Tell Your Story

FAIN: PY-253100-17

Ferguson Library (Stamford, CT 06901-2312)
Elizabeth Joseph (Project Director: May 2016 to May 2018)

Six events to digitize materials related to targeted groups within Stamford, Connecticut, including African Americans, Latinos, European immigrants, women, and veterans.  At these events, library staff and consultants would record oral histories and then digitize items such as photographs, letters, memorabilia, and audiovisual materials that supplement those stories.  The oral histories and digitized content would be made available through the library’s digital archive as well as an onsite exhibit.  Lectures by local historians would be scheduled to coincide with each digitization event, and topics would be selected to feature targeted communities, such as early settlers, Jewish immigrants, and local artists.  Docent-led tours of the final exhibit would also be offered.

If America is a nation of immigrants, then Stamford is America in microcosm. From its original 29 Puritan settlers to today's population of 125,000 (36% of whom were born outside the United States), Stamford has been home and haven to generations of immigrants to America. "Tell Your Story" is a series of day-long digitizing events at the library's Digital Lab that will capture resident's lives through interviews, diaries, photos, letters, souvenirs and other cultural/historical artifacts in order to preserve and understand the cultural history of this vibrant city. The project will also be part of the city's anniversary celebration, 375 Years Strong, as well as Stamford Through the Years, a visual exhibit of images and text winding throughout the floors of the Library during 2017.  Contributors will receive a digitized copy of their content to keep, and the entire digital contents will be shared with the CT Digital Archive, CT State libraries, and the Digital Library of America.

Media Coverage

Stamfordites become part of city fabric with storytelling project (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Liz Skalka
Publication: Stamford Advocate
Date: 2/5/2018
URL: https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/local/article/Stamfordites-become-part-of-city-fabric-with-12553080.php

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