Admit it:  does your household include a drawer or a shelf full of photos you’ve been meaning to put into a photograph album for months or even years?  Or there’s that box in the corner of the attic or basement full of nineteenth and early twentieth century letters and newspaper clippings and valentines you inherited from Great-Aunt Sarah.  In another corner, your family’s collection of slides or home movies waits for the opportunity to be shown, but you wonder if  the movies would disintegrate after being stored for so long  -- or the movie projector is broken.  Perhaps you want to create digital albums from your old family album for your children, but how do you pick from the wide array of available technologies?  How do you begin to organize your family collections and where can help be found?

 

This is a great time of year to get started.  Join Mary Caldera, Archivist at Yale University Manuscripts and Archives Division, Kristin Eshelman, Curator of Multimedia Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut Libraries and Molly Wheeler, Archivist at Yale University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library as they bring the New England Archivist’s Archives on the Road program to Windsor Historical Society on Saturday, February 9th from 2-4 p.m. These experts will cover everything you need to know about safely handling, identifying, preserving, and storing family photographs, albums, documents, and home movies old and new. 

 

You will learn that attics and basements are not the best places for storing artifacts and photographs because of temperature changes.  You will learn that the sticky-back photograph albums commonly sold will leave residue on your photos, and that many plastic sleeves break down, causing photographs to fade over the years.  You will learn that newspaper articles printed on acidic paper (the reason why newspapers quickly turn brown and brittle) can cause damage to adjoining documents and photographs as that acid migrates into less acidic papers.  And there’s much more to know.  Mary Caldera, Kristin Eshelman, and Molly Wheeler will bring examples of effective and less-effective archival storage products and show examples of deterioration that can occur.  Ample handouts will be provided.  Workshop participants are invited to bring a family treasure to the workshop.   There will be an opportunity after the formal part of the presentation for individual consultations with one of the three experts.   Windsor Historical Society’s newest exhibition Camera Crazy:  Photographers of Windsor 1885-1930 will be open for viewing before the program. 

 

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how to preserve your family artifacts for future generations to enjoy. Cost for the program is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and students, and $4 for WHS members.  Parking is available around Palisado Green and in the First Church and Windsor Discovery Center Parking lots.

 

These events are part of an exciting year-long round of programs planned by Windsor Historical Society, the Town of Windsor, and the Windsor Chamber of Commerce.  For more information about these programs, please visit www.windsorhistoricalsociety.org or www.Windsor375.com.  Many generous sponsors and supporters have helped to make Windsor Historical Society’s events possible including:  

 

Presenting Sponsors: Anonymous Donor; Connecticut Humanities Council; Hartford Foundation for Public Giving; Anonymous Donor

Adventurer Sponsors:  Dan J. and Alice Ford Ferraina; Travelers Connecticut Foundation; Windsor Federal Savings;      

Discoverer Sponsors: Middle Oak Specialty Insurance; Alstom Power

Founder Sponsors:  Anonymous Donor; Dill, Joyce & Thresher Insurance; ING; Jim and Kathi Martin; Rabbett Insurance Agency, Savings Bank Life Insurance;

Settler Sponsors: Alford Associates, Inc.; Bill Selig Family Foundation; Carmon Funeral Homes; Elizabeth Feser;  Griffin Land and Nurseries, Inc.; HD2 Development; Price Chopper; Rotary Club of Windsor; Stop and Shop Supermarkets; Webster Bank.