Pioneers in your Attic is a digital archiving project aimed to help preserve pioneer history through digitizing pioneer artifacts.
The project was launched by the Utah Academic Library Consortium in conjunction with the Mountain West Digital Library in mid-July. The goal of the project is to collect and preserve as much information as possible from documents, photos and maps from the mid 1800s in an online collection.
Anyone is allowed to contribute artifacts, such as letters or diaries, to add to an online collection that will be free to the public.
“Utahns with old family diaries, letters, photographs and other documents from the years 1842 to 1869 can take their documents to their local library or university,” said Kinza Masood, head of digital operations.
According to the project’s website, the project will allow individuals to “preserve the intellectual and historical content of these valuable documents.”
Participants can go to nearby libraries on set dates found on the project website. Upcoming locations are the Whitmore Library, Sept. 17–19, and the Draper Library from Oct. 1–3. Other locations will also have scanning available at different times between now and the end of October.
Masood said the project hopes to preserve every aspect they can about 19th century history in the West, including the Gold Rush, disease, medicine and American Indian depredations. Masood said it would also be a great way to get the views of women and children on these moments.
Those who allow artifacts to be published in the collection will retain full ownership of the artifact while allowing it to be preserved digitally. These items are usually fragile and typically belong to relatives of the original owners. Preserving them online allows the artifacts to stay in the family’s possession while still enabling them to be published for everyone to have access to.
“This is a great way to preserve history, share documents with historians, researchers and the general public,” Masood said.
Masood also said this project is a great way for people to learn about digital preservation as well.
The Marriott library is not the only university library in the state participating in the project. Brigham Young University, Utah State University, Utah Valley University, Snow College, Southern Utah University and Weber State University also have participated. University of Nevada, Reno and University of Nevada, Las Vegas have also joined in helping make the project more extensive and diverse. Public libraries across Utah have either held or plan on holding dates where people can come scan their documents.
In addition to any photographs and other documents, participants are encouraged to bring any type of background information they might have on the item and full names of those from the items.