Please join Kalyn Loewer, NYG&B’s Digital Collections Manager; Anna Gardner, NYG&B’s Digitize New York Manager; and Fr. John David van Dooren for a look at newly digitized materials from the Church of the Transfiguration collection.
The speakers will discuss the NYG&B’s local partnership with the Church of the Transfiguration that was integral to this Digitize New York preservation effort, share how the materials were digitized, and go in-depth on how to locate and search the digital images on the NYG&B’s Online Collections Catalog.
To read more about this project: The Church of the Transfiguration Collection: A Standard for Digitizing New York Records
About the Speakers
Fr. John David van Dooren is a native of North Carolina, and graduated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (1982) and the Virginia Theological Seminary (1987). After beginning his ordained life as chaplain and track and field coach at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Alexandria, VA, Fr. van Dooren served as curate of All Souls Episcopal Church in Washington, DC. He then served as an assistant priest at St. Martin’s in the Field, Severna Park, MD, before being called back to All Souls as their sixth Rector. After 14 years as Rector, Fr. van Dooren accepted the call to the Church of the Atonement in Chicago, where he served as Rector for eleven and half years. Fr. van Dooren was elected the eighth rector of Transfiguration in early 2017. He has shared the past 38 years of life with Gary Norcross. In 2019, Fr. John David and Gary got their white miniature schnauzer, Luke, who brings so much joy to the Little Church community.
As the Manager of Digital Collections, Kalyn Loewer uses digital preservation and archival techniques to support the NYG&B’s mission to preserve, document, and share family history. She works to digitize documents from all over New York State and makes materials available to researchers via the online collections. She also educates communities about how to access and maximize the NYG&B’s online collections. Kalyn was the recipient of the John C. Gorman '38 Medal for Excellence in History from St. Francis College in 2021.
Anna Gardner supports the statewide growth and operations of the NYG&B’s Digitize New York initiative through project development and community outreach from her base at the Central New York Digitization Center in Syracuse. Prior to joining NYG&B, she was the senior manager of marketing and communications at Henry Street Settlement, where she played a key role in driving grassroots and digital outreach efforts to connect New Yorkers to social service, health care, arts, and history programs. Anna holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film, Photography, and Visual Arts from Ithaca College and is an alumna of its prestigious Park Scholar program.