The Museum’s historic archives are now accessible anytime, anywhere. Thanks to a generous 2019 anonymous donation, all primary source documents and historic photographs in the Museum’s collection have been digitized and made available online through our content partner, Digital Maryland.

The digital collection offers a bounty of engaging opportunities for serious researchers and casual visitors alike. These experiences can include exploration of over 190 collective years of diary entries, 630 personal letters, and over half a century’s worth of purchases at local 19th century general stores that once abounded in the area.

The Museum’s digital archives make activation possible of underrecognized and underrepresented stories held within the physical collections. This achievement in accessibility has burst open new, meaningful opportunities for projects deeply aligned with the Museum’s mission to advance social equity and connect diverse communities:

• The initiative called Equity in Metadata is redressing previous racially-skewed cataloging practices and is leveraging the digital platform to provide access to previously unrecognized stories of Black men and women in Sandy Spring.

• Online, crowdsourced transcription of historic documents in Sandy Spring Museum’s collection draws volunteers deep into the personal, daily experiences of the community’s long-lost members. It offers an intimate, personal connection to the material that is not possible without digitization.