Letters from artists, historical scrapbooks and century-old exhibition manuscripts from The Delaware Art Museum are now available online in The Helen Farr Sloan Library and Archives.
But with more than 2,000 linear feet of material, that's just a drop in the bucket.
"An incredible wealth of information is in these archives. And until we put the work online, the only way for someone to use them was to make an appointment, come in and go through them in person in the library," Chief Curator Heather Campbell Coyle said.
The museum has put 500 rare pieces in its online catalog.
The digitization started last winter. Campbell Coyle said it’s an ongoing process that will last years.
Diaries and letters from artist John Sloan are going up soon, as well as museum exhibition material from as far back as 1912, the year the museum opened.
The archives are part of the Delaware Heritage Collection, which brings together material from many of the state’s museums, archives and historical groups.
Delaware Public Media' s arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from theDelaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.