Collections News
By Robin Fancy Robin Fancy
As Coila convinces us she is in fact retiring from some of the tasks at the Museum, it has become very important to train additional staff. After being a volunteer in the archives for over three years, it is an honor to be appointed as Collections Manager.
Our state-of-the-art, environmentally-controlled archival and collections storage annex protects and preserves over 5,000 photographs, thousands of artifacts, bottles, numerous books, manuscripts, and maps. This past summer, I have been working with Coila and Archivist Menzi Behrnd-Klodt in arranging and describing the archive collections and revising the Finding Aid. These steps improve our ability to better serve and assist public requests and researchers for information regarding the Hana district. There have also been a number of new accessions processed this summer.
To make images more accessible to the public, our long range Digital Photo Display Project is underway with a $3,000.00 technology grant from the Atherton Family Foundation. The money was applied to upgrading computer memory, purchasing a scanner and image storage devices. The Digital Photo Display Project has the goal of scanning all of our photographs and putting the information and images on a searchable database in the museum for public use. We envision local families wanting images for family reunions and birthdays, and as these requests come to us, we will slowly build our database of scanned images.
This summer we were able to accommodate Stanley Collins' request for copies of the Kaiwi family photographs in our collections for their upcoming family reunion. He was also very pleased to have copy of a 1949 photograph of the Hana Seals Baseball Team.
When the news was out about our new service to our membership, Alix Prejean of Hana requested a copy of Kalani Mailou Castro's photograph which she later framed for Alfred's birthday celebration.
We offer this as a new service to our H.C.C. members. When permitted by copyright we will be happy to scan and reproduce images of historical and resident photographs for family genealogies or student research projects. To help fund this long range project we ask for your generous support by designating your donations for Archive and Museum support.
If you have family photographs, films, videos or other artifacts relating to the early history of the Hana district, please consider loaning or donating your historical treasures to the Hana Cultural Center and Museum. We have a "state of the art" facility to preserve your artifacts for future generations.
The collections may be accessed by phoning the Hana Cultural Center at 248-8622 and asking for Robin Fancy after 2:00 p.m. Researchers are asked to exhaust resources such as libraries and other public facilities before calling. Appointments for research are required.