Hi, Julie,
We're your neighbors to the east. :) Although we are much smaller, and have
a smaller collection, we've found that running old photos in our newsletter
and local newspaper, holding public photo ID days, and publishing a book of
images (part of Arcadia's "Images of America" series) has helped to
publicize our photos. You might want to think about postcards featuring your
images - these could be popular not only in your gift shop, but in other
local museums and tourist sites.
If you are trying to tap into business clients who may want to decorate with
historic images, get in touch with the Chamber of Commerce. If you are a
member, they may allow you to purchase mailing labels for a one-time use and
you can prepare some kind of mailing to let them know about opportunities to
use your images. We've had corporate clients who come in to see us as a
result of seeing our images in other stores.
You may already know this, but all the local QFC stores are decorating with
local historic photos. If they haven't approached you yet, you may want to
talk to a regional manager.
And I can tell you that the searchable images are definitely being used by
amateur historians! Many of my members have mentioned the images to me.
Hope this helps!
Erica
Erica S. Maniez
Museum Director, Issaquah Historical Society
425/392-3500
[log in to unmask]
www.issaquahhistory.org
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
> Behalf Of Julie Kerssen
> Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 11:58 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: promoting photo collections
>
>
> Hi all -
>
> What kinds of things are you all doing to promote usage of your photo
> collections? Our museum has about 2 million photos relating to
> Seattle and
> the Pacific Northwest. There's a lot of great stuff in there, and people
> "in the know" (scholars, media folks, etc.) do use our materials.
> However,
> we'd like to spread the word a bit more and be more proactive about
> promoting the collection. This probably means expanding beyond a
> specialized audience and bringing in more people who just think old photos
> are "cool," want to use them to decorate their business, etc. We've got
> over 5000 images in a searchable database online, which has increased our
> visibility (and our photo sales), but we're trying to think of other
> creative ways to promote the collection.
>
> I'm curious about what other museums and archives are doing in this vein.
> How are you getting the word out about the fabulous materials in your
> collection -- public events, direct marketing, creative use of the web - ?
>
> Julie Kerssen
> Museum of History and Industry
> 206/324-1685 x17
> [log in to unmask]
>
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