Tell your story: Explore family, historic photos at Snoqualmie Valley Historical Society talk

Published 9:48 am Monday, October 29, 2012

Every photo tells a story. For Shannon Moller, a graduate student at the University of Washington, who is helping sort the Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum’s burgeoning photo collection, one snapshot in particular seemed like its story needed to be told.

Moller looked into the details  of a museum photo of Irene Scott, a Valley school teacher, church organist and mother who farmed the Valley in the 1940s. Moller found rich historic detail behind that one photo, and will share her journey in a talk, “From the Record: Photos Tell a Story,” at the Historical Museum’s annual meeting, 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 18, at the North Bend Library, 115 E. Fourth St., North Bend.

Moller’s talk explores her efforts in archiving the Snoqualmie Valley Record collection of over 30,000 photographs from the Valley between the late 1970s and early 2000s.

The public is invited to bring a family photo or image of interest to share with guests to tell a personal story. The museum will also display photos from the collection that invite comment.

In 2011, the Record presented the museum with some 19 boxes of  negatives and prints, its film archives from 1970 to 2004.

The museum is working to sort, protect and catalog the images from the Record’s collection, some of which were in good condition, others less so.

Last year, the board met with Nicollete Bromberg, of the University of Washington’s Special Collections Library, who helped them form a plan to process the collection in a cost-effective way.

The society is now seeking additional support for archival materials for the photos, such as negative sleeves, folders, boxes and shelves, to store and stabilize them until further processing.

The museum has worked with partners for many years to assemble and make available a complete collection of newspapers from the Valley. The society obtained bound copies of the Snoqualmie Post and the North Bend Post, predecessor papers to the Valley Record, and worked with the Washington State Archives to photograph those papers. These may be the only extant copies of those newspapers.

The museum has raised and spent thousands of dollars in materials and staff time to preserve these resources, cataloging and making them available to genealogists, governments, citizens doing research and, ironically, newspaper reporters. They’re also used to prepare exhibits and articles for the annual magazine.

• You can learn more about the local museum’s collection at www.snoqualmievalleymuseum.org, or e-mail to info@snoqualmievalleymuseum.org.