Preserving cultural craft heritage: Digitizing a traditional Syrian clothing collection

Abstract

This project explores the importance of the preservation of diverse private collections of crafted artefacts, and specifically improving digital access. The focus is on the transformation of an assemblage of 100 Syrian garments held in the United States into a museum-quality, publicly accessible archive. Private collections that are not financially endowed face various challenges, including their culturally valuable content being inaccessible and underseen. The goal of archiving and exhibiting this collection of garments is to share Syria’s dress and craft history as a form of identity, community, economy, artistic expression and technological development. Each item is unique, representing an everyday life that no longer exists. As people moved to new geographical locations, craft traditions were not always carried with them. Consequently, the garments and accessories in this collection feature dyeing techniques, metalwork and symbolic representations of different generations of Syrian people from this ancient to present civilization. Throughout the research process, we learned to synthesize the core issues of contemporary craft heritage management, with an initial goal to build a new digital archiving method and template to benefit small or private collections outside of institutions. First, we determined how to do so using affordable and accessible tools, in line with manageable industry standards. Digital photography, metadata development, object labelling, and anecdotal interviews complement the existing collection information. The long-term goal is the dissemination of the collection through exhibitions, interactive websites, symposiums and publications. Museums are working harder to diversify their collections, and many private collections represent marginalized cultures or do not fit within the established parameters of public institutions. This study touches upon the disparate and specific needs of private versus public collecting, and how to bridge some of the gaps using standardized digitization techniques towards similar preservation and outreach goals.