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Sharing Historically Significant Documents with the Public

Home » Genealogy » Pictures and Rare Documents - How to Share them with Future Generations » Sharing Historically Significant Documents with the Public
Posted by Your Guide on July 6, 2006 9:54 PM

There are documents that are important to just a few people in a close family and others that are important to the community as a whole. When your family has been instrumental in the formation and development of a community, there will be documents that are of personal and sentimental value to you that also enhance the culture of the community in which your ancestor lived. When that circumstance arises, it is important to share a few articles from your ancestor's life that will be valued and protected by the community.

Each community has its own repository for protecting historical documents, whether that repository is at the local court house, library, or archives is unimportant as long as the facility has the means to protect the document as well as make it available for members of the community to view.

Archives often make exact copies of important documents and allow those copies to be placed on display for public viewing. Other historical documents are too valuable and the experience of viewing them would be cheapened if the public thought they were viewing a copy rather than the original. The Declaration of Independence is one example. Would you travel to Washington D.C. to view a copy of the Declaration of Independence? Would your heart be stirred by the echoes of liberty and justice if you knew you were viewing an elaborate photo copy of the precious document? The answer is "Probably not."

In these instances it is important to make use of extreme security measures and modified lighting so that the document on display is not harmed in any way despite it being out in the public viewing area.

Many communities have documents and photos that are just as valuable to the local area but have even more significance to the family members of those involved. When your family is sharing original documents with a local entity, it is advisable to allow that document to be placed on display as a loan from the family. However, it is also permissible to give a gift to the community that will enrich the entire population.



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