Des Plaines History Center receives grant to scan photos
In October 2016, the Des Plaines History Center received a call that the Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board awarded a grant to the museum for the digitization of photographs.
Special projects such as this often require financial support from one-time grants or donations.
Des Plaines resident Jennie Black received a contract to perform the work. Over the past seven months, she has scanned about 12,000 photographs. This represents the vast majority of pictures held in the archives.
Scans are made within the standards of museum best practices. High resolution captures fine details in the photos and allows viewers to blow the photos up much larger than the original. Files are saved in a format that does not degrade, providing for the longevity of the digital copies.
Scanned images are stored in the History Center's "Digital Repository" along with any other historic material digitized by the museum or given in digital form.
This means that the History Center is also able to accept donations of images and documents that donors scan themselves or create digitally. Donors now have flexibility in how to give material to the museum.
The History Center will be able to provide copies of the files for researchers via email or cloud technology. It can also easily reproduce photos from the collection for display in environments that would degrade the original print photographs.
Ultimately, this is the best scenario for the long-term preservation of the originals and making the images available to a broader audience.
Researchers expect to be able to access material digitally. This project makes thousands of photos easily accessible to the staff and volunteers at the museum and to visiting researchers. The original photo prints are stored in boxes in the History Center archives and cataloged in a computer database.
Before this scanning project, it would take staff anywhere from several minutes to several hours to locate any particular photo or a set of photos of a subject.
Physically pulling boxes off shelves and spreading out binders, each containing hundreds of pictures, consumes valuable time. With a digital version of each photo, this process is reduced to seconds or minutes.
The museum has also posted a collection on desplainesmemory.org called "History Center Cross Section." Des Plaines Memory is a collaboration between the History Center and the Des Plaines Public Library and acts as a digital outlet for historical collections. Community members can also easily upload their own photos that document Des Plaines.
Curator Philip Mohr posted photos to the Cross Section that represent strengths of the archival holdings at the museum. For example, there are two pictures online featuring now-antique automobiles. This indicates to online researchers that we have many more images of cars and trucks in the holdings.
The museum and library will continue to upload both historic and recent images in the years to come.
Now that the grant project is complete, volunteers will continue scanning photographic and archival material.
For information on the Digital Repository, performing research, or giving to the Des Plaines History Center, call (847) 391-5399 or email contact@desplaineshistory.org.