photo by: Mike Yoder

Lawrence Public Library, pictured Aug. 20, 2015.

If you live in Lawrence, chances are you’ve heard the stories of Quantrill’s Raid, of the town’s abolitionist roots, of basketball greatness at the University of Kansas.

But there are other, lesser-known stories just as important to the history of Lawrence, and the Lawrence Public Library is on a mission to collect them. On June 30 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the library will host “You Are Local History,” an educational event inviting Lawrencians to share their own photos, documents and other keepsakes.

Dana Comi, a fellow at KU’s Hall Center for the Humanities, will be there to digitize the items. If you choose, you can also have your artifact added to the Digital Douglas County History archives. Launched in early 2017, the project features hundreds of images of Lawrence people, places and events, and is a collaboration of the library, the Watkins Museum of History and the Douglas County Genealogical Society.

“Really what we’re after is helping A, to be able to digitize people’s objects that are important to them and are special to them but B, also tell a particular story about Lawrence,” says Comi, a doctoral candidate in rhetoric and composition.

The “You are Local History” project marks an expansion of the digital archives to include objects and stories that tell a “more inclusive and representative history of Lawrence,” Comi says.

So far, the project has included stories from La Yarda, a community of Mexican railroad workers that sprung up more than 90 years ago in East Lawrence. Many of the artifacts from La Yarda suffered water damage when the small, brick houses were washed away in the flood of 1951, but “that’s another benefit of digitizing,” Comi says.

“Particularly in that example, we’re not asking people to give up physical objects that they want to hold onto,” she says of photographing or scanning items for the digital archives.

Another current project is the digitization of the original correspondence book for downtown’s Ernst & Son Hardware, which closed its doors earlier this month after 113 years in operation. The book, which dates back to the early 1900s, lists sales, salaries and other tidbits from the store’s history.

Earlier this week, Comi helped to digitize a quilt belonging to Mary Lou Wright, one of the original owners of The Raven Book Store. Over the years, writers passing through town would sign the quilt, which hangs in Wright’s home.

People don’t even need to bring in a physical object, Comi says. June 30’s event will also allow opportunities for recording oral histories or descriptions of items that may have been lost or damaged over time.

“It’s really easy to look at objects you have around your house — letters and photographs, recipes, even clothing items — and to feel like they’re not rare enough or historical enough to be included in an archive,” Comi says. “But we really are looking for everyday objects that tell stories about contemporary Lawrence life and life in Lawrence from years past.”

The library is also providing free flash drives for folks who want their items digitized but don’t necessarily want to share their keepsakes with the larger public. Donating a copy to the Digital Douglas County History archives isn’t required.

Registration, however, is. The library asks that visitors sign up for 30-minute appointments between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Appointments at alternative times are also available until July 20th. For more information, including registration, contact Dana Comi at dcomi@lplks.org.