Images courtesy Richmond Public Library
My 13-year-old has become interested in our family history and his broader connection to the past. On our annual Thanksgiving trip to Alabama, he pored over photo albums with his great-grandmother and asked both sides of our family about his heritage. He was thrilled to hear that a grandfather eight generations back fought in the American Revolution. Now he’s eager to learn more, and I wish we could access these albums and the stories that accompany them from our home in Richmond and not just when we visit relatives 800 miles away.
That’s where the Memory Lab at the Richmond Public Library’s Franklin Street Branch comes in. The free lab helps patrons digitize documents and curate their life stories. Part of a nationwide network of memory labs in public libraries, the Richmond outlet offers expert help to anyone looking to uncover and preserve their past.
Though the library only introduced the Memory Lab in 2019, it is already updating the space and expanding the program across the Richmond region, thanks to a $900,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation.
Senior librarian Chloe McCormick, who runs the Memory Lab, says the funds are being used to purchase equipment, double the workstations and provide digitizing tools that will travel to other area branches. Soon, patrons will be able to check out personal archiving kits complete with portable scanners, audio recorders and cameras for use at home. Members of any library, including those in the surrounding counties, can make an appointment to use the Memory Lab.
Richmond residents Ann and Wayne Stuart, ages 77 and 81, have amassed a trove of memories in their lives. They’ve filled cabinets with VHS tapes, carousels of slides, film negatives and 8 mm film reels, all relics of earlier media. Now in the streaming era, they’re using the Memory Lab to digitize their collection for their children and grandchildren, creating a folder for each family member on an external drive, a personal time machine.
As their photos are scanning and their films are recording, the couple replays scenes of their lives. Ann says she cherished seeing the pictures of her grandmother when she was a girl in the late 1800s, home videos of her own Tennessee childhood, and highlight reels of her children playing sports and competing in gym meets.
“We have pictures that are literally 130 years old,” Ann says. “The whole experience has been wonderful and fun, and it’s brought back so many memories. It really takes you back through your life.”
Talk to the oldest members of your family or longtime neighbors and see what they remember — a lot of times, they’ll be holding on to photos and records you never knew existed.
—Chloe McCormick, Richmond Public Library
The Memory Lab also features video and audio equipment for patrons to record interviews with family or community members. “Oral history leverages the kind of inspiration and memory that comes out through conversation and interaction,” says Ben Himmelfarb, library and community services manager at the Richmond Public Library. “Family members can share stories based on the best of their ability without the pressure of typing or worrying about grammar.”
McCormick says preserving family history is a group effort. “Talk to the oldest members of your family or longtime neighbors and see what they remember — a lot of times, they’ll be holding on to photos and records you never knew existed.”
Families who want to dig deeper will find resources in the Richmond Room on the library’s first floor, where McCormick also oversees the history and genealogy department. She helps patrons access Ancestry, which includes 30 billion digital records from 80 countries, including World War I draft papers, immigration records, birth certificates, wedding announcements and death records that can be downloaded and shared. McCormick recommends starting with a grandparent and working backwards. She also suggests tools such as FamilySearch and ProQuest African American Heritage for help researching and building a family tree.
The sheer volume of information and images we capture can be overwhelming. That’s why McCormick recommends that families pare down, label and save files onto an external hard drive. “That way, you have some kind of physical object and have to worry less,” she says. “I’ve personally lost so many photos and videos just changing phones.”
As for my own family, we’re excited to get started on our shared history project. But unlike how things were done in my childhood, we won’t be burying a shoebox of meaningful items to dig up later. Instead, we’ll save our treasures on a USB drive, a modern time capsule of our lives. That way, we can access our favorite memories and listen to our grandparents’ stories any time we want.
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