Thousands of visitors, tourists, and local residents come to the SHS facility at the Creamery Museum every year to learn about Skaneateles’ past and our community’s shared history. A favorite display is the scrolling postcards and images -  over 1100! - curated by Kihm Winship and featuring delightful scenes of people, places and things related to Skaneateles. Another favorite thing to do for many is looking through our yearbooks collection. Especially during class reunions. People submitting research requests are always delighted when we have a photograph in our archives that they have not seen before of a long distant relative. One gentleman pointed out to his teenage son, who’s name was Charles, an image of his great-grandfather Charles,  who he (the son) had been named for. It was very touching. 

According to an article in Digitaltrends, “as a society, we now produce more photographs than ever before, and the total number is becoming difficult to fathom.  This year, it is estimated that billions of humans armed with smartphones will take some 1.2 trillion pictures. Many of them will be shared on social media, but many more will simply be forgotten. A few good selfies will flash before your eyes as you swipe left or right on them, late some Friday night. But hardly any will make the transition into the  physical world, bits becoming blots of ink that coalesce into an image on a piece of  paper, canvas, wood, or metal — a print.” And without those prints in our archives,  future generations will not have the same experience current visitors do when looking at the photos in our collection. One of our volunteers pointed out that the same thing is happening with letters, journals, business ledgers, and postcards. Researching genealogy used to mean hours spent looking through old letters and journals. Now people scroll through ancestry.com and Find-A-Grave. These are amazing tools and have inspired new generations to search their roots through their easy access. But is something lost when the physical piece is no longer available? 

It is a dilemma for museum professionals worldwide. How to acquire, preserve,  and make accessible today’s information for future patrons? Grants given by the  Knight Foundation addressed this question in part, by identifying the digital transformation needed with infrastructure and organizational structure. But this is an issue putting a major strain on museums across our country. Especially small to mid-sized ones who have limited staff, need extended Wi-Fi, and upgraded management systems, all of which are very expensive.  

In the meantime, here at the SHS as we ponder this issue, we gratefully accept donations of archival materials related to the history of Skaneateles, per our mission.  And encourage our readers to be sure to back up their photos and consider making photo-books for future generations to enjoy looking through.