The Delaware Historical Society will be helping people preserve their own historic objects at an event in Wilmington on Saturday.
The Delaware Community Preservation Lab is designed to help people digitize the historic artifacts that may be in their houses. Those artifacts can be a number of things, says Community Digital Preservation Coordinator Karlyn Allenbrand.
“That could be photographs, maps, we've had certificates, really amazing odds and ends from the community,” she says.
But, she adds, those things are also at risk of disappearing if they are not preserved, at least in digital form.
“Many of these items are under threat every day from just really basic household insects, pests - especially around the coastal areas, flooding, humidity,” Allenbrand says.
With that in mind, the Delaware Community Preservation Lab was formed.
“History and the things that come in museums and archives actually really starts at home,” Alenbrand says. “And so we decided to create a program where we could share some of the skills that we do here every day with the community.”
In addition to two-dimensional objects like papers and photographs, the lab uses digital photography to preserve images of larger objects like quilts.
There’s also an educational component that extends beyond the preservation work, says Corinne Freeth, an archivist with the historical society.
“A big part of this project is getting people talking about how do we preserve our objects? Is there a cost effective way of doing that? Is there a way that we can do this at home without having to go to outside services?” Freeth says. “And so we really want to jumpstart those conversations.”
Leigh Rifenburg is the historical society’s Director of Collections and Access. She says that while the historic artifacts we have at home might not seem significant on a larger scale, they all add up to a more complete picture of a community’s history.
“These individual items might not have huge significance to a broad array of people on their own, but when you're able to pair them with other objects in the archive, they really can tell an incredible story,” she says.
And, she adds, it’s an honor to play a role in preserving the stories that make up the state’s history.
“These are personal moments to people,” she says. “They mean something. And to have even a tiny part in that is a wonderful thing for us as well.”
The Delaware Community Preservation Lab will hold an event at the Delaware History Museum on November 7 from 1-4 p.m.
