“A picture is worth a thousand words.” The Sooke Region Museum’s photo collection consists of 9500 photos that have been catalogued and digitized, with about 7000 accessible to the public online.
Regarding processing, photos are the easiest items to catalogue, store and digitize. One of our priorities is to digitize and make our photo collection accessible online for people to use. As the world becomes more digital, we accept both physical and digital donations of photos. We store all physical photos in our archives – some contain originals of the photos, and some are reproductions. If you are interested in viewing the photos in our collection, we have a link to the historical photos on our website. Feel free to take a look, and if you see anything that catches your eye, an order form is available!
Photos are among the most requested resources from researchers, family members, and interested people. Many researchers use photos in their reports or articles to highlight essential aspects of their findings. Photos allow people to peer into the past in ways words cannot. They give snapshots of what people wore, where they were, and who was in the photo. Sometimes, we see posed photos of past families and couples; these can tell us a lot, but we have to consider that they are posed in such a way as to present certain images to the public. On the other hand, when we receive photos of people at work, in conversation or motion, these are exciting photos to look at. They give us a candid look at life in the past.
Photos are a central way we reach out to the community through social media. People can bond by looking through photos and searching for common landscape features or past relatives. Photos have a way of bringing people together. You may have seen some posts of historical photos on our Facebook and Instagram; sometimes, we know all of the information on the photo, and sometimes, we don’t. We post those photos as a way to engage with the community and also to gain valuable information. If you see a photo posted to our Facebook or Instagram and see wrong or missing information, we encourage you to provide the information you have. We take the information and update our records to reflect the correct information.
