The University Library’s Research Data Services (RDS) Team provided over 50 workshops for students, faculty, and staff over the last academic year, with a total of 320 attendees. They also conducted custom sessions for graduate students (152 total attendees) as well as custom sessions for the GSU College of Education & Human Development faculty and a research team comprised of GSU African American Studies and Clark Atlanta University faculty, reaching a grand total of 481 people. RDS Team Leader Mandy Swygart-Hobaugh has recently published a “data story” on Tableau Public about their successful workshops, custom sessions, and consultations over the last year. Nice job!
Right now, on the eighth floor of Library South, you can visit Georgia State University Library’s Special Collection exhibit about Eastern Air Lines, a major airline that operated out of Atlanta from 1930 until 1991. Georgia State University Magazine included an article about Eastern in their December 2016 issue, complete with interviews and oral histories about the airline. The University Library holds an extensive collection of Eastern materials thanks to Carolyn Lee Wills, who donated her personal archive from her years working in public relations with Eastern. Wills graduated from Georgia State in 1959 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration.
Carolyn Lee Wills in the 1980s
Part of the Library’s exhibit is our digital exhibit case, which allows you to see original artifacts and also interact with digital content from the Eastern collection, such as photographs, travel flyers, training manuals, and much more. Many of the items in the collection can be found in the Eastern digital collection, but some of the items are so unique that we chose to use photogrammetry to capture the object in 3D.
One example is a baseball that was given to Wills, presumably by the Atlanta Braves. As you can see in the picture below, the ball is covered with hand-written notes, each of which refers to a landmark in Georgia, such as Stone Mountain, Six Flags, Golden Isles, and Okefenokee Swamp.
Atlanta Braves baseball given to Carolyn Lee Wills
When on display in the exhibit case, the baseball can only be viewed from one or two angles, but with a 3D model, visitors can turn the ball to see each of the locations. The high-quality model has 1.6 million individual polygons meshed together to create an accurate reproduction of the baseball. Just like a real baseball, the stitching and seams are raised to give (virtual) pitchers a better grip on the ball.
Eastern Air Lines management attend an Atlanta Braves game in 1979. Some photos seem to be taken in the locker room.Eastern Air Lines promoted the Atlanta Braves with posters such as this one from the 1980s
To view the baseball alongside other artifacts and documents from the Eastern Air Lines collection, and to check out our interactive digital exhibit case, visit Special Collections on the 8th floor of Library South!
GSU Special Collections Digital Exhibit Case with Aircraft and Baseball Displayed with 3D Model of Baseball
During the spring semester, I acquired a clay whisky jug from the Phoenix Lab, which contains artifacts recovered from the excavation of MARTA lines in the 1970s. Dr. Robin Wharton has worked with students in her multimodel composition course to scan and model objects from the collection, and discussed the process in Atlanta Studies. In this case, the purpose was to experiment with photogrammetry for larger objects, testing the equipment and software that the Library has acquired. The jug is roughly 8 inches high and 6 inches in diameter, with a circumference of 19 inches.
Whisky Jug
The jug wears the story of its life. The outside is worn and pitted, and carries a few kiln drips, where the kiln bricks melted and dripped on to the jug as it was fired. These drips show as dark splotches on the outside of the jug. Stamped on the top shoulder of the jug are two names: T.W. Cofield and E.C. Brown.
Stamp showing T.W. Cofield and E.C. Brown
To capture the entire jug in detail, I took images of the jug at 15 degree intervals on three elevations. I used Agisoft Photoscan to assembled the images into point clouds, meshes, and then textured models. I then pinned the three partial sections together, which resulted in a full model of the jug.
In the finished 3D model, you can manipulate the jug to see its details and textures, including the stamped inscription with the two potters’ names.
Thomas William Cofield and Edward C. Brown were cousins who lived in the Howell’s Mills area in northwest Atlanta, near present-day Buckhead. Edward’s father was Bowling P. Brown, a potter. His grandfather was Bowling Brown, also a potter, who had moved the family from Jugtown (an unofficial name) on borders of Upson and Pike counties.
Bowling’s daughter (and B.P.’s sister) Mary Jane Brown married Thomas B. Cofield from North Carolina while they lived in Jugtown. Their son, Thomas W. Cofield, became a potter and worked alongside his cousin, E.C. Brown, to produce jugs for Atlanta’s businesses from the 1880s through the 1910s. [Note 1]
In his history of Georgia’s folk pottery, John A. Burrison suggests that Thomas and Edward worked together no later than 1911, after which Edward “became a gardener (and later foreman) at Grant Park.” Based on this suggestion, we can infer that the whisky jug is at least 106 years old. The jug is in remarkable shape for its age, but I still wouldn’t recommend drinking from it.
On April 12, students in Dr. Carmen Eilertson’s Biology 4687/6687 Surgical Anatomy demonstrated some of the 3D models of human organs they have created this semester using the NextEngine laser scanner in CURVE’s 3D Modeling Lab. Here, they are presenting 3D models of a human kidney, brain, and lung.
This was followed by a lesson in understanding computerized tomography (CT) scans, which the interactWall can display in amazing detail for up-close analysis.
