YMCA of the Rockies Photograph Archives Collection Preservation Assessment

FAIN: PG-271577-20

YMCA of the Rockies (Estes Park, CO 80511-9500)
Karen Jane Lloyd D'Onofrio (Project Director: January 2020 to May 2022)

A preservation assessment for a collection of 45,000 photographs and the purchase of supplies for their rehousing. The collection includes images dating from the late nineteenth century to the present that document the people, events, and environment of the YMCA camps near Estes Park, Colorado, and the history of tourism and recreation in the Rocky Mountain region, even prior to the establishment of Rocky Mountain National Park. The collections are frequently drawn upon for museum exhibits and are also available for research requests and used in YMCA publications.

The preservation assessment of the YMCA of the Rockies photograph archives collection will provide the institution with detailed process steps to preserve our most vulnerable collections, and will include: recommendations on re-housing and organization of the collection; and digitization for preservation of and access to the collection. The collection spans the 20th century and documents the history of the organization and the people who attended the camp over a period of more than one hundred more years. The collection provides us with a snapshot of life at a YMCA camp and the local area during a time of rapid growth in tourism in the U.S. West.