Campus Currents

From Print to Pixels

Browse through the hundreds of archive photographs now online or help identify them.

Terrie Dopp Aamodt spent the summer of 1991 searching for old photographs, and while a few came to her from people interested in her project, many of the nearly 200 photographs that now fill the pages of her book Bold Venture: A History of Walla Walla College, were discovered in the E.L. Mabley Archives housed at the Peterson Memorial Library.

Named for Elwood L. Mabley, who retired in 1989 after serving as the head librarian since 1968, the archives document the history of WWC and is one of the most substantial collections of Seventh-day Adventist history in the Northwest.
While the archive has remained mostly inaccessible to the general public for years, librarians are working to preserve the amazing collection of historical photographs before they deteriorate beyond recognition. Heat, adhesive tape, oil from fingerprints, and even storage in plastic sheets can lead to distortion and eventual decomposition.

Mark Copsey, technical services/systems librarian, and Violet Maynard-Reid, reference librarian, have wanted to preserve and exhibit the archive for years. The process is finally under way, but it will take time. Photographs need to be captured in a digital format and cataloged for easy access. The originals need to be placed in protective acid-free sleeves. Many photographs need identification. Other documents and paperwork also need preservation.

Digital archiving involves scanning photographs to preserve the image as a computer file. “One-hundred-year-old photo negatives aren’t going to last forever,” Copsey says.

Archiving also provides a way for people to access the images and in turn help identify the pictures.

In many cases, photographs have little or no documentation at all, and existing documentation is often cryptic. Pencil marks are faded, handwriting isn’t always clear, and sometimes photographs are marked with numbers and letters that may refer to a long-forgotten filing system.

It takes an average of 15 minutes to process one picture—scanning, deciphering any existing documentation, cross-referencing, placing in protective sleeves, and creating new documentation. Staff, students, community members, and other volunteers have already contributed hundreds of hours to the project, and with an estimated 10,000 photographs in the archive, many more hours are necessary.

One obstacle to placing the photographs online was finding inexpensive software that could handle photography storage. Gary Benton, library systems technician, found and modified a program written in a Web-based programming language.

The Information Services Department, in charge of operating campus computer systems and networks, provided invaluable technical support and supplied an old server for storage.

More than 1,000 pictures are now accessible on the Web for viewing and identification. Search options are limited, but all the photographs are sorted into categories and subcategories for easy browsing. An online form allows viewers to submit information.

Many of the photographs are originals from campus publications such as yearbooks, Collegians, and Masks. But other interesting items have also found their way into the archive: college documents, ledger books, recruitment videos, and event programs, among others.

Eventually Copsey hopes to preserve the archive’s films and videos in a high-resolution digital format. Some of these may be made available over the Internet through video-streaming technology. He also plans on the help of history students in documenting and researching the history of the college.

“Pictures from today are just as important to preserve, though people don’t always realize it,” says Aamodt. As more and more publications “go digital,” people are sometimes less careful about saving current photographs for future reference.

Donations of photographs, old and new, are always welcome. Photographs can be sent to the Peterson Memorial Library, Walla Walla College, 204 S. College Avenue, College Place, wa 99324. W

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