17 February 2009
Revelstoke Railway Museum Creates Online Archive
The Revelstoke Railway Museum is currently
creating an online
archive at
www.railwayMuseum.com where anyone can
view some of the thousands of
images chronicling
railway history from the late 1800s onward.
Revelstoke British Columbia - The Government of British
Columbia has proclaimed 16-22 Feb 2009 to be Heritage Week 2009. As the proclamation acknowledges, this year's theme set
by Heritage BC, is the Heritage of Education. Communities around the province are already making plans for Heritage Week which will
include special events, heritage tours, awards ceremonies, and much more.
The Revelstoke Railway Museum is participating in Heritage Week by launching a new digital archive on its website,
www.railwayMuseum.com. The previous archive, funded through a grant
from the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at the University of British Columbia, was attacked by a computer virus last year, and
months of work scanning, digitizing, and uploading photographs was lost.
Losing the original digital archive was a major setback for the museum, but thanks to a $6,000 grant from the BC150 Heritage Legacy
Fund, new imaging software was purchased, and the digitization process was started over again. In addition to redoing the website
archive, the grant also covers the cost of creating an interactive kiosk whereby visitors will be able to access the complete
digitized photographic collection. The kiosk, to be located at the museum, will be operational by the end of March this year.
The Museum's photographic collection numbers well over 6,500 images. Of those images, some 410 will be available on the website by
Heritage Week with more being added every week. The images are categorized into themes like locomotives, train wrecks, people, and
bridges that together form a fascinating and educational look at Canadian Pacific's railway operations from the late 1800s to today.
The Revelstoke Heritage Railway Society that operates the Revelstoke Railway Museum is delighted to participate in Heritage Week, and
gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Province of British Columbia through BC150, a Ministry of Tourism, Culture and
the Arts initiative and the Heritage Legacy Fund of British Columbia for making this project possible.
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