The event was held Saturday, Sept. 28, at the Snow Camp Outdoor Theater and involved students, faculty and staff scanning and digitizing local historical artifacts.
Elon students, faculty and staff and Alamance community members came together at Snow Camp Outdoor Theater’s historic site to digitize and preserve local history in the county’s first History Harvest on Saturday, Sept. 28.
Students in Assistant Professor of History Amanda Laury Kleintop’s MSP 1500 Intro to Museum Studies and Public History course met community members who brought their historical treasures to be digitized and archived in the Power & Place Collaborative. The event was led by Emily Moser, program assistant and a student in the master of arts in higher education program, and assisted by Elon archivist Kelly Policelli.
The goal was to preserve lesser-known local histories and make them accessible to the public through a digital, community sourced archive. Scanners were set up in Snow Camp’s historic Chatham Meetinghouse to collect images of items brought by community members. Students digitized over 60 items that afternoon, with more yet to scan. Those items shed light on the history of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, Graham’s Burnett’s Chapel Christain Church, Historic Graham High School and the origins of Snow Camp Outdoor Theatre.
The event brought together some of Alamance County’s many historical organizations, including Snow Camp Outdoor Theater, the African American Cultural Arts and History Center, the Alamance Remembrance Coalition and Preservation Burlington. Preservation Burlington board member and former Elon employee Woody Pelton, who helped organize, hopes that this event will jumpstart other local collaborations including future History Harvests across the Alamance County communities. This and future events will help build a network of community members and shed light on a more inclusive account of Alamance County history.
After students organize and archive the digital donations this fall, they’ll be available on the Power & Place Collaborative’s Omeka website.