Rotary supports historical society
Caroline Mudgette , left, who sponsored the request, Debra Willis, Asst. Librarian for the St. Augustine Historical Society Research Library received the check from Rotary President Rusty Hall .
SAINT AUGUSTINE – TheSt. Augustine Historical Society has received a $500 grant from the Sunrise Rotary Club to purchase a refrigerator to store our collection of glass plate and nitrate negatives.
The glass plates and nitrate negatives are between 90 and 130 years old. They provide a time capsule view of what St. Augustine was like between the 1880s and 1930s. The negatives feature images of street scenes, individuals, dances and the countryside. One box shows Hollywood farms in Moultrie, and a Dewdraggers club costume party.
The refrigerator will allow us to keep the negatives at around a constant 40 degrees which will protect the negatives for the future. Keeping the negatives at a cool, steady temperature will preserve these negatives for future use by researchers. Many thanks to the St. Augustine Rotary Club for their generous donation.
Unfortunately, some of the nitrate negatives resemble crumpled newspapers and some glass plate negatives are flaking because the negatives have been stored in less than optimal conditions. We recently received another grant from the Crisp-Ellert Museum to restore the glass plate negatives.
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