethan Gruber for making this release possible!
Also because in the digital age utility is measured by clicks, if you found this interesting please open at least one page of Schaefer’s work in Archer. This helps us demonstrate public engagement with the project.
Liv Mariah Yarrow 