Accomplishments
"Preserving South Dakota in Pictures"
The project started in 2007 with the purchase of equipment and hiring two staff to undertake the project. This was initially possible due to the contributions to the Heritage Fund from the Deadwood Historic Preservation Fund, the Black Hills Corporation, and Stan Adelstein to fund the "Black Hills Collection."
The South Dakota State Historical Society has collected photographs since its founding in 1891. These visual images form an essential part of the documentation used by researchers to supplement written records when working on family histories, articles, books, and video documentaries. The state archives maintains collections received by the Society from private donors and state and local governments. The State Archives is the home to an estimated 100,000 images in a variety of formats including negatives, slides, prints, and glass plate negatives.
The project was started in order to make the photographic collections accessible to a wider audience; create catalog records of the individual photos; make digital images available online; contribute to national efforts for digital projects; compliment and fill a gap in our digitized online material; decrease the handling of the originals; and incur additional photo donations to the archives.
In December 2008 the Black Hills collection was completed and 7,000 images are available online at the Heritage West website. Researchers are now able to view these images from the comfort of their homes. This project promotes part of the archives mission which is to make collections accessible. Unfortunately, additional funds are needed in order to proceed with the project and make more images accessible in this way.
