Lindsay Post archives digitized for online museum exhibit
The irony isn’t lost on HarLeigh Arsenault and Jenna Locke, who have spent the past year digitizing thousands of pages of the Lindsay Daily Post for a new online exhibit.
“Newspapers were the only form of learning what the community was like before the introduction of social media that has also, unfortunately, kind of taken away its identity,” said Locke, digital program lead for the Kawartha Lakes Museum & Archives’ new virtual exhibit, “Our History Through the Lindsay Post.”
“Just looking at the ads … shows the difference of what people deemed important then compared to today.”
The museum is hosting a sneak peek event Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m. The free presentation includes refreshments, a walk-through photo exhibit featuring significant cultural moments of Kawartha Lakes from the 1960s, a live demonstration of online newspapers and a temporary display of artifacts and records from Lindsay’s journalistic past.
The exhibit also spotlights the work of photographer and former Post editor Alan Roy Capon via more than 3,000 negatives from his tenure.
Museum archivist Zac Miller explained the exhibit was inspired via community outreach that included a request for “more boomer content.”
In the process of accessing printed history, it was discovered the Kawartha Lakes Public Library was the only repository, most of it on microfiche.
When a grant opportunity presented itself, the museum decided the timing was right to create a more sustainable collection.
Locke and Arsenault spent hundreds of hours scanning dozens of bound volumes of editions printed between 1916 and 1974.
Using a planetary scanner helped expedite the process. An entire month could be captured in about 20 minutes.
More than 1,100 months of printed information was turned into PDF files while negatives were processed into polypropoline folders.
While the exhibit is designed to educate, enlighten and entertain viewers, it also helped Locke and Arsenault gain greater insight into the community’s culture and history.
“I’m originally from Oshawa and I really didn’t know much about Lindsay before I started (the project),” said Locke.
“I’ve learned so much about the community through the newspaper.”
Arsenault, who hails from Pontypool, agrees with Locke, noting the project provided her with a “visual account of history.”
“I’ve also learned more about the various modes of communication that are obsolete today,” continued Arsenault.
For more details on the exhibit, visit klmuseumarchives.ca/ lindsay-post.