The Riley Digitization Center is the proud home of a new Cruse large-format scanner, the first available in a Texas university. Cruse scanners are used world-wide by organizations such as the Library of Congress in D.C., the Vatican’s Secret Archives and NASA / Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, to name a few.

Our Cruse Model CS 285 ST can scan objects up to 59″ x 88″ and several inches deep. It uses a camera mounted on a central column that scans objects passed below on the “sync table,” a platform equipped with a series of vacuums designed to hold large paper-based objects in place during the scanning process. The scanner can also be used to image items such as framed artwork on canvas — a special light setting allows operators to create images that highlight the artwork’s topography.

The Cruse scanner has already been used to digitize a series of Civil War maps created by the U.S. government in the 1890s, as well as a group of architectural renderings of the Armstrong Browning Library. Upcoming projects include the digitization of a large collection of maps housed at the Texas Collection at the Carroll Library and the newly-restored Henry McArdle portrait of Judge R.E.B. Baylor.