Local History Project Grant Awarded

I’m pleased to report that our library has been awarded a $5,000 Historical & Archival Records Care (HARC) Grant. With these funds, we will add three additional collections to PA Power Library’s online PA Photos and Documents archive.

1. Pennsylvania Maple Festival Memories (photo collection) – With permission from the Pennsylvania Maple Festival Board of Directors, the library recently digitized nearly 400 photographs of the Pennsylvania Maple Festival from the 1960s through the 1980s. Additionally, there are 35mm slides of past festival activities both the festival board and library still wish to digitize.

2. 1998 Southern Somerset County Tornadoes (oral history collection) – In 1998, when tornadoes swept through Southern Somerset County, the Springs Historical Society recorded oral histories with six families who resided in or near the paths of the tornadoes. Partnering with the historical society, the library has digitized these recordings. Now, coming up on the 25th anniversary of these events, the library would like to invite others to tell their stories and add these oral histories to the PA POWER Library.

3. Meyersdale Public Library History (35mm slide collection) – The history of Meyersdale’s library dates back over eight decades, to 1938, when the Meyersdale Women’s Club appointed a committee to plan for the establishment of a community library. This small library opened on May 16th, 1939. A total of 140 slides detail the history of the library, along with the construction and dedication of its current building.

The grant will allow us to make these available online. It will pay for equipment, software, and someone trained to prepare these files for upload. We hope to eventually hold an event to showcase the collections, explain how to access them through PA POWER Library, and allow patrons to tell their own stories relating to the collection topics.

We hope you’ll enjoy these collections!

The Library Lady