Archives bringing Axford interviews, footage into modern age
Jun. 23—A collection of photos, videos and interviews compiled by local historians and inaccessible to modern technology is being brought into the digital age, thanks to the work of a Limestone County Archives volunteer.
Jonathan Moss has been working with the Archives since April, and last month, he offered to convert oral history interviews conducted by Faye Axford, one of the authors of "The Lure and Lore of Limestone County," into a format that could be accessible by the public. The interviews had been recorded on videotape and cassette tape, but with Moss' help, the recordings are now accessible without the need of a VHS or tape player.
"We've had them here in the office for 20 or 30 years and never accessed them," Limestone County Archivist Rebekah Davis said, adding it was almost like a scene in "Indiana Jones" to be able to open the box of research and make it readily accessible.
Davis said Axford was a key figure in gathering the history of Limestone County and someone she remembers relying on through the years for information, whether it was as a child reading her books or as an adult browsing the decade books. As if having the primary source records already at the Archives wasn't enough, Axford's descendants reached out and let the Archives use the same boom box Axford used to record the interviews during the digitization process.
Moss explained he can put a cassette tape in the boom box, press play and have his computer record the audio in a software program that will convert it to a digital media file, like an .mp3. Moss said he can't listen to the tapes while they're being recorded by the computer, but he and Davis can watch some of the video tapes in Axford's collection.
"There was one showcasing Athens and The Square in 1990," Moss said.
It's a video that Davis hopes to include on the Archives' website to show what the downtown area looked like 30 years ago. The video shows businesses that were open around what is now The Square Arts & Entertainment District, while the narrator shares what used to be open.
"It's a period in Limestone County history that we don't have a lot of other records for," Davis said. "People want to take pictures of old, old stuff, but the '80s, '90s, 2000s — that's going to be old, old stuff, too."
While the video might make its way to the Archives' online display, much of the collection will remain only available to those who visit the Archives in person. Davis said the collection could grow as more of Axford's interviews and notes are uncovered by her family.
"There's multiple filing cabinets and book cases," Davis said. "She had taken pictures of buildings that are no longer here. ... She still had books in her that she had not written, that she had researched and not written."
In the meantime, they are setting their sights on another local historian and former reporter, Bob Dunnavant. Davis said Dunnavant's research helped piece together what Athens was like during wartime, and the Archives has photo negatives from events that Dunnavant covered, from a Ku Klux Klan rally in the 1970s to Space Camp to the Saturn V rocket being transported to the Welcome Center on Interstate 65.
"There's all kinds of stuff around here that we've never digitized, but we're getting there," Davis said, noting the Archives has been working on digitizing its collection for the better part of a decade.
Researchers, curious residents and anyone else interested in learning more about Limestone County's history can do so by visiting bit.ly/LCArchives to view the digital archives and master index, or stop by the Archives in person at 102 W. Washington St., Athens.
