Digitising the archives is a game changer for the Lakes District Museum and signals a new era in protecting and preserving the district’s records dating back to the early 1860s.

The museum received a $100,000 grant last year from Impact100  Wakatipu, an all women organisation dedicated to supporting non profit groups in the areas of arts and culture, life wide learning, community recreation, health and wellbeing and heritage and the environment.

Museum director Jane Peasey says the grant has been invaluable in allowing them to purchase state-of-the-art digitising equipment and employ expert assistance to work alongside archivist Jo Boyd.

The collection includes manuscripts, photographs, oral histories, heritage publications, newspapers, diaries and maps and the funding is allocated for two years at which time the museum hopes to have the major part of the project complete.

“But it will be ongoing, “says Jane, “as we are always collecting donations that will need to be digitally processed.”

“Digitisation is a specialised skill and we are fortunate to have employed Alicia Taylor, who previously worked at the Auckland Museum with the same equipment, as our project manager. The imaging and searchability is vitally important and we are enriching the records to make them available to students, researchers and anyone who wants to source material from the museum. The good thing going forward is that now we have the equipment we can digitise material as it arrives.”

People who once had to sit in the museum’s archives office and trawl through newspapers and other material can now receive files and photographs digitally, something which the museum has been wanting to achieve for a long time.

“Many museums around New Zealand have digitised their archives over the last decade or so and it is exciting for us to accomplish this thanks to the overwhelming generosity of Impact100 Wakatipu,” says Jane. “We could not have realised this without their support.”

War Hero’s Legacy Lives On

The digitisation of the Lakes District Museum’s files has led to some fascinating discoveries not least the home brew recipe belonging to one of Arrowtown’s most famous sons.

Lieutenant Colonel Reginald (Reg) Everard Romans, son of George and Mary Romans, was brought up in Romans Cottage which today houses Provisions Arrowtown.

He fought in many battles and received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for his bravery and leadership  in the Battle of El Alamein and the advance to Tunisia, later tragically losing his life at Cassino in Italy in December 1943.Reg was credited with reviving the territorials in the district and as a keen sportsman was instrumental in the formation of the Arrowtown Golf Club. His other passion was brewing beer and his recipe is now preserved digitally saving the fragile paper from further degradation and exemplifying the urgent need for the museum’s current digitisation project.