An image like this one of WHAV’s former How Street sudio is among the 3,000 photographs digitized for public viewing as part of the Haverhill Public Library’s new Senter Digital Archive. (Photograph courtesy of the Trustees of the Haverhill Public Library, Special Collections Department)
Haverhill residents are able to take a trip down memory lane from the comfort of their own homes courtesy of a new digital archive of 50,000 photos available from the Haverhill Public Library.
The Senter Digital Archive went online this week as part of the library’s special collections and includes over 3,000 images documenting Haverhill’s history. Funded through a private donation, the collection is catalogued by Dana Gee.
“Haverhill has a wonderfully rich cultural and industrial history. This collection contains a little bit of everything, the Library’s Head of Reference Elizabeth Rieur said.
The collection is expected to serve as a resource for students, genealogists and historians, in addition to everyday library patrons. Putting the collection online with the assistance of the New England Document Conservation Center was a priority for the Haverhill Public Library so that patrons far and wide may utilize the directory.
“It’s critical that we preserve and promote this history of our city, and we are working to achieve that goal by making our collection digitally available to anyone in the world,” Library Director Sarah Moser explained.
New images are added daily and date back to the 1850s. Studio portraits, press photographs, and work by local photographers are contained in the directory of photos highlighting Haverhill architecture, businesses, people, schools, monuments and more.
To access the resource 24/7, visit haverhill.pastperfectonline.com and enter a keyword, such as “Winnekenni,” to view images. A collection of random images is also available. All images are watermarked, and permission from the library is required to obtain non-watermarked copies.