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Valley's media archives moved to research-friendly location
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
YOUNGSTOWN
Randomly open a video container at the Business and Media Archives and read the list of stories it contains:
Don Hanni does not testify at hearing
Youngstown firebombing
Two children drown under Market Street Bridge
All were stories on one particular day’s newscast by WKBN-TV in 1984.
And it’s just one snapshot of the massive trove of daily local history that is available at the archives, which are owned and maintained by the Mahoning Valley Historical Society.
For years, the archives were housed in a warehouse setting in the IBM Building, downtown.
But as of today, the invaluable collection is now housed in more researcher-friendly environs in the Carriage House building, behind the Arms Family Museum, 648 Wick Ave.
H. William Lawson, director of the MVHS, said that the archives are not only in a much better and more convenient location, but that more than half of the tape has already been digitized and can be viewed on computer stations. Lawson spoke at a press conference Tuesday at the Carriage House.
The digitizing project is a massive undertaking; WKBN-TV donated more than 2.5 million feet of news film, covering the years 1955-1978, plus more than 1 million feet of news videotape, for 1978-1989. Every news story the station reported in those years is included.
Because the film is more fragile, it was digitized first – transferred to DVDs.
The archives are used for research by students, local and national news reporters, historians, genealogists and others seeking to uncover the recent past in the Mahoning Valley.
The MVHS was able to move the collection to the comfortable and scholarly environs of the Carriage House because the historical archives that previously had been housed there were recently moved to the Tyler History Center, downtown.
The MVHS will now use the space it had been renting in the IBM building for the storage of materials that do not require public access.
The news-media collection was donated to the MVHS in 1994 by the Williamson family, which founded and owned WKBN. The idea to turn the Carriage House into a public research center was first raised in the late 1970s by Warren P. Williamson Jr., who at the time was the chief of WKBN-TV and also the director of the MVHS.
“It’s an idea that has come full circle,” said Lawson. “More than 35 years later, here we are dedicating it.”
Lowry Stewart and Lynn Williamson, representing the Williamson family, were at Tuesday’s press conference. Large and retro-futuristic television editing machines, donated by WKBN-TV, are also on display at the Carriage House.
Stewart pointed out how rare it is for a cache of news programs to survive. He worked in the TV news business in San Francisco and said stations routinely discarded the film and videotape of newscasts in those days.
“We got fortunate,” he said. “WKBN had established a process of saving and referencing its film.”
Lawson noted that the Carriage House location is much more convenient to Youngstown State University students. The university, he said, played a significant role in cataloging the collection.
The MVHS Business and Media Archives in the Carriage House are open Tuesday through Friday from noon to 4 p.m.; and by appointment on Saturday and Sunday (call 330-743-2589).
It is suggested that researchers inquire first in order to make sure that the date they are seeking has been digitized. If it has not yet been digitized, it can be done quickly if a request is made.