The collection
A multi-generational family art collection — paintings, works on paper, sculpture, and objects accumulated over decades and spread across storage and family homes. The family wanted a single, authoritative record of what they owned, what it looked like, and the stories attached to it, in a form every relative could access.
The challenge
Existing records lived in a master spreadsheet built up over years; the physical collection and the paperwork didn't always agree. Photographs existed in scattered batches with inconsistent naming. Before anything could be published, every image had to be matched to its catalog record, and every record verified against the collection itself.
What we did
Systematic imaging. Each work was photographed from multiple angles under a consistent naming convention — so “1A” and “1B” are always two views of the same piece, never two different objects. Frames, versos, signatures, and details were captured where they carried information.
Catalog reconciliation. We worked through the collection alphabetically, matching batch photography to the master catalog entry by entry — flagging duplicates, orphaned images, and works that had never been recorded. The result: a clean, verified inventory where every object has both a record and a picture.
Oral history integration. Objects carry stories, and stories die with people unless someone records them. The archive pairs works with family audio recordings — including the “See Mountain Man” feature, where a visitor can press play beside the painting and hear its history told in a family member's own voice.
A catalog tells you what a painting is. A voice tells you why it mattered.
Private publication. The finished archive was built as a fast, image-optimized static website and deployed with password protection, so the collection stays private to the family while being reachable from any device, anywhere. The family retains the full underlying archive — images, catalog, and audio — independent of the website.
The result
A living family archive: hundreds of works, browsable and searchable, with the voices that knew them best. New works and new recordings can be added as the collection grows.