Osoyoos and District Museum and Archives was the third over-night trip, and my last on-site collection trip of the season.
Alex and I worked on scanning the textual documents of the Katie Lacey and Kruger Family Fonds, while Sharon migrated finding-aids for them, as well as approximately 1500 pre-scanned photographs. We created more original scans here than at any other repository: over 1400 scans in three days!
The Kruger Family Fond was largely comprised of personal letters sent to the Krugers, one of the earliest colonist families to settle in the area. The Katie Lacey Fond contained primarily personal and business letters, illustrations, and manuscripts. Lacey herself was a writer and a founder of the Osoyoos Museum. A large portion of the documents were too large for our scanners, so two scans often had to be made for each page. Lucky for us, the museum staff had a coffee machine they graciously gave us access to.
I personally enjoyed peering at Osoyoos’ museum collections, especially their old pianos and insect collection. I also got the opportunity to make friends with our kind hosts’ many pets, including (but not limited to) Obsidian the cat.
The Katie Lacey Fond was just too dense for us to complete within our three-day term, but interest has been expressed in loaning some of the collection to the project to complete at the university. Here’s hoping!
