From the desk of Evan Robb

A collection of historical photographs documenting the community of Prosser, Washington is now available online thanks to a partnership between the Prosser Branch of Mid-Columbia Libraries and the Benton County Museum & Historical Society. Funded by a 2010-2011 Washington Rural Heritage grant from the Washington State Library, the Prosser Heritage Collection documents the early days of this important agricultural center on the Yakima River.

Project partners chose to focus on several thematic sub-collections for this round of digitization: Women in the Valley, Downtown Prosser, Rural Schools, and Dry Land Farming & Homesteading.  Some highlights from the collection include:

• Sheep on summer pasture in the mountains.
• Hans Smith combining on Horse Heaven in 1907.
• Prosser High School boys basketball team.
• Hauling water from the county well, Horse Heaven, 1900.
• Wheat harvest at Anderson Ranch on the Rattlesnake Hills.
• 1902 Prosser High School production of “The Merchant of Venice”.

Prosser Heritage marks the 20th digital collection published by Washington Rural Heritage, an initiative of the Washington State Library providing small and rural libraries with the technical infrastructure to both digitize and serve unique historical collections to a widespread audience. More than 60 cultural institutions throughout the state (including 25 public libraries) have contributed material to the project, which currently includes over 10,000 individually digitized and cataloged resources. These include historic photos, texts, objects & artifacts, and audiovisual materials that were formerly hidden or relatively unknown. A number of participating libraries have also facilitated the digitization of unique materials residing in the private collections of community members–important documents which may have otherwise been lost to time, or remained virtually inaccessible.

Additional collections are slated for publication this fall, and seven libraries are currently working on grant funded digitization projects through summer 2012.  To find out more about participation in Washington Rural Heritage, contact Evan Robb, Project Manager at [email protected], (360) 704-5228 or Ross Fuqua, Digital Projects Librarian at [email protected], (360) 570-5587.