Kawartha Lakes Museum & Archives digitizing 60 years of Lindsay Post newspapers and 4,000 Post negatives

Jenna Locke digitizing issue of The Lindsay Post.

Lindsay – Kawartha Lakes Museum & Archives staff have been busy over the past few months digitizing and making available to the public Lindsay Post issues and 4,000 negatives that belonged to Alan Capon, a former editor of the Post. Project staff, Jenna Locke and Har-Leigh Arsenault will digitize issues 1915 to 1973 and negatives dating between the 1960s and 1970s over the course of this year. Issues will be uploaded as they are completed to the Internet Archive which provides easy and effective keyword search that will aid researchers find their information quickly. Access can be found here.

Har-Leigh Arsenault in the process of scanning 120 negatives.

“In recognizing the historical gap present in Kawartha Lakes’ history after 1914, this project seeks to fill this history for researchers in our area that hasn’t been made available before,” says Zac Miller, Archivist at KLMA. “When looking at the negatives that have been scanned, many are of events and individuals that people today will remember and reminisce about fondly,” continues Miller.  

Events such as the Academy Theatre being renovated, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker visiting Lindsay, Lindsay Little Theatre shows, Kinmount Fair, and many scenery photographs of Fenelon Falls and Fenelon Museum are present within Capon’s negatives. “Digitizing and describing these negatives is rewarding because so many of these events and moments captured would not be written about in the history books, but document important fragments – big or small – of our history not seen before,” comments Har-Leigh Arsenault, project assistant.

Once all negatives have been scanned, a virtual exhibit on Alan Capon will be featured on Kawartha Lakes Museum & Archives website that will detail the life of Capon and feature highlights of some of the negatives that represent the history of Kawartha Lakes in the 60s and 70s. This exhibit will be launched in early 2024.