Springfield Art & Historical Society receives negatives

COURTESY
SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — William and John Lashua recently donated their father’s collection of negatives to the Springfield Art & Historical Society. Bernie Lashua was a professional photographer and town police officer and photographer. This collection of negatives, from the late 1940s to 1980s, includes social and business gatherings, school, weddings, and passport pictures, Springfield Reporter pictures, and general Springfield photographs. Although it is impossible to tell at this point, it is estimated that there are over 20,000 negatives. Fortunately the negative sleeves are labeled and they are sorted by year.

The society is pleased to add this comprehensive collection to their archives but there is a lot of work to be done to preserve them. It is expected that it will cost a minimum of $5,000 to purchase several hundred additional archival negative sleeves and at least 1,000 new archival boxes; they are now housed in plastic totes and cardboard boxes. The negatives will then be re-sorted, re-boxed and labeled. Hopefully, at some later date, they can be digitized. The Springfield Art & Historical Society thanks the Lashuas for their valuable donation of Springfield’s history.