From the desk of Evan Robb

Over the course of three intensive community digitization events last Winter, the San Juan Island Library pulled together an impressive array of materials for its 2008-2009 Washington Rural Heritage grant project. The Library asked its patrons to share historically significant photos, documents, and objects from their private collections, and they responded with zeal. The resulting San Juan Story Collection provides a fascinating look at the early people and places of San Juan Island.

I was present to help out with large-format scanning for the first event back in February, and was impressed by the operation. Community members filed into the Friday Harbor High School library on a Saturday afternoon, items in hand. There, they were greeted by Library staff and volunteers trained to scan materials and record detailed information about each item. In the main room, two flatbed scanners were kept humming all afternoon. In another room, three-dimensional objects and artifacts were photographed in an ad hoc studio. And in a quieter section of the library, a historian from San Juan Island National Historical Park recorded interviews with long-time island residents and natives. Islanders were able to hold on to their family treasures, leave with a digital copy in hand, and know that they had just made an important contribution to the telling of their town’s story.

A few highlights from this diverse collection include: Indian arrowheads found throughout the island; locally produced crafts like this tobacco sack quilt or this casserole dish; individual and group portraits; aerial views from around the Island; San Juan County’s first ambulance airplane; and the Islander, an early steamboat ferry.

View San Juan Island Library’s entire collection at http://www.washingtonruralheritage.org/sanjuan. To see their newest 2008 grant material, click here.