This spring, the Ridgefield Historical Society was honored to receive a substantial grant from the Ridgefield Thrift Shop to support our ongoing Ridgefield Oral History Project, which preserves not only historical facts, but Ridgefield voices.
The society’s current collection includes more than 100 fragile oral history materials including cassette tapes, reel-to-reel recordings and VHS tapes dating from as early as the 1970s. Part of the Thrift Shop grant will go to digitizing and transcribing these important records, which will all be publicly accessible through the Ridgefield Historical Society’s online catalog.
The second component of the project will make possible the acquisition of new hardware, software and audio-visual equipment to expand the Historical Society’s capacity to capture contemporary oral histories and video of Ridgefield today. With the new equipment and editing software, it will be possible to create documentary-style films and digital exhibits, enhancing community outreach and engagement.
The Historical Society, dedicated to preserving, interpreting and promoting public knowledge of Ridgefield’s historical, cultural and architectural heritage, now has more capacity to safeguard the voices of past and present community members and to share them in its programming.
