Chicago, Illinois – May 21, 2022 - A team of archivists digitize a rare map collection at the Newberry Library in Chicago.

“The Novacco Map Collection has been here for over 55 years,” said Jeff Kelch, owner of The Digital Archive Group. “We want to make it more easily accessible.”

The Digital Archive Group has been tasked with capturing map images using high resolution cameras.

“We have phase one digital back cameras,” Kelch said. “They are 80-megapixel digital back cameras.”

“The client has asked for us to be at the highest resolution,” Kelch said. “So we are digitizing these at 6000 DPI.”

Newberry President Daniel Greene said the maps are a marquee collection worth sharing all over the world. 

“This collection may be the best collection of Italian maps on this side of the Atlantic,” Greene said. “There are over 750 maps from the 16th and early 17th century.”

“It is important for us to at the Newberry to get our collection out beyond our walls so that people can see it,” said Greene.

Each hand drawn map is literally a work of art.

“The first thing that we think about when we're digitizing these and seeing how small the images are, how small the writing is, the detail that's put into the ocean or the tree, how long that must have taken,” Kelch said. “How many people it must have taken to create that map is just amazing.”

Even if the information depicted on the map is out of date, it tells a story about that period of time when it was made.

“When you think of the historical significance of it and the fact that obviously there are countries and cities that have changed names,” said Kelch. “The fact (is) that some of these villages are no longer there.” 

Each map is a historic gift, providing a window into that period. A map of the North Pole featured an iconic gift-giver before his legend was documented elsewhere.

“The North Pole map is one of my favorites,” said Kelch. “Down in the right hand corner, there's a little gentleman on a sleigh and a red suit with reindeer in front and we're like, 'wait a second. That's Santa'.”

Kelch also admired an ancient Roman piece that featured an unusual nautical encounter.

“The cool map of the Roman Colosseum when they were staging these epic sea battles inside the Colosseum,” said Kelch. “It is just amazing to see the detail.”

Preserving the historic pieces will also make them available for future generations.

“It is critically important to preserve primary sources of history, like the Novacco maps or other resources that we preserve here,” said Greene. “It helps people understand who they are, where they came from.”

Kelch's company has archived some of the most iconic figures of the world, including Robert F Kennedy and Oprah Winfrey.

“With that collection, we digitized over 500,000 film negatives,” Kelch said about helping Winfrey.

“We just finished a portion of the Billy Graham collection,” Kelch said. “We digitized one point two million film images.”

The Digital Archive Group has also done work for the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox.

“What is really cool about those collections is that you can go to the game and that starting video at the beginning of the game with all that vintage stuff,” said Kelch. “That is our stuff.”

The pandemic has pushed preservation efforts.

“Prior to the pandemic, there was a need. There was an interest in digitization,” said Kelch. “The equipment's better now. The costs are much more affordable now. And so now that we're coming out of this, we're seeing a lot more interest.”

“The pandemic accelerated this a lot,” Greene said. “We've reallocated resources within the library towards digital initiatives and services.”

“I think this project is proving to us internally that it is possible to say, 'well, here's this fantastic section of 750 maps that you can't see anywhere else in the United States,” said Greene. “Let's make it as widely accessible as possible.'”