You are invited to come visit the ~ The Family Album Archive Project at Family History Day ~ When: Saturday, October 16, 1999, from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Where: Westchester County Center, White Plains, New York Directions: See below Contact: Anthony Troncale at (212) 930-0821 for more information. Bring in your family albums and photographs to The Family Album Archive Project, Saturday, October 16, from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Westchester County Center, White Plains, New York. While there, get free advice on how to preserve and store your albums and photographs; Identify, date and interpret your photographs, and get tips on how to do research into your family histories. Also, come see how the latest in digital technologies can help you put your family photos on the internet. 1st 100 visitors get 5 (five) free scans of your photos for your home page! The following professionals have been recruited by FAAP to assist in advising you on how to best preserve your family photo albums. The FAAP wishes to express its thanks and gratitude for their contribution to the event and to the Westchester County Records and Archives Center for co-sponsoring the event. � Roger C. Watson, Assistant Director of Museum Studies, International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, will assist in interpreting your albums and provide tips on researching your photos. � Myriam DeArteni, exhibitions conservator, Exhibitions Program Office, The New York Public Library, will give advice on proper storage and handling of your albums and photographs, and suggest minor repairs to prevent further deterioration. � Janet F. Murray, Senior Archivist for Visual Materials, NYU/N-YHS Mellon Project, New-York Historical Society, will also be on hand to assist in preservation techniques, photographic identification and photo-historical research. � Neil Larson, historian and author specializing in New York history, will examine your albums to help evaluate and identify historically important photographs in your albums. � Anthony Troncale, Associate Head, Digital Imaging Unit, The New York Public Library, will show how scanners can digitally preserve the content of family albums and photographic images for future generations. One of the principle objectives of the Family Album Archive Project is to assist in the perpetuation of the family album for future generations. To help educate the public about the possibilities of using digital scanning technologies in preserving family albums, the FAAP will scan up to 5 (five) photographs or family album pages for FREE for the 1st 100 visitors who bring in their family albums. These will be saved as internet-ready image files onto a floppy diskette, which can them be taken home for viewing on a home computer, or uploaded onto a WWW home page. Time and Technology Threatens the Demise of the Family Album The traditional family album is in danger of disappearing, and those albums that do exist are in peril from deterioration. Many of the albums manufactured to hold photographs from ca. 1880 to 1960 were made of acidic papers, some even required the owner to paste in the photographs with harmful glues. With the invention of the Polaroid camera and the video cassette recorder, the acceleration of the demise of the traditional family album has quickened. Also, when family estates are dispersed, family albums are often left to be acquired by antique dealers who then disseminate the contents, losing their historical and genealogical value. Or worse, they are discarded altogether. The FAAP was created in 1998 to offer their assistance in helping to educate the public about the importance of preservation of the family photograph album and to gather important photographs relevant to an area's history and culture. If you would like to co-sponsor a Family Album Archive Project Day in your area, call us at: (212) 463-7947 or the web at: http://www.familyalbum.org The Family Album Archive Project, 140 Seventh Ave. #3C, NY, NY 10011. (212) 463-7947 ~ Directions to the Westchester County Center in White Plains, NY From New York City by train: Take the Metro-North Harlem line from Grand Central to White Plains. You can walk from the station to the County Center by going under the train tracks on Route 119 (Main St.) which will then curve west. About a 10 minute walk. Taxis are also available at the station. By car from New York City: Take West Side Highway north to Saw Mill River Parkway to Cross Westchester Expressway (I-287) eastbound. Exit 5, "Route 119 East-White Plains". County Center is 1/2 mile on the left. From Tappan Zee Bridge and points West: Follow New York State Thruway (I-87) to the Cross Westchester Expressway (I-287) eastbound. Exit 5, "Route 119 East-White Plains". County Center is 1/2 mile on the left. From Upstate New York: Take Taconic State Parkway to its southern end, follow signs to Bronx River Parkway and follow three miles to White Plains. Use Exit 22, The County Center is immediately on the right side. The Family Album Archive Project is featured at Family History Day, courtesy of Westchester County Executive, Andrew J. Spano; Westchester County Clerk, Leonard N. Spano; the Westchester County Department of Information Technologies, Division of Records & Archives; and the Hudson Valley Bank. For more information, call (914) 592-1925 or visit www.WestchesterGov.com/WCArchives.