Society’s historic maps enter the digital world
Institutions, such as the Wayland Historical Society, have been collecting historic documents for centuries. Mostly these materials are made from paper, which is fairly delicate. Paper documents that have endured more than 200 years are remarkable and rare.
Keeping these materials safe for posterity is one of the missions of historical societies. Another mission is to provide access to these rare and historic documents to scholars and researchers, students, historians, and anyone who has an interest.
This year, Wayland Historical Society has made substantive progress in providing greater access to some of its rare cartographic materials. The Society made arrangements to have 23 historic documents digitized at high resolution and displayed on the Digital Commonwealth website. Digital Commonwealth provides a platform for collecting institutions to digitize materials and display them on the worldwide web https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org.
Selecting the 23 documents involved review of oversized paper materials in the Society’s map drawers and choosing those that are most rare or of great historic interest to the Town. Oversized materials are especially challenging to digitize. Because of their large format, very costly cameras are needed to create digital files suitable for research purposes. Digital Commonwealth, located at the Boston Public Library, has these special digital cameras. The 18th century maps, deeds, and petitions, 19th century surveys and militia rolls; 20th century theatrical posters and letters constitute the Society’s first round of contributions to the Digital Commonwealth website. More rounds of contributions are envisaged. This process not only increases the availability of our collection but also reduces wear and tear on our treasures.
