County library modernizes old photos: Palouse past on display at county courthouse

Photos of the Palouse past are now being preserved for the future. With approximately $30,000 in public money, Whitman County Library put together 30 poster images and 1,300 digitized photos for the state’s Rural Heritage project.

Patti Cammack and Janet Nastasi (right) hold a tintype, a historic photo preserved on metal.

A group of officials gathered in the courthouse hallway early Monday morning for the official dedication of the photos. Citizens wandered past image after image, taking in the rich, historic scenes.

Aim of the project is to preserve old, historical photographs by updating them into digital photos. The photos are now listed on the library’s Web site, http://www.whitco.lib.wa.us. County library staff said more photos are on the way.

Shots of downtown Albion in the early 1900s, sheep shearing crews, and other historical images now line the main hall of the county courthouse with 30 images in the exhibit. That display cost $6,200, most of which came from a $9,000 grant from the county.

“From the maypole to Uniontown to early shearing crews, it’s awesome what they’ve done,” said Alex McGregor, a contributor to the project and source of the photos.

Most of the pictures feature structures that are now long gone.

Searching through stacks of old photographs, often untouched for years, in museums and homes around the county was a thrill, said library staffer Patti Cammack, who tracked down and uploaded most of the photos.

To find them, she visited the museums in Tekoa, Albion, St. John, the Rosalia historical commission and the McCoy Valley Museum in Oakesdale. She also borrowed photographs from several county families.

“I think as our county residents come see this, it’s a way to bring their history back to them,” Cammack said.

One resident, retiree Ralph Jennings, had kept 20 photos imprinted on pieces of metal, an old type of photograph called a “tintype.”

“There’s been six generations of us connected with this place,” said Jennings, who still lives in the house his ancestors lived in.

When Cammack arrived, Jennings pulled out those tintypes, in addition to 50 or 60 photos from the late 1800s, many of his family.

“He was very enthusiastic about telling us about how the farming went,” Cammack said.

In the Tekoa museum, Cammack discovered they still had an elaborate, finely crafted feathered hat- the same one featured in a historical photo retained by the Tekoa museum.

“For me, the family photos tell so much about the name on the paper,” Cammack said.