Digital Archives

Digital Archives of Annville History

In 2011, Friends of Old Annville initiated a new Digital Archive of Annville History, an internet-accessible archive that now contains more than 30,000 images and documents related to Annville history. The collection began as Paul Fullmer gathered images for his work on the book Images of America: Annville Township with Arcadia Publishing. In the process, he learned about scanning specifications appropriate for historic preservation and suggested scanning images of our collection. Our policy now is to digitally document all donated items–papers, pictures, apparel, and other memorabilia–with the goal of returning the original items to the families as desired. FOOA now oversees the work of volunteers who have been involved in the scanning, uploading, organizing, and managing the vast load of files that we now possess. Michael Schroeder now serves as overall administrator of the archive project.

The Archive, which is organized according to street address (click on picture to the left to see example of 103 W. Main), has become a valuable tool for people doing historical research on their homes or genealogy. We want to share the archives with interested parties, and our policy is to provide a link to persons making reasonable requests for access. Any person wishing to access the Digital Archives should email Michael Schroeder (mjsch313@yahoo.com), explaining the reason for requesting access. Mike will supply the link to be used and will send a brief set of instructions.

Acknowledgements

Though any worthwhile archive requires significant input from a wide spectrum of the community, the contributions of three individuals are notable. Thousands of the images from the early 1900s were gathered in slide format by Dick Streicher; we thank his wife, Betty, for loaning them to the Friends for archiving. In her retirement years from the 1990s through the mid-2000s, Doris Flory developed handwritten notes on nearly every address and name associated with Annville’s history drawn primarily from the U.S. Census and extant editions of The Annville Journal. Ammon Balaster contributed approximate 500 images from the Italian community which settled on the west end of town. The names of others who have contributed significant images and documents may be found within the Archives themselves as part of the primary folder labeled “Collections.” Volunteer assistants who have donated innumerable hours, serving weekly to scan and organize the electronic files, include Ginny Bowman, Sylvia Popejoy, Brenda Huff, Bonnie Parker, and Kevin Fuschetti. How glad we are that they found joy in this technical adventure!