This site was created by graduate students in the Catholic University School of Library and Information Science, as a final project for the Practical Digital Libraries class (LSC 875) during the Fall 2000 semester. Students in the class were asked to select a collection of materials for digitization, and to present those materials in an organized, informative, and easily navigated Web site. This site was edited and revised with Omeka by Raymond Moore during the Spring of 2013.

The materials included in this site are part of the Terence V. Powderly Collection, which is housed at the Department of Archives, Manuscripts, and Museum Collections at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Many thanks to Timothy J. Meagher, University Archivist and Museum Director, Eric Fair, Archives Assistant/GLP, W. John Shepherd, Assistant Archivist, Mary Beth Fraser, Archives Assistant of the Collection, who generously donated their time and expertise to this project. The Department's web page includes contact information for those seeking further information regarding the collection.

The collection, which is quite large, was examined to select materials dealing only with Ellis Island between 1897 and 1901. After items from the collection were selected, they were scanned using a Hewlett Packard flat bed scanner, at 72 dpi for web display. All photographs were marked with captions, either written by Powderly himself, or created based on knowledge gathered from the collection. All correspondence and documents were transcribed and formatted into text versions to reflect the original documents.

The items were arranged within the site in chronological order. Correspondence and other documents can be selected from an index of clickable thumbnails images with accompanying abstracts. Photos are displayed on the front page of the site in a slide show format and also on their own index page with clickable thumbnail images. Along with pages describing the photographs and other documents within the collection, Web pages were created to provide more information about Terence Powderly, the collection itself, and resources for further research.

Site navigation was designed with simplicity in mind, allowing all levels of Web users to easily access the content within the site. It also permits cross-platform compatibility. The simplicity of the site's design and html coding will also make the addition of new materials easier for the Archives staff as they expand their digitization efforts.