The historical documents that tell Newmarket’s rich, 200-year-old story will undergo a digital transformation to ensure the past is indeed preserved for the future, Newmarket Historical Society president Erin Cerenzia announced last night at the group’s monthly meeting.
With a newly formed archives restoration committee and $10,000 already in hand, the local society is actively fundraising to make up an estimated $22,000 shortfall it needs to hire a professional archivist who will, with the help of technology, rebuild the archives into a fully serviceable and easy-to-navigate collection.
The archives is home to thousands of Newmarket-centric historical photos, documents, some video, family biographies of the town’s early settlers, historical books and more, 20-year archives volunteer Ron Pilfrey told NewmarketToday.
The archives committee’s effort will include making a deputation to Newmarket council for an as-yet-unspecified amount of funding to get the project off the ground. In the meantime, the archives will remain closed to the public but high-level requests to access it for research purposes will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
The society and the town has already struck a collaborative partnership, Cerenzia said, which includes the town providing the group more space at the Elman W. Campbell Museum, where the archives are located, once work begins on the restoration project.
“The total budget estimated for the project is $32,000, including the archivist salary and the technological upgrades needed,” Cerenzia said to a full house of society members at the Newmarket Community Centre and Lions Hall. “I feel very confident the town will put funds toward this project as they’ve already been cooperative and supportive. It’s in the town’s best interest that we work together on this because it’s their history, too.”
The now almost five-decades strong society acknowledges it must modernize its practices to continue making Newmarket’s history accessible and attract new members to sustain it, Cerenzia said.
“I spent many weekends in the archives and, while the research was fascinating, I can’t say that I enjoyed that actual archives itself,” Cerenzia said of her time as a university student. “It became clear to me right away that the archives had some challenges. First of all, it’s the lack of space but, most importantly, there’s no modern cataloguing system and, there were these great volunteers who were working very hard but weren’t being given the tools to properly do their job. That didn’t sit right with me.”
Building on the success of the work carried out by the society’s First World War centennial committee and the resulting interactive trench exhibit , the group’s reputation has been elevated to that of a professional, hard-working organization that delivers on its commitments, Cerenzia said during her special report on the archives.
The abrupt closure of the archives in mid-March caused a stir among some in the community, as the society was largely silent on the reasons or what was to come. At the time, Cerenzia told NewmarketToday the society has “some very exciting news that will be coming soon” related to the archives.
The reason for the archives closure, Cerenia said last night, is due to the limited space in the room itself and the amount of work that lies ahead in re-categorizing the documents, moving boxes and reorganizing the entire layout of the room.
“The result will be that we can have an efficient process moving forward and the incoming archivist will be able to work quickly,” she said.
Terry Carter, one of the society’s founders and its first president, wrote in a letter to the society: “...Our collection is in danger of being left behind by the advances in 21st-century technology. Your firm step forward is badly needed. Congratulations, again, on the plan to reorganize, re-equip and refinance the archives.”
Newmarket’s art, culture, heritage and history will take centre stage this year as the town begins the process of developing a new cultural master plan to replace its decade-old plan that’s nearing the end of its life cycle, Newmarket’s community services commissioner Ian McDougall said in a previous interview.
“We’re going to initiate a second cultural master plan and that will really inform where we want to move as a community as it relates to art, culture, public art, heritage and celebrating our history,” McDougall said. “...a likely outcome that could come out of the larger master plan process would be to do a more specific plan around the museum, and how best we can expand beyond just those four walls, and expand the history and heritage within our community.”
The archives restoration committee is chaired by Erin Cerenzia and includes vice-president Jackie Playter, communications director Erika Baird, treasurer Lena Thorogood, directors-at-large Kate Jetten and Doug Scott, and interim archivist and past archives director Chris Morris.
For more information, visit the Newmarket Historical Society here.
