Something old will soon be new again

If someone wants to dig up the Bronx’s past, they would have to email the Bronx County Historical Society for assistance. For a fee, a librarian would sift though a trove of aging artifacts, with some in such poor shape that handling them would compromise them even more.

For documents available to the public, a trip to the Society’s archives is the only way to access them, depriving out-of-towners the chance for more efficient research of the borough.

It’s a reason why the Society, a private not-for-profit, will launch an ambitious archiving project that will digitize some 400 years worth of priceless photographs, atlases and maps that chronicle the borough’s nascent age, dark history and rising image.

“Why take out the same map and jeopardize it and have it ripped more and more when we could digitize it and people could just zoom in, zoom out, take notes, print out?” Angel Hernandez, director of programs and external relations for the society, said.

The digital undertaking, aimed at adding another layer of preservation to the borough’s history, is mostly funded through an $83,000 grant it received from the Office of Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. The funds were part of a $1 million allocation for Bronx cultural institutions to “strengthen them.”

It also opens a larger door of accessibility to the borough’s marquee documents. Among the projects Hernandez has in mind is a 360-degree tour of Poe Cottage, a mini museum that was once the home of famed storyteller Edgar Allan Poe.

The monies would go towards high-tech scanners that will scan every book page by page, analog-to-digital audio converters, and high-resolution cameras that capture priceless figures from a bygone period, creating a framework in the form of an Internet database. Each item will be accessed through the Society’s database for what Hernandez calls an hourly “nominal fee” that can also lower the cost of the Society’s existing walking tours.

Currently, the Society’s prized relics are catalogued at their portfolio of historical houses, though in some cases they’re left in a vulnerable place. At the Valentine Varian House in Norwood, for instance, documents are stored in the basement. During the summertime, a nearby hydrant is left open, forcing a deluge of water to flow downhill and towards the house, potentially destroying a collection of pieces from the Revolutionary period. It was enough for Hernandez to personally show Diaz Jr. the need to save them.

Moldy atlases at another Society-owned office now stand atop a bookshelf untouched. Because of that, a scanner has been designated to be the only scanner scanning them.

It will take five years to see the project through, Hernandez said. He hopes that by the time the project is complete, the Society’s new archive would be considered the “Library of Congress for the Bronx.”