Preserving the past, a volunteer effort

Benson knows more than any regular person ought to know about digital image capture, compression, processing and storage.

It’s helpful because he and fellow volunteers Walter Hlewka, Ken Guedo and others are usually busy scanning images, documents, maps and other historical items that have accumulated in the museums, photo albums, bookshelves, garages and attics of the residents of Prince Albert.

Last year alone, they added more than 1,000 items to a database that already contains 12,000 images, 13,000 documents and some 300,000 negatives.

Much was originally archived by the late Bill Smiley, considered at the time to be the most knowledgeable person on the history of Prince Albert.

While he put a lot of work in—as much as 30 hours a week for 30 years—he didn’t care for computers.

For Benson and the other volunteers, it means a lot of re-finding and reorganizing to create a computer database mostly from scratch.

“If you don’t know what an item is or where its history is or what its prominence is, what’s the point,” Benson said.

It may be a lot of work, but it’s a labour of love and, in many ways, a duty.

Benson said there’s a lot you can get from official records—meeting minutes, church registers, old phone directories—but the things people have brought in over the years tell the city’s true story.

“There’s an awful lot of information about the history of Prince Albert that are in the heads of people that we don’t have any documentation on,” he said.

“People’s version of history is not always the same as the documented one you get from the dry old paperwork you get from the city administration.”

They’ve found some jewels over the years.

Volume 1, issue 48 of the city’s first newspaper, from September 26, 1883 sits in dark basement room, between acid-free papers. Benson said a resident claims to have the first issue, but won’t give it up for free – the archives can’t pay for things.

There are also copies of original settlers’ maps that show the government divvying-up the land in the old seigneurial system of long strips of land, each with a small portion of river front.

There’s also lots of interesting photos they’ve been posting online.

If it wasn’t for the work of the Prince Albert Historical Society, who owns the archives, and the volunteers that make it happen, it would be a loss for everyone in the city.

“The City of Prince Albert so far has not developed and maintained any archives so the historical society archives is the best they’ve got,” Benson said.

“Without that information, I think P.A. would be poorer if all we knew about was the last two weeks or the last year.”

Not only does the archives serve as the unofficial record of community, it also serves as a vital link to many people.

Benson said most of people who come through the archives are looking for their roots.

They come from all over Canada and indeed the world, asking about surnames and hoping for a connection that would be otherwise unavailable.

“For anybody that’s looking for their beginnings, their genealogical data—and frequently the churches don’t have it—is not available and so you’re stuck,” he said.

“It actually gives us a fair amount of joy because somebody will come in and think it’s a long shot and ask ‘have you got anything about a such-and-such’ and we’ll show them photographs and documents.”

That only comes after many hours of work, but it’s tough without enough volunteers.

adesouza@panow.com

by Andrew de Souza

Preserving the past, a volunteer effort

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