Fishing Heritage Center receives $12K to digitize history of New Bedford fishing community

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. – The New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center has received a $12,000 grant that will help digitize the cultural heritage of New Bedford’s fishing community.
The organization announced receipt of the National Endowment for the Humanities cultural heritage grant on Dec. 14. The digitization project is a collaboration involving the center and university archives and special collections at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Also part of the project are an MIT Sea Grant, the New Bedford Public Library and New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park.
Commercial fishing often occurs as a family activity, with skills and knowledge passed from one generation to the next. Much of this history resides in the photo albums, documents and artifacts of fishing families. This project will document and preserve these items as a public legacy, said Laura Orleans, the center’s executive director.
“We are thrilled to receive this funding, which will further our efforts to document and preserve the rich heritage of New Bedford’s fishing community,” she said. “We look forward to engaging active and retired fishermen, shore workers and their families in this project.”
Digitizing these materials will be pursued through a day-long public event tentatively slated for May, in combination with “house calls” to document materials from individuals who are unable to attend.
A variety of public programs serving to inspire community participation, evoke memories and provide an interpretive framework for materials that are brought forward will occur around the same time.
Following the daylong event, UMass Boston will process images and metadata and will provide storage and public access through the university’s online repository. These materials will be included in the Digital Commonwealth and Digital Public Library of America.
The digital collection also will be publicly archived at the New Bedford Public Library, and the Massachusetts Public Library Digital Initiative, and shared as part of digital exhibits on the center’s website, now under development. Those who participate by sharing their photographs, documents or artifacts will be given a USB drive containing the scanned images of their materials.
The center is dedicated to the preservation and presentation of the history and culture of New Bedford’s fishing industry through archives, exhibits and programs. For more information, call 508-993-8894 or send email to nbfishingheritagecenter@gmail.com.

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