Exploring Family History Worry-Free

WWII POW belt buckle

POW belt buckle. Image provided by Christopher Parrish and used with permission.  By Team Lead Marcia Spicer While much of the country braced for a pre-Christmas polar vortex and snowstorm, I got to speak with Christopher and Molly Parrish via Teams from our respective homes. The Anderson Archival team has fond memories of digitizing their […]

Reconnecting with Corporate History Through a Functional Archive

electrical workers

What do local historians and corporations around the country have in common? One answer: a passion for historical corporate legacy. St. Louis-based Guarantee Electrical Company has been lighting up communities since its inception in 1902 to power the 1904 World’s Fair. Over a century later, Guarantee continues to impact not only the St. Louis skyline […]

What Should I Digitize? 3 Ways to Decide

How do you choose what to digitize?

If you’ve uncovered a box of records or your organization just inherited a building full of community archives, how do you determine what should be digitized first? What can be deprioritized and why? Prioritizing the materials in your collection is no small challenge, especially for non-profits and institutions that value their history and mission. Trying […]

A Cat’s Mark on History from The Hill

Family wedding

What do you do when tragedy befalls a one-of-a-kind document? Accidents are bound to happen, but it’s devastating when they happen to rare materials. Birth certificates and diplomas can be reissued, but unique, antique, or otherwise precious pieces of history don’t always have a simple—or successful—solution when the worst happens. Kelienne “Kelli” M. Miriani-Ripple was […]

2020: The Time Capsule

Antique Stopwatch

For many different reasons, 2020 was a year to remember. The world handled a global pandemic, upheaval of normal life, and social unrest. How do we preserve the memories of this unique year and the lessons learned for generations to come? Time capsules may seem like childhood fancy or relics of the past, especially when […]

Having Trouble Digitizing Your Collection? Meet Your Solution!

v-cradle capture

What does your historical collection look like? Perhaps you have a box of bound manuscripts you’d like preserved for future generations, or maybe you have a library full of historic publications and loose papers that need organizing before you can even think about what the next steps are. The histories humans choose to save and […]

Digitizing the Oldest Black Newspaper in America—One Photograph at a Time

The Afro American

When John H. Murphy founded The Afro-American newspaper in 1892, his goal was to combine three separate church publications into a single-page newsletter. Murphy was both a former slave and a Civil War veteran, and in the Reconstruction era, The Afro-American served to inform and unite his Maryland community. Little did he know, it would […]

Quotables: Protecting Paper History: 4 Rules for Safeguarding and Preserving Historical Paper Documents (TechPatio)

TechPatio logo

Principal Farica Chang, in TechPatio, shares some tips for keeping family collections safely stored, accessed, and digitized. Click here to read the full article! Do you have a historical document collection that you’d like to make more accessible, relevant, and impactful? Anderson Archival uses proprietary methods to digitize collections so they are easily searchable, ultimately […]

Quotables: 3 Essential Ways to Preserve Your Family’s History (Living Better 50)

Living Better 50

Principal Farica Chang, in Living Better 50, shares some tips for keeping family collections safely stored, accessed, and digitized. Click here to read the full article! Do you have a historical document collection that you’d like to make more accessible, relevant, and impactful? Anderson Archival uses proprietary methods to digitize collections so they are easily […]