Grants money helps to salvage Utah history and send it to the cloud

Ottinger Tours in Canyonlands National Park. A historical Moab image captured by Fran and Terby Barnes. Photo: Fran and Terby Barnes Photograph Collection, Courtesy of Southern Utah University

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah. — The Utah State Historical Records Advisory Board recently announced the award winners of the 2021 grant funding round.

Southern Utah University Archives in Cedar City will receive $4,627 to digitize 16mm film reels that captured campus life from the years 1947-1970. It includes footage of Zion National Park, commencement ceremonies, a Louis Armstrong concert, and a 1961 production of Taming of the Shrew at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. The films are expected to be on display at the anniversary celebrations of both the Shakespeare Festival (60th) and Southern Utah University (125th).

The Moab Museum is being granted $5,196 to digitize photos from the Fran and Terby Barnes Photograph Archives. Fran Barnes wrote the Canyon Country series of 46 books that document the history of Moab and the surrounding environment. He also served on the Grand County Travel Council and the Bureau of Land Management Advisory Board. Terby Barnes was active in the publishing of Canyon County works and was an early board member of the Moab Museum.

The Salt Lake County Archives will get $2,240 to digitize minutes from the County Commission going all the way back to 1852. The commission has had an enormous effect on the development of Salt Lake County- with their duties including everything from economic and social growth to construction and zoning regulations.

The Hutchings Museum and Institute in Lehi will receive $7,500 to process material from the Broadbent Collection. The Broadbent family was a well-known Lehi group that owned and operated a photography studio in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The collection has over 9,000 pictures, maps, and other records of Lehi. The Museum plans to digitize the records, making them available on Google Arts & Culture.

The Duchesne County Library was awarded $4,000 to migrate its History Center record database to a cloud-based platform. The database contains plot information, gravestone pictures, obituaries, and other artifacts.

The Cache Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum in Logan is being given $1,700 to help digitize the history of Cache Valley pioneers. The documents, which primarily date between 1930-1970, illustrate the early lives of the Cache Valley settlers. The final collection will be hosted by Utah State University and will be available on the Mountain West Digital Library.

The Utah State Historical Records Board’s grant program is funded via a State Board Programming Grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives.