George Eastman House taps Clickworker for iconic global crowdsourcing project

Clickworker utilizes its workforce in the cloud to catalog and tag more than 400,000 photos — bringing to life yet-unseen collections from the world’s oldest photography museum.

George Eastman House the world’s oldest photography museum founded in 1947 on the estate of Kodak founder George Eastman, and Clickworker, an innovator in the global crowdsourcing and workforce solutions space, announce the kick-off of a large-scale, iconic crowdsourcing project. The project involves the photo-tagging and cataloging of more than 400,000 images from George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film.

Utilizing Clickworker’s innovative crowdsourcing technology, George Eastman House is able to bring archives into the digital age, making them easily accessible to the public — in many instances, for the very first time. To meet the needs of this expansive project, Clickworker leverages its global crowd of more than 115,000 to efficiently tag and catalog the museum’s vast collection of images from around the world.

“Clickworker is excited to help the renowned George Eastman House archive world art and history in our latest corporate responsibility project,” said Wolfgang Kitza, Clickworker CEO. “It’s not just one country or one cause – but we’re actually helping archive the world. The collection offers the most intimate look at the pioneers of photography and their art. It is truly a perfect partnership to showcase our international and multifaceted services. And as a result, the world will have an accessible visual library.”

George Eastman House holds unparalleled collections of nearly half-a-million photographs from 9,000 photographers. These significant photo archives span from daguerreotypes to digital photographs, including such unique artist collections such as Southworth & Hawes, Lewis Hine, and Edward Steichen.

“Our partnership with Clickworker enables us to make our photographs searchable and ultimately make our collections more accessible to the world,” said Dr. Anthony Bannon, the Ron and Donna Fielding Director at George Eastman House. “Clickworker not only provides professional insight into the subject matter of our images, but also the option of crowdsourcing in several languages, which is ideal for our internationally focused collections.”

Included among the newly-tagged photo collections are original daguerreotypes from 19th century America (Southworth & Hawes); images of Lincoln assassination conspirators (Alexander Gardner); photographs of new immigrants to American soil and construction and labor-themed images, including the evolution of the Empire State Building (Lewis Wickes Hines); and celebrity portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland and Frida Kahlo (Nickolas Muray, a former lover of Kahlo’s).

Press Photos: www.clickworker.com/press-photos/

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