Mass Memories Road Show is this Sunday, Oct. 25th, at the Hebrew Center!

Share your Martha’s Vineyard memories and help paint a portrait of our community!

The Mass. Memories Road Show, a public history project that digitizes family photos and memories shared by the people of Massachusetts, is coming to Martha's Vineyard. In a joint project of all the Island public libraries, this free program will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 25, at the MV Hebrew Center in Vineyard Haven. The entire event on Oct. 25 is free and open to everyone. For more information, visit http://vhlibrary.org/MMRS.shtml, or contact your local library.

That Sunday, participants are invited to bring up to three family photos to be scanned and included in the state's digital archive. Contributors can also choose to share the stories behind the photos in a short video, have their own keepsake photo taken, and get advice from professional archivists and historians on dating and caring for their family photos.

The photos you bring to the Mass. Memories Road Show event can be old or new, formal or informal – simply images that are important to you and that you feel are representative of your history, your family or your connection to Martha’s Vineyard.  The photographs can be in any format—prints, digital on a disc or a thumbdrive, or even on your cell phone!  After scanning, which takes only a few minutes, you get the original images back. For examples of photos people have brought to past events, visit the state website maintained by the University of Massachusetts Boston: http://openarchives.umb.edu.

Participants usually spend half an hour or more at community Road Show events. Getting your pictures scanned doesn’t take that long, and people will have enough time to complete their paperwork and linger to look at photos that other individuals have contributed.

Attendees who bring photos to scan can enter a raffle prize drawing for a $100 Bunch of Grapes Gift certificate, very generously donated by the MV Times!

The Mass. Memories Road Show is produced by the University Archives & Special Collections Department at the Joseph P. Healey Library, UMass Boston and co-sponsored by the Patricia C. Flaherty '81 Endowed Fund. Local funding provided by Friends of island Libraries, and a grant from the Martha's Vineyard Cultural Council. Additional support provided by the Mansion House Inn, Twin Oaks Inn, Martha's Vineyard Times, Vineyard Gazette, and Steamship Authority.