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Volunteers needed to create snapshot of Hernando's past for the future

Bay area historians want to digitize old images for perpetuity.

By BETH N. GRAY
Published April 29, 2007

If enough volunteers, armed with digital cameras, can be found, a pictorial history of Hernando County will be preserved for all the world to see.

It's called the Legacy Project.

"The object is to make a digital collection from the photographs that belong to the Hernando Heritage Museum and ultimately be available to anyone on the World Wide Web through the Tampa Bay Library Consortium, " said Roger Landers of the Hernando County Historical Advisory Commission.

"The role of the commission is to facilitate getting the people all together and making it happen."

The project is a joint effort of the local Historical Museum, the Hernando County Library System and the consortium, Landers explained.

"What we'll be doing, " Landers said of the undertaking to be launched in mid May, "is taking what the museum has and ultimately making it available to the world. The second part is to archive and preserve."

There is no cost involved. "The only thing we need is volunteers to sit with us and do cataloging, digitizing and organizing." Landers said. "No experience necessary."

The agreement with the Tampa Bay Library Consortium is that the consortium's Legacy Project will provide whatever assistance is necessary to get the job done. "All we have to do is provide the time, " Landers said.

The original photos will stay with the museum while the digital versions will be preserved in archives off premises.

The photos to be reproduced have not yet been counted. "We're potentially talking of hundreds, " Landers estimated.

They date back to tintypes from the 1850s, black and whites from the 1890s before electricity came to the county, and scenes from the 1940s and 1950s.

In a box that Landers recently leafed through were pictures of old schools, World War II soldiers at a dance in Brooksville, troops of the Brooksville Division of the Florida National Guard, early rock mining and citrus grove workers, newspaper reproduction plates from Centralia, the large timber mill of the early 20th century in the vicinity of what is now Silverthorn, and the courthouse before it was renovated in 1969.

"It's going to be such fun, " Landers said.

The photographing and cataloging will take place at the Russell Street Museum, off South Main Street in Brooksville, during hours when the museum is closed to the public.

Fast Facts:

Want to help?

To volunteer as a photographer or cataloger for the Legacy Project, call John or Carol Tucker at 796-1017.

[Last modified April 28, 2007, 19:03:08]