Microscope slide digitization project - call for participants
The Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics and
the Faculty of History and at Oxford University are engaged in a Wellcome
Trust-funded project to digitize, and make available online, the microscope
slide collections of historically important scientists – see below for further
information. We have begun with Charles Sherrington and Wilfred Le Gros Clark,
but have also included contributions from Angelo Ruffini, Gustav Fritsch and
others. This is part of a wider history of medical sciences initiative that
includes 3D photography, a seminar series and art/science outreach - see the
temporary site at https://history.medsci.ox.ac.uk/
There is also funding available to scan in and host pilot
collections (20 or so slides) from other institutions that hold historically
important slides. I am writing to ask whether any list members are aware of any
such collections that we could investigate for their scanning potential, or if
anyone has any suggestions of those we might contact regarding slide
collections? We would of course scan the slides for free, their home
institution and source would be properly acknowledged, and the images of them
could carry the home institution's branding.
Further information on CSlide:
Slides are scanned at 20x or 40x magnification and are
viewable, through virtual microscopy, on any internet browser. Slides can
easily be annotated and embedded in online learning materials and
quizzes/assessments.
It is important to us that the slides can be understood
in as full a scientific/historical context as possible. We will therefore be
hosting them using an online system that will enable users to create and
describe linkages between slides, as well as map their relation to historical
documents, artifacts and figures.
You can see the slides in action on our temporary website
here: https://history.medsci.ox.ac.uk/cslide/slides/view/collection/88?p=5
And see here for a screenshot of how the site will look
on completion: https://history.medsci.ox.ac.uk/cslide-v2/