Preservation and Projection: The Long-term Goal of Digitization

“Preservation and Projection: The Long-term Goal of Digitization”
By Rohma Khan, Allaire Village, Inc. Intern

When I was first introduced to Allaire Village’s special collections room, I was surprised to discover that the room contained abundant primary source documents that dated back to the early 19th century. Unfortunately many of these documents, handwritten by J.P. Allaire and Hal Allaire, were beginning to decay and disintegrate. Fortunately, Katherine Muller had a proper remedy: in order to preserve the historical legacy of Allaire Village, we would begin a digitization process that would allow us to sustain the priceless and irreplaceable documents.

The digitization process itself involves carefully scanning the original documents from their archival boxes onto a computer’s hard drive. This task serves several purposes: once the documents are uploaded, it is significantly easier to organize the files according to chronology and relevance, without the fear of destroying the original copies. Similarly, this will allow future cataloging as a means of organizing the archives in the special collections room. While the process itself may appear to the time-consuming, the eventual end product is worth this collaborative effort; interns will be contributing to the formation of a potential public-accessible online research database that will serve as an academic extension of Allaire Village’s history.

I am currently in the midst of digitizing an extensive array of historical papers. I have come across documents such as land indentures/deeds, newspaper clippings, various correspondences, obituaries, building and village descriptions, steamboat reviews, and even local elections results. While each discovery was unique and memorable, I was rather intrigued by the currency issued by the Allaire Water Supply and Land Company in 1896 (some of them represented $15 each, a substantial amount for that time period)! This finding actually reflected the historical context of the late 1890’s: the economy was failing, thus, Hal Allaire had to issue his own currency in order to supply and support the industry during the recession.

I am also particularly fond of a beautiful piece that we uncovered: a drawing of Allaire Village’s charcoal house sketched by Hal Allaire in 1881. It is a rather intricate and detailed sketch, which clearly reveals Hal Allaire’s multi-talented nature. Thanks to the digitization project, another contributor was able to effectively digitally repair the drawing, which had been naturally severed in half.

It fills me with a certain sense of security, realizing that the papers that are crumbling in our hands will at least be preserved in another format. It is a sentiment of reassurance that emerges upon the awareness that history will not be lost in our time.

Hal Allaire’s sketch from 1881 in two pieces before digital repair.

Hal Allaire’s sketch from 1881 in one piece after digital repair.

Rohma is one of Allaire Village’s dedicated interns. This article first appeared in Allaire Village’s quarterly newsletter, The Village Star (2014, issue no. 2). In addition to her digitization work, Rohma is also compiling extensive research on Allaire’s ties to the historic baseball team, The Brooklyn Bridegrooms (who would eventually go on to become the Brooklyn Dodgers). To find out more about her baseball research, visit our facebook page and be sure to come out for our “Bog Iron Boys Pitching the Past” 19th Century Baseball Reenactment on May 17th!