Help unlock Washington’s Past: Memory Lab hosts Photo ID Gathering

The Memory Lab at the Washington Public Library Make-It Space will host a casual gathering to help identify people, places and events in photos scanned from old Washington Evening Journal film. The session is the first of many planned to help add details to unpublished photos from the collection now being archived. Mark Keedy, a former Evening Journal intern photographer and writer, heads up a project to preserve images from 1957 to 2004, and will lead the “Who Is It?” session on a big screen in the Make IT Place in the lower level of the Library on Wednesday, Oct. 29, from 2-3:30 p.m. “We’ve scanned and identified thousands of images so far,” says Keedy. “But we’ve also found interesting photos that were never published, and some published photos that include people who were not identified in the original captions.” The captions, he says, are gleaned from the Journal Archive found on the web at seiowa.advantage-preservation.com. “The site has been tremendously useful, but we’d like to fill in some of the blanks,” he added, “and we’ve already found that community input is a valuable resource.” Librarian LeAnn Kunz will help facilitate the session, and says the format is expected to be casual and fun. “We’ve seen photos that no one except the original photographers ever saw,” she said, “and learning more about them is delightful.” She said that participants will see some of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into the project. The discussion may include ideas on how volunteers can contribute to the project. No preregistration is needed, but seating may be limited to about 30 people. Kunz also notes that most of the equipment being used for the Evening Journal project is available to adult library patrons with a brief introduction to the process. The Memory Lab is used for creating digital files of photos, film negatives and slides, and also has equipment available for transferring home movies and videos to computer files. In addition, there are specialized devices for scanning books and audio tapes. Tours of the Memory Lab and other resources of the Make-It Space are available on request.