About

When Professor Emerita Darlene J. Sadlier conceived the idea for a book about the Lilly Library, located on the campus of Indiana University-Bloomington, her main interest was to call attention to the many fascinating objects and important collections beyond the many rare books and manuscripts for which the library is world-renowned. Her research resulted in a beautifully illustrated A to Z coffee-table volume featuring commentary on over 100 objects and the collections from which they derive. The volume is a Well House Book published by Indiana University Press.

Among the items appearing in the book are Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007 cigars, a Civil War panorama called the Myriopticon, pith paper paintings of Peruvians, Rita Hayworth’s makeup case, miniature Qu’rans and Torahs, and jigsaw and mechanical puzzles and vessels. When Sadlier first learned of technology on campus that would enable objects to be displayed in 3-D, she met with Tassie Gniady, Manager for Cyberinfrastructure for Digital Humanities and Creative Activities in UITS Research Technologies. With the support of Sadlier's Office of the Bicentennial grant from IU, Gniady and colleague Katie Chapman used photogrammetry to create 3-D models from hundreds of photographs taken of selected objects in the book. To speed up model creation, which can take eight to ten hours per model on a high-powered desktop, Chapman and Gniady used Research Desktop to connect to IU’s supercomputers and process each model using multiple nodes. Models on the site are available in two quality levels, one that is optimized for the web for faster load time, and which is embedded in the site, and one that preserves higher levels of detail that can be accessed via links on each item’s page. The two partnered with Indiana University Press, IU Libraries and Sadlier to create the final website.

We would like to thank the Lilly Library staff for their grace and patience as we pulled objects for hours of shooting, often returning for reshoots of challenging objects.