A few months back, I embarked on a modest project to make available
on-line the image and content of a few original documents from my
personal collection harvested over past 40+ years.  This project is
beginning to take on a life of its own as more documents are kindly
shared with me.

Recently, Marv Polan, AMICA Board Rep for the Lady Liberty Chapter
(New York City area), kindly shared with me a reprint of 12 consecutive
issues of the Ampico Monthly Bulletins from August 1928 through to July
1929.  These have been converted to PDF format, and may be downloaded
as menu items from  http://members.shaw.ca/paud122/docs.htm

At the AMICA Convention last month in Chicago, Larry Norman kindly
shared with me his collection of 5 original Welte monthly bulletins
and 14 original Ampico monthly recordings promotions.  In the weeks to
come, I will convert these also.

I'm still on the front end of the learning curve in the use of Adobe
Acrobat 7.  As I get more comfortable with the software and the
process, these files will become a little smaller, and should include
modest search capability.  At this time, what you see is what you would
have received in the mail in the mid-1920s.

It has been suggested that perhaps the content of these documents
may be more important than their image.  If that be true, then that
suggests a more difficult approach of attempting to run OCR against
these documents.  Most are printed in very small type face on buff
paper, providing poor contrast.  If this approach emerges as feasible,
the result will simply be text and lists, with no regard for the image
of the original document.

I'm unsure whether I would be prepared to commit to both approaches
simultaneously, mammoth labor intensive task.  Opinions of others would
be appreciated.

Very special thanks to Jody Kravitz for guidance and for making hard
disk space available on MMD for this project, and to Robbie Rhodes for
his guidance, very much appreciated.  If you like what you see, let
them know your appreciation.

And of course many thanks to Ed Gaida, Marv Polan and Larry Norman for
their loan of these documents I am working with, very much appreciate
their generosity.  Stay tuned.

Regards,
Terry Smythe
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
http://members.shaw.ca/smythe/rebirth.htm