Late-19th century Gettysburg photos ready for public
The Adams County Historical Society is making available a set of photographs of the Gettysburg battlefield at the end of the 1800s.
The historical group has digitized the William H. Tipton collection.
Here’s an excerpt from a Hanover Evening Sun story on the collection:
Many of the photographs were taken around the time monuments arrived at the battlefield in the 1880s and 1890s, collections manager Ben Neeley said.
Visitors can access the photos through historical society computers where they can zoom and pan through the photos on the computer screen.
Neely said this will give visitors a better view of the photos than if he handed them a magnifying glass and the photos themselves.
It also better preserves the photos, he said. They will last longer if not handled as frequently.
Visitors can take home copies of the photos for a reproduction fee.
The system will also make it easier for visitors to find what they’re looking for, Neely said. He and the society’s executive director, Wayne Motts, attached searchable text descriptions to each photo, allowing the user to type in a search term such as “Seminary Ridge,” and find a list of relevant pictures.
The society also recently installed wireless routers at its office on the campus of Gettysburg Lutheran Theological Seminary. The routers will enable researchers to access the Internet on their own laptop computers while there.
But neither the photos, the society’s internal files nor the databases to which the society subscribes will be available through the wireless system.
Neely said the society doesn’t have the funds to make its internal files available through a browser window.
