The Port Coquitlam Heritage and Cultural Society has long sought a venue to display its collection of historical artifacts, photographs and documents.
But while the organization waits for a physical building to show off its exhibits, work is currently being done on a digital museum, which will serve the public in the meantime.
For the last six months a group of dedicated volunteers has been using some of the most up-to-date imaging technology to scan some of PoCo's oldest materials. The society hopes that the collection, dug out of the city's archives, will eventually be displayed on a website for historical researchers and curiosity seekers to examine.
"We are not going to wait until we have scanned everything," said society director Brian Hubbard, who along with a volunteer has overseen the initiative. "I would hope to do it within the year."
For that goal to be met Hubbard and the society, there's a considerable amount of work to do. The archives contain thousands of documents and photographs and with one volunteer working four hours a week, he said 200 scans has taken about six months.
Slowing things down further is the new information that crops up as the society goes through the materials.
For example, one image featuring uniformed soldiers from the First World War had writing on the back saying the regiment was photographed in Port Coquitlam. A closer look at the scanned image showed previously unseen writing on the front of the photo that said otherwise.
"It turns out it was a different regiment and a different place," Hubbard said. "That stuff does come up. Once you have done the high quality scan you can zoom in and see stuff that you can't see."
Larger items, like record books and land registry documents, can't fit on the society's scanner. In those cases a high-quality photograph is taken of the exhibit, which is then uploaded on to a computer. Larger artifacts are also being photographed for the online archive.
The society has had some help from the city with its initiative. A $2,500 grant is being used for the purchase of photography equipment and an earlier grant helped purchase the scanner.
An online museum is important for the community, Hubbard said, because it will give people an opportunity to see exhibits that are not normally put on display. It is also hoped that if more people get a chance to view the material they will be able to help identify some of the faces in the photographs and maybe shed some light on their stories.
But perhaps most importantly, Hubbard said, converting the exhibits into computer files will help preserve the original copies.
"Some of it is in rough condition," he said. "Once we have done all this stuff we won't have to handle it anymore."
The Port Coquitlam Heritage and Cultural Society is looking for new volunteers to help with its archive scanning initiative. Those who are interested in helping the organization can call 604-927-7611 or email [email protected]. For more information go to www.pocoheritage.org.
