The Wisconsin Historical Society will present the Manitowoc County Historical Society with the 2019 Governor’s Archives Award for Archival Achievement. An award presentation will be held on Wednesday, October 2 at the Manitowoc County Historical Society at 2 pm. The public is invited to attend.
There will be a short ceremony followed by light appetizers, a demonstration and tours. Guests will have a chance to see a demonstration of the Cornick photo collection online archives and to see the archive’s office and storage.
In 2015, the Manitowoc County Historical Society received a photo negative collection from former local photographer Daryl Cornick. The collection, stored in 2 file cabinets, contained over 3,000 negatives that were labeled with dates, names, and events. Cornick had a variety of interests and the subjects of these photographs range from nautical photos to pictures of the Green Bay Packers from the 50s and 60s. Museum volunteers then began accessioning the negatives and creating a system for digitizing and entering the data into our PastPerfect Museum Software.
The process of digitizing and entering data took about 2 years. But what would happen next? As a small museum archive with 2 staff and a handful of volunteers, the museum wanted the collection to have reach and access beyond the museum walls. In 2018, the Manitowoc County Historical Society applied for and was accepted into a program partnered by the WiLS (Wisconsin Library Services) and Recollection Wisconsin, called “Curating Community Digital Collections,” also known as CCDC.
CCDC worked with the iSchool at UW-Madison and UW Milwaukee’s School of Information Studies to provide library school students with practical experience in digital stewardship and increase the capacity of small libraries and cultural heritage organizations to curate their digital collections. This initiative is supported by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program, #RE-85-17-0127-17.
As a part of this process, MCHS received valuable training and mentoring in digital stewardship. Staff and volunteers were able to work together with experts in the field to manage, preserve, and provide access to digital content. The Manitowoc County Historical Society archives have been made stronger as a result of this effort.
With proper documentation and written policies in place, the Manitowoc County Historical Society worked to provide access to the collection. With the assistance of an intern from the University of Wisconsin—Green Bay, search terms, locations, and thumbnail images were added to the online platform. The first online collection, the Daryl Cornick negatives, debuted on Christmas Eve, 2018. The online collection continues to expand weekly.
The Wisconsin Historical Records Advisory Board (WHRAB) and the Wisconsin Historical Society award the Governor’s Archives Award to individuals, programs, or organizations that have made significant contributions to preserving or increasing the availability of original historical documents in any format.
