You can now browse Babe Ruth’s scrapbooks online thanks to HistoryIT, a Portland technology company that helps museums digitize their collections.
When the National Baseball Hall of Fame decided it wanted to make the pieces of Americana available to a wider audience, it turned to HistoryIT, which spent the last year digitizing, describing and tagging the 25 volumes of newspaper clippings, letters and photos from Ruth’s illustrious career on the field, as well as his work on the stage, television, and as an endorser of numerous products.
“It was a privilege to work with a storied institution that values history and recognizes the importance of using technology to save that history for future generations,” Kristen Gwynn-Becker, HistoryIT’s CEO, said in a statement. “We believe that these materials are just as valuable to the general public as to the scholar and are delighted to have the opportunity to create something that so dramatically broadens the reach of the Hall of Fame’s extraordinary collection.”
Gwynn-Becker gave a talk called “The Future of History” at TEDxDirigo in 2014 (embedded below).
