New Audio Visual Workstation

The Historical Society recently installed an audio/video workstation to support the digitization of our extensive collection of oral histories, movie films, and videotapes. Many of the Society’s recordings are growing weaker with time, so converting them to digital formats allows us to preserve them for generations to come. Director Dave Rusher has just completed work on Costa Mesa’s 25th Anniversary oral history collection. Now he’s working on reel-to-reel recordings, starting with a tape of the very first meeting of the Society in 1966. Director Bob Palazzola has completed the rescue of 50 local history VHS videotapes and is starting to work on the SAAAB videotape collection. Shown here is the new workstation in action – digitizing a tape from the Helen (Vidal) Humphreys collection. This recording is in Spanish – habla Español, anyone?

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Girl Scout Troop Visit March 2009

Costa Mesa’s Cadette Girl Scout Troop #1072 visited the Society’s museum on March 1, 2009 to take a tour of city history covering prehistoric times up to the present.  One popular item was a set of 4 large aerial maps showing the city’s development status in 10-year increments from 1955 to 1985.  The girls had fun trying to locate their houses on the maps.  Shown here are Troop leader Laura Wells and 5 troop members on the tour led by docent Kathy Bequette.

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