Exterior view of the Northwest Regional Library, 1979. (Photographer: Elliott Kaufman) (Photo courtesy of the Joseph E. Coleman Library archives.)
Scanners and exhibits and neighbors, oh my!
That’s the scene set for Archives Month at the Joseph E. Coleman Library, where the Germantown community is invited to continue making hyperlocal history — together.
Thanks to support from the Philadelphia Funder Collaborative for the Semiquincentennial and the William Penn Foundation through the Hyperlocal Heritage Grant, our neighborhood library has been filled with programs centered on digital scanning, scrapbooking, and genealogy that neighbors could engage in to build and strengthen their archival wit.
This has been dubbed the Let’s Make Histories! (LMH!) program, which kicked off in October 2024.
A year later, programming is still going strong, with an effort to bring more Germantown public history to the library, not only to explore their own collections but also to expand them, hence the participatory nature of the programming.
Alongside its usual offerings, the Coleman Library has expanded its archival programming to align with this month’s theme.
What’s Happening This Month
Unedited Philadelphia: Germantown
This Saturday, John Pettit from Temple University’s Urban Archives will present a screening featuring the “Unedited Philadelphia” documentary, where neighbors can experience a blast from the past as he showcases raw news footage from the 1940s to the 1990s, depicting life, art, and politics in the Philadelphia region.
The footage will focus on the Germantown community, with a conversation to follow the screening. This event will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Pit of the library, located on the lower level beneath the dragon.
Germantown Community Archiving Fair
Next Saturday, October 25, from 1–4:00 p.m., the library will transform into a memory-making mecca for the second year in a row for the Germantown Community Archiving Fair.
Last year’s fair was the official launch of LMH! Programming, which Librarian Molly Ward said was really about “leveling the playing field” on who gets to make and share histories. This year, they’re keeping the same spirit but expanding their offerings.
Anchored as “stations,” different components will set the stage for this year’s fair, including the three centered in the LMH! Series (digital scanning, scrapbooking, and genealogy) alongside community conversations, where neighbors can bring their materials (old photos, small objects, VHS, etc.) and reflect on the past, present, and future of Germantown — and its regional library.
The idea of having a community conversation originated from a staff member’s behind-the-scenes archival moment, where Librarian Caroline Slama discovered old coverage from 1979 featuring a series of discussions in the same spirit.
“So, it is an act of sort of archival resurrection that we’re bringing out of this conversation,” Ward said, deeming it a “tradition.”
In the same spirit of tradition, the library’s famous dragon, initially revealed in 1979 as “Regional Ricky” in The Pit, will be unveiled after a few years of absence, having been covered to protect it from a leaky roof. Along with it will come a renaming, also following the 1979 process.
“They had a naming contest to name that dragon,” Ward revealed.
To celebrate the installation of a new roof, ensuring the longevity of the dragon, the staff has launched an ongoing contest, allowing neighbors to share their suggestions. The winning name will be announced at the fair.
There will also be archival materials in process by Raina Leon and Tieshka Smith, with a VHS digitizing station by Marcellus Armstrong.
Ward also hopes to add an oral histories element, allowing neighbors to share and capture their memories at the fair, but those plans are tentative.
Ancient Technologies: Modes of Memory
The last component, which is especially new this year, is a special exhibit curated by the library’s very own Andrea Lemoins.
This exhibit showcases how older technology — specifically analog and early digital — continues to shape how we make, store, and share memories. Take a few of Lemoins’s examples.
How many times have you thought about how the technology used to create a Polaroid in the 1970s is still incorporated into the technology that allows instant capturing on your phone? Or how physical slide decks and projectors have eventually rebranded into what we might call “PowerPoint presentations?”
Probably not much. However, to Lemoins, people must consider how the evolution of technology impacts our memory and communication, as these same tools carry feelings, rituals, and practices that are deeply ingrained in our culture.
Reconsider the physical slide decks and projectors, as another example.
While it may be hard to consider in 2025, decades ago, families and friends would often have get-togethers where they screened footage and photos from their individual and respective family vacations, graduation ceremonies, weddings, and other special experiences.
Loved ones recollected their memories, usually answering questions, providing more context to a scene, and offering recommendations to gatherers on what to see/do if they ever have the experience. These were rituals within themselves, where new memories got to blossom from old.
The slide deck and projectors weren’t just things to show memories, but rather active participants in the memory-making and sharing process. Not just interacted with, but interacting with.
It underscores that “items are alive,” as the library’s exhibit description suggests.
It’s why people have an emotional connection to elder tech they may come across, Ward said, like when seeing a VHS tape at a thrift shop or after holding a camcorder after 20 years.
It’s a similar logic that the animals in our homes aren’t just pets, but family.
But how does something like that relate to today, when virtually no child — and perhaps even a younger millennial — has any living memory of those chunky cartridges that went into even chunkier projectors?
Well, what used to be a time to gather around sentimental memories and create new ones could now be viewed as fleeting “September dump” captioned Instagram carousels by your cousin – the one you only text on family holiday group thread.
You probably saw it during your routine bathroom break at work, and chances are you won’t think about it ever again.
Lemoins’s exhibit invites community members to interrogate these pasts and presents connections, while making space for the future, as things phase more and more away from the physical realm.
“How do we still keep them?” Lemoins poses, pointing to things like baby pictures, pinning ceremony footage, and funeral programs, often shared today as digital-only content.
“It’s very different in that there’s that community that’s kind of missing,” she said.
Over the next year, visitors will have the chance to interact with more than 70 objects, like 8mm & 16mm film projectors, VHS players, shoulder camcorders, vintage rotary phones, and more, through hands-on exploration and story-sharing.
Community members will be invited, when prompted, to bring their own items and materials to try on these various modes of memory. Lemoins shared that even if you think something may not work, they still invite you to bring it and try.
Memory is Literacy
When people think about literacy, reading and writing are the typical components at the forefront. This common association extends to the library, as people often underestimate the value and services that libraries bring to a community, besides being a bestower of books.
“There are so many different kinds of literacy,” Lemoins said, emphasizing that libraries usually help folks access different kinds, whether it’s foundational, health, or technology.
And archiving is a form of memory literacy.
Ward makes the case that it builds literacy because “it’s how we read ourselves,” no matter the mode of memory. “We learn to read ourselves by talking about who we are, where we are, where we came from, and what happened before,” she said.
Beyond that, it’s learning the effective ways to preserve history based on the history being preserved, according to Lemoins. “It’s sight, it’s visual, it’s smell, it’s touch,” she emphasized.
“There’s so much that goes into us remembering.”
She recommends that folks see local filmmaker Marcellus Armstrong’s “Talking Walls” documentary as an example.
More about “Talking Walls”
An audio-visual project capturing the stories of Black and queer individuals, focusing on personal experiences and spaces. It features recorded interviews from people in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, and Detroit, with plans for future expansion.
“It was such a moment of Black memory,” she recalled watching the film, feeling reunited with her own roots. “I swear I could smell the plastic on people’s sofas, you know?”
And for Lemoins, there’s no better place to do this kind of work than at the library, which she deems the “Public Record.”
And especially because it’s the place you’ll usually find access to and build bridges to the other literacies needed for memory work.
Public Libraries for Public Histories
Why has archival and preservation work become such a pillar of the Coleman Library?
“Because we’re a public library. And public history is this thing that is talked about in colleges and universities and academia, but public history is the history of the public, and it should be by and for the public,” said Ward.
“We’re just making the invisible visible,” Lemoin adds, hinting at earlier points about the limited public perception of library services.
“This is what public libraries have always done. Most public libraries, even here [in Philly], have a small archive of local information. Especially any library that’s been named after someone.”
Lemoins credits the professionalization and institutionalizing of archiving as a possible reason for the disconnect. But she says it’s vital community members understand “what some people think is unprofessional is what professional archives are built on.”
The Coleman Library has already begun to fulfill its commitment to making histories more accessible. Through the PA Photos & Documents Power Library, the library’s archives are open access, meaning anyone can access them at any time.
Neighbors can contribute their archival materials to the Germantown History Collection or receive guidance to create their own. Digitized materials will be returned on a flash drive, and you can also add your archives to the Coleman Library’s collection.
Extended Invitation and Regular Offerings
Ward emphasizes that there’s no better time than during the approaching semi-quincentennial to share and create memories in the Germantown neighborhood intentionally.
“Invoking memory helps us feel more present,” she said. “Being present makes us feel good and helps us imagine a future together.”
While Archives Month only lasts for a limited time, the Coleman Library will continue to offer its regularly scheduled LMH! Programming.
Digitize Your Archives (Tuesdays from 5-6:30 p.m.)
Bring your photographs and documents to open hours for digital scanning services. Learn how to share and preserve your family and personal records effectively.
Digitization does require an in-advance appointment.
Let’s Art! (Fridays from 2-3:30 p.m.)
A community art-making session where you can draw your futures or put memories on a page. Colored pencils, watercolors, and collage materials will be provided; you just need to bring your own photos, drawings, or paper.
The Coleman Library sits at 68 W. Chelten Ave. Its hours of operation are Monday & Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Wednesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. They are closed on Sunday.
To learn more about the Coleman Library’s offerings and services, visit the Free Library website and stay updated in real time on Instagram and Facebook.