Podcast
The Strausbury Family. Courtesy of the McKinley Presidential Library and Museum.
The Strausbury Family. Courtesy of the McKinley Presidential Library and Museum.
Stark County History, Ohio, Like You’ve Never Seen Before!
Can you imagine having greater access to historic photographs from around Stark County? Well, imagine no longer! Many of the Stark County photographs, which were donated to the Ramsayer Library over the years, have been digitized!
The digitization of these historic photographs will greatly benefit the research community and the general public. Additionally, there are numerous instructional applications made by possible by this digitization project. For example, Mark Holland, the archivist, has the capability of projecting these digitally-captured, historic photographs for visitors when they come to stop by at the Ramsayer Research Library. Moreover, they will be incorporated into future audio-visual productions as well.
Digitization Process: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?
WHO?
Who digitized these historic photographs?
Stephen Wendt, MLIS, digitized hundreds of photographs from the Stark County collection during his digital preservation internship at the Ramsayer Research Library. Stephen’s internship was affiliated with Kent State University’s graduate School of Information in Library and Information Science. In addition to his passion for digital preservation, Stephen is a professional genealogist. He assists the community with their genealogy-related requests! Stephen may be contacted here.
WHAT?
Many of the Stark County photographs, which Stephen digitized, concern the “Citizens of Canton” and the “Grand Army Band” photographs. The photographs are of various shapes, sizes and conditions-many of which, as you might expect, are in black and white.
Don Millett – Editor of the Canton Daily News.
Sr. Symporose – Principal of St. Marys School in Canton. 1955
WHEN?
Many of the photographs are from the late 19th century and early 20th centuries.
WHERE?
While most of the photographs were taken in Stark County, some of them were taken in other locations.
For example, the Grand Army Band traveled together by train, and these photographs were digitally captured as well! The Grand Army Band depicted in the slideshow below show them in action in Canton and across the country!
WHY?
Sharing Stark County past with researchers and members of the public is why we do what we do!
HOW?
After all of the photographs are properly assigned a specific number (called an accession number), they are sent to the Ramsayer Research Library’s flatbed scanner for scanning. Each photograph is scanned front and back. Normally, up to three images are taken per photograph. Here is how the process works!
All digitized photographs courtesy of the McKinley Presidential Library and Museum.
To submit a research request with the Ramsayer Research Library, please click on the following link: Research Request Form.
Archivist's Attic... 
Stephan Wendt is amazingly talented. And his positive attitude is refreshing I will hate to see him end his internship at the McKinley Museum Library. Good luck, Stephan.