Digitizing the Art Collection

One of the latest projects conducted here at Koreshan State Historic Site has involved our extensive art collection, primarily the work of Douglas Arthur Teed. Douglas Arthur was the son of Cyrus Teed, the founder of the Koreshan Unity, and was a highly trained and quite well respected American Impressionist whose work spans locations in both the Old World and the Americas.

Christopher Lopez (UCF) and Marcos Rodriguez (FIU) are students at their respective universities and are both interested in Florida’s early history. They were originally contacted by a volunteer here at the park named Stan Malecki, which set this whole project into motion. Chris and Marcos came down to the park for an entire week (working through the night most of the time) in order to digitally photograph our entire art collection. This involved the invention of new techniques and an extreme amount of dedication and patience, but the result is an astoundingly high resolution record of all the art work currently in our collection here at Koreshan SHS.

The actual process involved placing the painting on an easel and using a variety of lights to obtain the flattest possible light across the entire work, minimizing glare and shadows as a result. Then separate segments of the work would be digitally photographed. The segments would then be imported onto a separate editing computer and stitched together into one massively detailed reproduction using a variety of photo editing techniques. The result is an extremely high resolution copy of the piece, which allows the viewer to see individual brush strokes and very subtle nuances that would ordinarily not be visible to the unaided human eye.

This project leaves our collection with an excellent digital record of our art work that can be used for a wide variety of purposes from research to retail sales.

For any questions regarding the process or for Chris and Marcos’ contact information please email or call the Koreshan SHS Curator at Andrew.Tetlow@dep.state.fl.us or by phone at 239-218-6998.

You can view some of the finished products below. Click on the name to view the image.