Articles

On September 16, 2017, East Texas residents participated in the Angelina County History Harvest at the Museum of East Texas in Lufkin.

Community members brought items from their family collections, including historic photographs, letters, and other documents. The objective of the History Harvest is to create a community collection from the area's families documenting local, regional, and national history.

Eight scanning stations were set up around the museum’s main gallery, staffed by sponsoring organizations and volunteers from the community who digitized hundreds of unique items and collected detailed documentation for each. The collection owners were able to take their original materials home, along with free digital copies. The sponsoring organizations created and retained a digital copy in accordance with the owner's approval.

The Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) also participated in the History Harvest, collecting Texas-based film and video for free digitization as part of their Texas Film Round-Up program. These materials are digitized in Austin and returned by mail to the owners, along with a digital copy.

Sponsoring local organizations included the Museum of East Texas, The History Center, Kurth Memorial Library, Angelina College, T. L. L. Temple Memorial Library, Texas Forestry Museum, Angelina County Historical Commission, and Angelina County Genealogical Society.

View photos from the event, as well as some of the photographs and documents brought in by community members, in the slideshow below.

The Angelina County History Harvest was made possible in part by a Common Heritage grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.