Online archive a searchable database of area history Galesburg Register-Mail; Sunday, January 15, 2006 By JANET KLOCKENGA The Register-Mail A pictorial history of Galesburg now is just a few mouse clicks away. Galesburg Public Library archivist Patty Mosher has been working for 2 1/2 years to add historic photos of Galesburg to the digital photo archive, www.umvphotoarchive.org, which is a collection of photos from cities along the Upper Mississippi River Valley. On the site you may see a rare photograph showing historic Beecher Chapel in 1858 with its steeple, which was blown off in a windstorm shortly after it was built. And, the fiery collapse of the Union Hotel, where the Ramada Inn is now, as it burned in 1969. And a lot of historic events and places between those times. Mosher has put 305 Galesburg photographs on the site, and it continues to grow. It is a project funded by the Augustana College Humanities Fund, Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, Riverboat Development Authority and Illinois State Library. Compiling the site are archivists at museums and libraries up and down the Mississippi River, from Burlington to Dubuque in Iowa, and from Nauvoo to Galena in Illinois. Mosher said Galesburg is the town farthest east that's represented on the site - included because it is on a tributary of the river, Cedar Fork Creek. Galesburg images on the site span from 1857 to the present, and they are arranged in alphabetical order. Most of the photos are from the late 1800s to the 1930s, and they depict historic businesses and homes and some of the famous people who have visited here. Many of the images were taken from plates made at Osgood Photo Studio, a former business on Main Street. Mosher said Galesburg photographer Bill Foley rescued many of the Osgood glass plates from the trash and gave half to Knox College and half to the public library some years ago. Other images were donated by private citizens, Mosher said. Library volunteer Barbara Bulkeley scans the photos for Mosher, who then chronicles each before it's added to the site. Together, they have been adding 10 to 15 images a week, Mosher said. She also is helped by part-time archivist Linda Lacy, who does research on the images. Mosher uses Galesburg city directories and phone books to help verify information about each picture. All information must be verified before a photo is submitted for the site, she said. Mosher, a lifelong lover of history, enjoys her role chronicling the past. "These are wonderful images of Galesburg, they are treasures," Mosher said. "I think I have the best job in town. This is one of the most fun things I do." Mosher can make high-quality photo prints of the images on the site; an 8-by-10 photo costs $10, anything smaller is $5. Mosher said the site will be helpful to local genealogists and students, or anyone writing a history of the city. "It's great for instructional purposes and just to have some fun," she said. "Some of them aren't that pretty, but they're interesting to Galesburg." - - - On the Net: To find the Galesburg images on the site, go to www.umvphotoarchive.org, click on the Down arrow, choose Galesburg Public Library and click on Go.