Articles

On Saturday, January 18, 2014, Concho Valley residents participated in the San Angelo History Harvest at the Stephens Central Library.

More than fifty community members brought old family photos, letters, journals, film and video, and other documents to be digitized onsite. Eight scanning stations were set up around the community room, staffed by sponsoring organizations and volunteers from Goodfellow Air Force Base who digitized hundreds of unique items along with collecting detailed documentation for each.

The collection owners were able to take their original materials home, along with free digital copies. The sponsoring organizations created and retained a digital copy in accordance with the owner's approval.

The objective of the History Harvest is to create a community collection from the area's families documenting local, regional, and national history to be held at the West Texas Collection (WTC) at Angelo State University and made available for research, teaching, and educational exhibitions. Most of the digitized images will be available on a community heritage website created by the West Texas Collection. The collection will continue to grow as sponsoring organizations host additional History Harvests within the Concho Valley.

The Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) also participated in the History Harvest collecting Texas-based film and video for free digitization as part of their Texas Film Round-Up program. These materials are digitized in Austin and returned by mail to the owners, along with a digital copy. Over a two week period in San Angelo, TAMI collected a total of 1,294 films and videos.

Sponsoring local organizations include the Tom Green County Library, the West Texas Collection at Angelo State University, the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, Fort Concho National Historic Landmark, the San Angelo Genealogical and Historical Society, the San Angelo Standard Times and Region 15 Education Service Center.

View photos from the event, as well as some of the photographs and documents brought in by community members, in the slideshow below.

Flyer from the January 18, 2014, History Harvest in San Angelo.
Shannon Sturm (second from right), archivist and assistant head of special collections for the West Texas Collection, answers questions about the digitization process.