Using This Site

The Database of Ornament organizes its materials according to the following hierarchy—
Collection / Item / File.

A Collection is formed at the level of the magazine title and/or volume. For example:

   The Evergreen: A Northern Seasonal (4 volumes)

An Item is the title of a work within a Collection. For example:

   Evergreen Vol 1 has 25 items
   Evergreen Vol 2 has 19 items
   Evergreen Vol 3 has 22 items
   Evergreen Vol 4 has 26 items

"Impressions of Winter" is an Item, because it is the title of a work (descriptive essay) within the Collection Evergreen, vol. 4 (Winter). It is the organizing ITEM for this work.

A file represents the textual ornaments decorating the item. There are usually two files associated with each item, as follows:

   File 1. Decorated Page:  this gives an image of the page layout, showing the relationship of the textual ornament to the work.
   File 2. Textual ornament (headpiece, tailpiece, initial letter): this gives an image of the textual ornament and provides its metadata.

If the item has more than one textual ornament, it will have more files.

For example, the item "Impressions of Winter" has four files associated with it:

   A page layout image for the first page of "Impressions of Winter," showing the relation of the headpiece to the text.
   A headpiece by Nellie Baxter
   A page layout image for the last page of "Impressions of Winter," showing the relation of the tailpiece to the text.
   A tailpiece by Nellie Baxter.

Users can browse Collections and search Items or Files by keyword.