Boats, Berries and Big Trees: Preserving the History of Bainbridge Island

FAIN: PY-263775-19

Bainbridge Island Historical Museum (Bainbridge Island, WA 98110-1855)
Brianna Rossettie Kosowitz (Project Director: June 2018 to June 2024)

Two day-long digitization events to document Bainbridge Island’s family histories through photographs, letters, journals and diaries, newspaper articles, employment records, signs and posters, and other two-dimensional artifacts.  Volunteers would record brief oral histories that relate to the artifacts themselves, putting them into a familial or community context.  A partnership between the Bainbridge Island Historical Museum and Kitsap Regional Library, Bainbridge Island Branch, the project would offer the community an exhibit and three public lectures featuring the items brought in for digitization, organized around the themes of maritime history, logging and sawmills, and the Island’s agricultural heritage.  The project would seek participation among minority groups, such as Native Americans, Filipino Americans, and Japanese Americans, whose history on the island is inextricably linked to the region’s economic development.  With donor permission, the materials would be preserved at the Bainbridge Island Historical Museum.

This project will explore the opportunities that drew immigrants to Bainbridge Island, WA, and thereby came to define its cultural heritage: shipbuilding, the lumber industry, and strawberry farming. Community members with a family tradition of these activities will bring photographs, letters, journals and other artifacts to be digitized at two full-day events at Bainbridge Island Public Library (BPL). Participants will receive a digital copy of their materials on USB drives, and will be invited to record brief narratives relating the significance of the material to their families. With the consent of owners, digitized material will be accessioned into the permanent collection of Bainbridge Island Historical Museum (BIHM), with transcribed narratives incorporated into metadata. After the event, BIHM will create a temporary exhibit of digitized artifacts at PBL and offer a series of public lectures exploring themes including transnationalism, multiculturalism and boom/bust economies.