Nearly 37,000 photos captured by Pantagraph photographers from the period 1933 to 1944 have recently been made publicly available – the majority of which had never been published before.
Picturae Inc was provided the opportunity to digitize these negatives – many in the process of deterioration – to preserve them, and make them suitable for digital publication.

In 2012, The Pantagraph newspaper donated over 1 million negatives to the McLean County Museum of History. They depict remarkable photos of everyday moments and special occasions in McLean county history. Most have been stored away, unseen. The negatives were kept in archive boxes in the museum basement until funding became available to digitize the collection’s oldest negatives.

The process was incredibly inspiring for all who participated. After receiving the digital files, a museum employee added insightful metadata.