GRANITE FALLS – Known for its displays of old technology, the Granite Falls Historical Museum is using new technology to build a wider audience.
Museum volunteers have put about 5,000 historic photos – its entire collection – online.
The award-winning project is one of many the organization is touting as it prepares for its annual open house Sunday.
The museum has accumulated photos and other historic items since it opened in 1971. But there’s a difference between collecting and a collection, museum spokesman Fred Cruger said.
“Now, we’re trying to make it accessible,” he said.
About 3,000 people visit the museum each year; thousands more will now be able to see the collection online.
The museum is working to modernize and expand, transforming itself from a repository into a functional archive of the region’s history.
Officials have built a database of old photos and maps. Later this year, they hope to break ground on a new 3,000-square-foot building.
A garage will be torn down to make way for the larger building.
Cruger said the organization has raised almost half the $260,000 it needs to move forward with construction. Most of the money has come from individual donations, he said.
The new building would allow the museum to display more of its collection, such as a 1904 Oldsmobile; a wooden, hand-cranked washing machine; and a horse-drawn potato digger, Cruger said.
He said the new building also would feature interactive kiosks for visitors to explore the museum’s photo collection.
Working with volunteers from Granite Falls High School and Everett Community College, the photos were scanned into a sophisticated database.
People can search the collection at the museum or on its Web site by using key words such as family names, locations or other information.
“Pictures make history real to people,” Cruger said.
The museum also used technology to overlay old maps of the area over current satellite photos. Using these people can see how the area grew and evolved over the past 100 years or so, Cruger said.
Museum officials have linked many of the photos with the maps, allowing people to see images associated with exact locations, such as downtown Granite Falls or Monte Cristo, the once vibrant mining town.
“What they accomplished in putting all of their collection information into a database system was quite something for a smaller, local heritage, all volunteer organization,” Washington Museum Association spokeswoman Lisa Hill-Festa said.
The statewide organization recognized Granite Falls’ achievements with the 2006 Award of Excellence, given to one small museum in the state each year.
Hill-Festa said there are about 200 such museums in the state. More than a half-dozen of those are in Snohomish County.
The Granite Falls museum also received an award from the League of Snohomish County Heritage Organizations.
Hill-Festa said Granite Falls is the first small museum in the region to use software to make its collection so broadly available.
“It’s a great accomplishment and an impressive accomplishment,” she said. “They’re very dedicated to preserving the heritage of the area.”
Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.
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