About the Image Collection  

This under-construction archive is a cooperative project of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, the O. J. Noer Research Foundation, and the Michigan State University Libraries. [Current Status of Project]

Not all components are active at this time, nor are all images or data present. Sample searches to demonstrate some of the current contents include:

• 3 gang
• bent tee
• poa triv bent
• Milorg green
• Meyer
• rough flower

We continue to seek financial support to move this work forward.  For more information on what is hoped to be accomplished, please see the Processing Prospectus. [Current Status of Fund-Raising Efforts]

The Noer/Milorganite® Image Collection, widely known as the "Noer slides", includes photographic materials taken from the 1920s through to the 1980s. Most are glass-mounted slides, although there are also some cardboard-mounted slides, negatives, positives, and 8 and 16 mm films. The number of items is estimated at around 27,000, though that total includes a significant number of duplicates and derivatives.

Primarily shot by O.J. Noer, and later Charlie Wilson, Jim Latham, and others, the scope of locations and content from that time period is extraordinary, ranging from turf experimental plots to golf courses and athletic fields throughout North America. Featured are equipment, personalities, maintenance practices, disease and pest control, and, of course, fertilization issues and test plots. Although this was a "use" collection, heavily utilized by Noer and later others in support of Milorganite's Turf Service Bureau presence on the lecture and consulting circuit through the '40s, '50s, and '60s, the condition of much of the material is generally good.

The collection ledgers (maintained until 1974) include several indices, as well as on-slide annotations, that will be priceless as background data to help create a digital archive of much of this material.  The initial offering here will focus on the 14,000 or so slides with ledger data, accessible via the World Wide Web, and interwoven with the Turfgrass Information File (TGIF) database.

See errors in the images or have other feedback? Please report it to the Turfgrass Information Center (include slide #)!

 

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Status of Project

Slides

Numbered Set

• Numeric ledger data entered and proofed
• Geographic ledger data entered and proofed
• Subject ledger data entered and proofed

---Ledger entries without corresponding physical slides will show as "Image" in the "Item is a" column---

• On-slide annotations entered
• "Year" data standardized (99% have assigned, unverified years)
• "Country" data standardized (94% have assigned, unverified countries)
• "State/Province" data standardized (91% have assigned, unverified states/provinces)
• "City" data standardized (77% have assigned, unverified cities. For example, "Bob 'O Link" is listed in "Chicago")
• Mounted slides scanned to produce high-resolution .tif images (13,065)
• Thumbnail .jpg images created (13,065 images)
• Web-grade .jpg images created (13,065 images)

Unnumbered set

Negatives

Positives

Film (Motion Pictures)

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Status of Fundraising Efforts

Please see http://tic.msu.edu/TIC_Annual_Report_2011.pdf#page=23 for an update regarding current fund-raising efforts for this site from the 2011 TIC Annual Report. Our special thanks to the O. J. Noer Research Foundation, the Wisconsin Golf Course Superintendents Association (WGCSA), and the Michigan Turfgrass Foundation (MTF) for their lead efforts.

More information on the fundraising efforts and what is to be accomplished with funds is available from the Processing Prospectus.