Red Deerians and historical researchers are invited to browse photographs from the Red Deer Advocate via a new digital archives collection that launched on Tuesday.
The Red Deer Advocate Collection includes images that were taken as part of the outlet’s news coverage between the 1960s and 1990s, some of which were never published. Due to copyright restrictions, these photographs had been limited to in-house searching for Red Deer Archives staff since 1999.
“These photographs have been a great resource tucked away inside the Red Deer Advocate’s collection for many years. It’s wonderful to now have the permission from Red Deer Advocate and Black Press Media to share them with the public,” said Jillian Staniec, archives co-ordinator.
Over 1,000 images have already been added to the online Red Deer Advocate Collection, which can be viewed at https://reddeer.access.preservica.com/.
The physical collection contains over 40,000 photographs of Red Deer’s history and is available in-house for anyone to search and access.
“The Red Deer Advocate has a long and storied history in our community. We are thrilled and grateful that The City of Red Deer and Red Deer Archives has been able digitize hundreds of photographs from our publication, which will help citizens enjoy a trip down memory lane and reconnect with historical events,” added Byron Hackett, managing editor of the Red Deer Advocate.
As work continues to upload the entire collection online, thousands of images have yet to be listed and digitized; the online collection will continue to grow over the coming years.
Researchers are encouraged to contact the Red Deer Archives for assistance if they do not find the images they are looking for while browsing the digital collection.
Red Deer Archives welcomes anyone with historical photos or videos related to Red Deer and area to consider donating these items to the community’s collection. For more information, please visit reddeer.ca/archives.