Winona County Historical Society plans an annual year-end giving campaign that helps us to keep the lights on for another season of important work in history. In this post series, you’ll hear from WCHS staff members about why your giving is vital for this organization’s mission. We’re excited to partner with you again as we look to the future of our communities in Winona County.
Preserving and Sharing, Stories and Memories
By Lindsay Stussy, Curator of Collections
This year, I was very excited about all of the different audio digitization projects that we’ve been working on. We digitized over 90 reel-to-reel audio recordings ranging from the early 1950s through the 90s and now have access to previously recorded programs, oral histories, and public meetings in Winona County. We also began digitizing our collection of audiocassettes that include the histories of workers on the river, public programming, and stories of significant events like the 1940 Armistice Day blizzard and many others. Digitizing these audio recordings provides not only better access to these important stories, but also helps preserve the original recordings by using the digital recording rather than playing the originals over and over again. These projects would not have been possible without the many granters and donations that funded such projects and the volunteers that have been hard at work cataloging and digitizing.
