The Office of Hawaiian Affairs will release nearly 300 digital photos of Lahaina that date back to 1900, including images of the Baldwin home and the Lahaina Memorial Day Parade.
According to a Wednesday news release, the initiative to digitize archives in 2022 was a partnership between OHA and the Lahaina Restoration Foundation.
In last year's fires, the Lahaina Restoration Foundation lost 95% of its archival collection, including all of the physical archives involved in the OHA partnership. Luckily, the digitization of the historic items had already been completed.
The Lahaina Restoration Foundation lost 95% of its archival collection, including all of the physical pieces involved in the OHA partnership.
“The digitization done with the OHA partnership literally saved irreplaceable handwritten personal thoughts, emotions and stories from Lahaina’s past,” said Theo Morrison, executive director of LRF, in a news release.
Kale Hannahs, a research administrator for the Papakilo Database, where the photos are held, said it’s crucial to start digitizing archival work in case of natural disasters.
“While a lot of people say even the faintest ink is better than the best memory, a snapshot or a photo is worth more than 1,000 words in a lot of cases,” he said. “So having these collections like the historic Lahaina Photograph Collection, as well as the Baldwin Family collection that includes both photos and letters, really help to perpetuate and for people who have lost a lot as much as Maui has really shown the value of preservation in this sense.”
OHA is releasing the photos in five collections. The release of the Historic Lahaina Photography Collection will be followed by the Baldwin Photography Collection, Baldwin Letter Collection, and the Pioneer Mill Housing Maps Collection.
To view the images, click here.
