Preserving a family’s Civil War history

(Pinetec is proud to be able to help preserve historical documents for businesses and families. We have decided to dedicate certain blog posts as part of our new historical series, which you will be able to read on Pinetec’s main blog page.)

A client of Pinetec recently contacted us to ask if we would be able to digitize a treasured family heirloom.  The heirloom was  a family album, which  consisted of correspondences, photos, letters from the Confederate States of America War and Navy Departments, and miscellaneous newspaper clippings that span from 1855 through 1906.

We felt very honored to be trusted with such a project, and as with all historical documents, took great care of the delicate papers throughout the digitization process. White gloves are always used to prevent oils from fingers deteriorating the papers, and we hand-scan each document to prevent damage to the originals. Although it takes longer than our usual scanning process, it is imperative that we handle the documents correctly and with the care they deserve.  Once the project was completed we delivered a web-based application on a CD that would allow for easy viewing of the images. Our client retained the digitized version, and donated the original album to the Virginia Historical Society.

The client was kind enough to write to us after she received the CD:

“I have been more than pleased with how you handled our project and now that the originals – which you obviously handled carefully – are at the Virginia Historical Society, our family has its own copies that we can view whenever we want!  Many thanks!”

We enjoy working with such one-of–a-kind documents and appreciate being able to be wards of history. If you have documents that are of historical significance, or documents that are treasured family heirlooms, we can help preserve the originals while providing access to the contents with a few keystrokes.

We’ve included a few samples below that link to the larger full-size image.