Lantern Credits
Project Leader
Eric Hoyt
Kahl Family Professor of Media Production, Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Director, Media History Digital Library and Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
2020-2022 Redesign and Expansion Team
Database Developer: Samuel Hansen
Interface Developer: Ben Pettis
Computer Media & Server Specialist: Peter Sengstock
Communications: Pauline Lampert, Lesley Stevenson, Lauren Wilks
Scanning, Post-Production, and Metadata Curation: John Bennett, JJ Bersch, Samantha Janes, Jacob Mertens, Kat Pan, Olivia Riley, Matt St. John, Connor Perkins
Funding provided by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the ACLS Digital Extension Grant, “Globalizing and Enhancing the Media History Digital Library.” Thank you to the grant’s Co-PI, Kelley Conway, and wide network of collaborators.
2011-2014 Development Team
MHDL Founder: David Pierce
Digital Archivist: Wendy Hagenmaier
Engineer: Carl Hagenmaier
Python Scripting: Andy Myers
Fan Magazine Descriptions: Anne Helen Petersen
Books XML Editor: Joseph Pomp
Post-Production and Metadata Curation: Laurel Gildersleeve, Kit Hughes, Derek Long, Caroline Meikle, Tony Tran
Communications: Rob Farr
Lantern's development was completed in the UW-Madison Department of Communication Arts' Instructional Media Center with the assistance of Erik Gunneson, Peter Sengstock, Michael Trevis, and Jason Quist. Thank you to the UW-Madison Department of Communication Arts and to its chair at the time, Michele Hilmes, for believing in this project from day one.
Media History Digital Library Digitization Sponsors & Contributors
The collections of the Media History Digital Library exist because of owners of materials who loan them for scanning and donors who provide funds to cover the cost of scanning. We have included contributor and sponsor credits within the item-level metadata. But here we would also like to acknowledge the generous individuals and organizations who have made this project possible.
Contributing Collections: Robert S. Birchard, Q. David Bowers, Eileen Bowser, Dino Everett, Kathryn Fuller-Seeley, Richard Koszarski, Library of Congress National Audio Visual Conservation Center, Bruce Long, the Museum of Modern Art Library (Jennifer Tobias), Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum (Dorothy Bradley and David Kiehn), Pacific Film Archive Library and Film Study Center (Nancy Goldman), Kit Parker, David Pierce, Rick Prelinger, Karl Thiede, University of Maryland College Park, Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research.
Scanning sponsored by: an anonymous donor (in memory of Carolyn Hauer), Matthew and Natalie Bernstein, Q. David Bowers, Domitor, Jeff Joseph, David Pierce, Richard Scheckman, David Sorochty, David Stenn, the Internet Archive, Mary Pickford Foundation, University of California, Columbia University Libraries, Northwestern University in Qatar, Library of Congress National Audio Visual Conservation Center, University of Maryland College Park, University of St. Andrews Library & Centre for Film Studies, University of South Carolina, University of Toronto, University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Communication Arts.
Book scanning, file hosting, and file preservation by the Internet Archive
Open Source Technologies & Heroes
Lantern would not have been possible without open source software, technologies, and communities.
First and foremost, we would like to thank the Internet Archive's developers —- especially the work of Mike Ang and Raj Kumar on the BookReader and Edward Betts and George Oates on OpenLibrary. Special thanks goes to Edward Betts for patiently answering Eric's questions and helping us take the first steps forward into Python scripting.
Lantern is powered by the open source Solr search engine. In designing an interface, we used the Blacklight Ruby gem -- developed by an amazing community of librarians and programmers. The homepage data viz was built using the JQuery Mix it Up Library
Running under the hood of Lantern: Solr, Java, Apache, Ruby on Rails, Python, XML, HTML, CSS, SCSS, Javascript, JQuery... probably some duct tape too.
A Few More Thank Yous
Thank you to David Pierce for having the vision for the Media History Digital Library and brilliantly connecting the many pieces of the project together.
Thank you to the UW-Madison Department of Communication Arts, UW-Madison Graduate School, University of Wisconsin Libraries, Wisconsin Historical Society, and Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research for the many ways they supported this project.
Thank you to the people who wrote and published the books and magazines in this collection. And thank you to mid-20th century U.S. copyright legislation, which enabled these works to enter the public domain.
Finally, thank you to Emily Hagenmaier for drawing the picture of the lantern and to Emily, Liam, and Rumi for teaching Eric so much about the art of life.