Announcing North Olympic Heritage, a new digital collection!

The Washington Rural Heritage initiative is pleased to announce a new digital collection: North Olympic Heritage. A project of the Port Angeles Main Library of the North Olympic Library System, this collection includes hundreds of photographs of pioneers, Native Americans, trains, ships, logging scenes, and views of early towns and sites in Clallam and Jefferson counties digitized from the expansive Bert Kellogg Photograph Collection. In 1970, local resident Bert Kellogg donated his collection of over 5,000 photos and negatives depicting life on the Olympic Peninsula during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to the North Olympic Library System. Kellogg amassed the collection by borrowing and copying images from families and individuals, and by combing through rummage sales for prints and negatives during a 30 year period. Until now, access to this great collection has largely been limited to those who are able to visit the Port Angeles Library in person. Working on a Washington Rural Heritage grant and leveraging a fairly robust pre-existing Access database, local project manager Rebecca Nugent and her staff (thanks, Tim!) at the Port Angeles Library have managed to digitize approximately 25 percent of the Bert Kellogg Collection in a single year -- a huge feat resulting in 1158 digital items! Highlights from the digital collection include:

• Amazing views of the construction of (the recently removed) Lower Elwha and Glines Canyon Dams (also known as the Upper Elwha Dam).
• The early days of the Puget Sound Cooperative Colony, a Utopian socialist settlement near present day Port Angeles.
• Early 20th century views of the Olympic Hot Springs resort.
• Over 420 geo-located images of Port Angeles street scenes, views of Ediz Hook, the Elwha River and more!
• Post offices made 'the Pacific Northwest way' -- from cedar tree stumps!

Following this initial project, the Port Angeles Main Library has recently been awarded another Washington Rural Heritage grant for the 2013-2014 year to continue digitizing images from the Bert Kellogg Collection. Look for more great images as they add to this rich digital collection over the winter and spring.