Letter To The Editor: Renton History Museum Recipient Of 4Culture Heritage Collections Care Program Grant

The recently received a grant through the to digitize our collection of oral history tapes and our 8mm, 16mm, and Super 8 films.  Few people know about the wonderful collection of oral history interviews held by the museum.  Since the 1960s, our Oral History Team has collected 140 interviews (and counting) with teachers, politicians, coal miners, Rotarians, home-makers, ministers, workers, and business-owners.  They have described their lives and experiences in Renton so that future generations of researchers may learn from them.  The audio cassette tapes are very fragile, however, which means we have been unable to share anything other than transcripts with the public.

The films that have been donated to the Museum are even more fragile, which means that most of them have never been viewed since they were donated.  In some cases we have only one line of description.  We may have footage of the cornerstone-laying for the library over the river and rare footage of Renton’s short-lived Aire Faire (one of the predecessors to today’s )—we will find out soon, once they’re digitized!

4Culture’s grant program for collections care allows small museums like ours to take on very costly but important projects like this.  These are projects that will have a huge public benefit, preserving irreplaceable items like these before time and chemistry erase them forever.  Once they are digitized we will be able to incorporate oral histories and films into exhibits, and make them available in other ways.  We’re looking forward to sharing them.

Elizabeth P. Stewart

Museum Manager, Renton History Museum