Introducing a New Way to View Local History

La Colomba in the 1970s
Photograph of a school group near the La Colomba sculpture at the north entrance to the Columbia Public Library.

If you’re fascinated by local history, you’ll be excited about the library’s new Community History Archive. Debuting this month at archive.dbrl.org, this site offers a searchable archive of local historical images and documents.

Library staff has been collecting and scanning images to include in this archive over many months. You can now view photo collections about the history of Southern Boone County, Midway one-room schoolhouses, “The Trouble With Normal” zine by Boone Stigall and the history of the Daniel Boone Regional Library. And, with your help, the archive will continue to grow.

“This is the first time our public library has created an original collection that can be shared with others in our community,” said Margaret Conroy, executive director of Daniel Boone Regional Library. “The library is a wonderful information source, and being able to offer more local information is a great benefit to our communities.”

We plan to expand the collection by working with other local groups in Boone and Callaway Counties who are interested in preserving our cultural and social history. We can scan, organize and curate the collections owned by other groups who want to add their photos to our searchable online collection.

“There’s a wealth of local history tucked away in file cabinets and aged photo albums that we want to preserve and make available to everyone interested in our local history,” said Seth Smith, DBRL librarian. “By working with other area organizations to identify collections that would be of the greatest local interest and scanning these photos, records and documents, we’re building a research resource and a sense of community.”

The library is now actively seeking collections related to Callaway County and historic black Columbia for possible digitization and inclusion in this online archive. If other groups are interested in being part of this effort, they may contact Seth Smith at the Columbia Public Library at (573) 443-3161 or archive@dbrl.org. The library is unable to house physical collections or digitize audiovisual or individual and family history collections at this time.