{"id":4835,"date":"2015-12-21T20:43:41","date_gmt":"2015-12-21T20:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/preservation\/?p=4409"},"modified":"2015-12-21T20:43:41","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T20:43:41","slug":"digitizing-hancher-posters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/2015\/12\/21\/digitizing-hancher-posters\/","title":{"rendered":"Digitizing Hancher Posters"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ben Bessman, Digitization Assistant\"hancher_poster<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Hancher Auditorium had been a noteworthy stop for world famous musical acts, theatre productions, dance companies, and guest speakers in the Midwest since 1972, until its original location was flooded out in\u00a0June of 2008.\u00a0 Since then various community sites have served as hosts for the wide variety of performers that normally would have graced the halls of this landmark theater.\u00a0 But 2016 will bring a welcomed change when the new and improved Hancher Auditorium will open its doors and once again showcase many of the world\u2019s premiere acts.<\/p>\n

For more than three decades many of the best Broadway shows, international dance and music troupes, and solo \"hancher_poster<\/a>artists made their stop in Iowa City, with many coming back over and over again throughout the years.\u00a0 And thanks to the quick thinking of Hancher Auditorium staff, many of the original posters from those early performances are still intact and have now been digitally preserved as part of the Iowa Digital Library<\/a>.\u00a0 The large size of these posters (or \u201cshow bills\u201d) required a handful of people to feed them through our 54\u201d Context HD scanner, with most of the preservation images created from this process averaging around 2.0 GB, before we trim them down a little.<\/p>\n

These show bills beautifully represent not only Hancher Auditorium\u2019s rich history but the astounding range of performers who have entertained and enlightened our community throughout the years.\u00a0 From musical greats like Duke Ellington, Vladimir Ashkenazy, and Leonid Kogan, to their more contemporary counterparts Bonnie Raitt and Bruce Springsteen- strolling through the show bills of the past is discount time travel at its best.\u00a0 Discovering gems you never knew about- Ricardo Montalban headlining \u201cDon Juan in Hell\u201d for example, becomes a rewarding experience.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Buffalo State College conservation students Lyudmyla Bua and Amanda Burr are completing an eight-week internship in the UIowa Libraries' Conservation Lab. Today they are helping us digitize posters from Hancher Auditorium's 1976-1977 season. #uiowa #uilibraries #digitization #conservation<\/a><\/p>\n

A photo posted by University of Iowa Libraries (@uilibraries) on