Migrating Fitz digital legacy

Upon joining the Fitzwilliam Museum, I realised how much digital legacy I had inherited as head of department. Over 100 websites of various complexity, built on various out of date systems such as Drupal 7, old PHP code, static HTML pages, and all came with their own quirks and issues. Many had substantial amounts of content, were often broken with links that had rotted over time, had missing includes or had not been migrated properly. A ticking preservation time bomb.

What did I do?

To deal with this legacy, I decided to take a step-by-step approach and migrate what could easily be salvaged and to ignore the Flash based websites - rich though they might be! My plan was to:

• Incorporate structured pages into the main Fitzwilliam website Directus CMS
• Build stand alone Jekyll sites for rich content pages (template available within Fitz GitHub)
  • Submit sites to the Internet Archive
  • Submit code to Zenodo and issue a DOI when relevant
  • Create a data.json file and then index this so that content appeared in our SOLR 8.11 index and make the pages findable
• Fix all missing content and broken links (often by leaching content from the Wayback machine)

This took masses of time to achieve, and by the time I left, I hadn't even got to half way. The table below shows the progress I made, links to the new URL, GitHub repos and type of resource

Resource	Status	Archive location	New URL	Site type	Redirects in place	Type
Pharos	Migrated	Git repo TBC	https://fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/objects-and-artworks/highlights	CMS incorporated	Yes - 301 redirect	object focused
Yoshitoshi prints	Migrated	Github	https://yoshitoshi.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	exhibition
La grande guerre	Migrated	Github	https://la-grande-guerre.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	exhibition
VANI - Gold of the black sea	Migrated	Github	https://golden-fleece.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	exhibition
Illuminated	No change	Qi content management - renewal of support contract in progress August 2022	https://fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/illuminated	Qi	Yes - proxy	exhibition/research
Book of the Dead	Migrated	Github	https://book-of-the-dead.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	exhibition
Death on the Nile	Migrated	Github	https://egyptiancoffins.org/death-on-the-nile	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	exhibition
Bean Archive	Migrated - no changes yet	Github	https://fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/beanarchive	HTML SOUP	Yes - 301 redirect	research
Buttery Coin Catalogues	Migrated	Github	https://numismatic-catalogues.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	research
Netsuke	Migrated	Github	https://netsuke.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	exhibition
Snow Country	Migrated	Github	https://snowcountry.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	exhibition
Night of Longing	Migrated	Github	https://nightoflonging.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	exhibition
Colour Illuminated	Migrated	Github	https://colour-illuminated.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	exhibition
Shahnameh	Migrated	Github	https://shahnameh.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	exhibition
The Human Touch	Custom build - no migration	Github	https://human-touch.fitz.ms	Gatsby	-	exhibition
Being an Islander	No migration needed	Github	https://islander.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk	Jekyll	-	exhibition/research
Extreme Unction / Painting in focus	Migrated	Github	https://extreme-unction.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	exhibition
Linked Islands	New build	Github	https://data-islands.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/	Jekyll	-	research
Gold of the Great Steppe	New build	Github	https://steppe-gold.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/	Jekyll	NA	exhibition/research
Golden Fleece	Migrated	Github	https://golden-fleece.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	exhibition
I Turned it into a Palace: Sir Sydney Cockerell and the Fitzwilliam Museum	Migrated	Github	https://cockerel.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	exhibition
Miniare	Migrated	Github	https://miniare.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	research
Egyptology Resources - Helen Strudwick	Migrated to new server	With the Strudwicks	https://fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/er/	HTML Soup	Proxy forward to server https://egypt.fitz.ms	personal
TT99 - Helen Strudwick	Migrated to new server	With the Strudwicks	https://fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/tt99/	HTML Soup	Proxy forward to server https://tt99.fitz.ms	personal
French Impressionists	Migrated	Github	https://french-impressionists.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	Gallery/ research
Kunisada and Kabuki	Migrated	Github	https://kunisada-and-kabuki.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	Gallery/ research
Weaving Stories/ Sheldon Tapestries	Migrated	Github	https://weaving-stories.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	Gallery/ research
Whistler: Palaces in the Night	Migrated	Github	https://whistler.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	Gallery/ research
Auerbach	Migrated	Github	https://Auerbach.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	Exhibition
Clark - libraries	Migrated	Github	https://clark.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	Research
Treasure Possessions	Migrated	Github	https://treasured-possessions.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	Research
Madonnas and Miracles	Migrated	Github	https://madonnas-and-miracles.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	Research
Afro combs	Migrated	Github	https://afrocombs.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	Research
Things of beauty growing	Migrated	Github	https://thingsofbeautygrowing.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk	Jekyll	Yes - 301 redirect	Exhibition
Unlocking Portrait Miniatures	New build - Gatsby, IIIF, Directus 9	Github	https://unlocking-miniatures.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk	Managed by Olamalu, internal contact Christine Kimbriel Research Project	-	Research
Walking the Landscape: Constable	New build - Jekyll	Github	https://walking-the-landscape.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/	Jekyll Managed by Cambridge Digital Humanities and Elenor Ling	-	Research Project
A museum of Relationships - Hayley	New build	Github	https://amor.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/	Laravel 9, SOLR 8.11, Webpack, Tachyons	-	Research project