Submitted by the San Juan Historical Society and Museum

The mission of the San Juan Historical Society and Museum for the past 63 years has been to share and interpret the story of the people of San Juan Island. One way of doing that is through preservation of historical photographs of the island community. In recent years over 6,000 photographs have been researched, digitally scanned and cataloged into the Museum’s archive collection, which contains over 8,500 images and is growing.

The integration of a secondary professional quality, large format digital scanner, paired with a dedicated workstation, will provide the ability to expand capacity, increase quality output and improve efficiencies. Our dedicated team of volunteers will also have the ability to address a steady stream of new photographic discoveries waiting to be processed. A new scanner would also replace an existing scanner that dates from 2008, for which replacement parts do not exist.

The Historical Museum is raising funds for this need as part of the San Juan Island Community Foundation’s 2024 SJI Cares County Fair Giving Campaign. The program runs throughout the County Fair – Aug. 15 – 18. Through this program, the first $1,000 in donations will be matched by the Community Foundation. The Historical Museum is also eligible for up to $2,500 in bonus grants throughout the fair.

To be eligible to receive matching funds, donations must be made to the SJICF Aug. 15 through Aug, 18, during the County Fair. Donors may contribute in person at the SJICF fair booth, online at sjicares.org, by phone to SJICF at 360.378.1001. Donors may also pay by check, payable to SJICF (dated Aug. 15 – 18) with San Juan Historical Society in the memo line to P.O. Box 1352, Friday Harbor, WA 98250.