LoginCase Study · Hopkins School
Bringing 366 Years of Hopkins School History Into Reach
How one archivist combined archival stewardship and new technology to process more than 151 linear feet of school history in four weeks, helping create a searchable resource for the Hopkins community.
For generations, Hopkins School has carefully preserved the records of its community. Yet many collections remained unprocessed and unavailable digitally. The next step was to make that history easier to navigate, search, and use.
In partnership with Historiq, Hopkins combined archival processing and digitization with voice-enabled description to bring previously uncataloged materials into discovery. The project connected physical stewardship with a searchable internal website where students, faculty, staff, and alumni can explore the collections in one place.
Archival processing, by the numbers
151+ linear feet processed in four weeks.By one archivist.
Average pace
~38 LF / week
Folder-level archival processing, item-level cataloging, physical rehousing, new labels and barcodes, and complete finding aids.
- Boxes
88.0 LF
58.1%
Folder-level processing with selective item-level description. Every box relabeled and barcoded; folders rehoused where needed.
- Bound materials
40.9 LF
27.0%
Item-level cataloging, with an individual descriptive record for each bound volume.
- Unbound materials
18.2 LF
12.0%
Unbound archival documents incorporated into the processed collections and finding aids.
- Binders
4.4 LF
2.9%
Binder-based records incorporated into the processed collections and resulting finding aids.
From Preserved Collections to Discoverable History
The work paired hands-on care with detailed description. Boxed records received folder-level processing, with selective item-level description. Bound volumes each received their own descriptive record, while unbound documents and binder-based records were incorporated into the processed collections and finding aids.
Those descriptions help researchers identify relevant materials and understand what is available before beginning their research. Labels, barcodes, and rehousing support the physical collections; the internal portal gives the Hopkins community a shared starting point for finding them.
“As a lone Archivist with a largely unprocessed collection, it would have taken me at least a decade to do the processing, organizing and digitizing work that Historiq completed for us in one summer. Our community now has access to the school’s long history at its fingertips through their user-friendly search portal, removing the Archivist as the gatekeeper of the collection.”
Digitization
Page by Page
Alongside the archival processing, the broader project brought Hopkins's yearbooks, newspapers, and scrapbooks online, one page at a time.
34,000+
individual page captures
- Yearbooks
- 119
- Bound volumes of The Razor
- 45
- Scrapbooks
- 68
Every volume was handled non-destructively and imaged at archival resolution, creating a durable digital copy while preserving fragile newsprint and cracking scrapbook pages. Every digitized page was also transcribed and processed with object detection. Searchable text helps students, faculty, staff, and alumni find a class year, team roster, headline from The Razor, or scrapbook caption from wherever they are.
Source: Hopkins School 2026 Archives Project Impact Report, revised edition. Digitization figures reflect the broader project; the four-week result above refers to archival processing.
Stories Ready to Be Found
The project impact report highlights the range of history held in the Hopkins Archives: a document bearing Abraham Lincoln's signature connected to Civil War veteran Stephen Van Rensselaer; photographs taken by a longtime faculty member at the opening of the Carter Presidential Center; and rare photographs of Hopkins sports teams from the late nineteenth century.
Together, these materials connect the school's own history to a wider historical record. Making them discoverable creates new opportunities for students and teachers to work with original documents, photographs, and records.
An Archive Built for Its Community
Access gives this investment its purpose. Teachers can bring primary sources into classes. Students can investigate the people and events that shaped their school. Alumni can reconnect with the teams, classmates, and moments that defined their years at Hopkins.
With a searchable internal portal, that exploration can begin on campus or from home. Hopkins has built on generations of stewardship to make its history a more usable resource for the community today and for the generations that follow.