IndyPL needs help identifying old photographs for digital archive

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – The Indianapolis Public Library is looking for sleuths with knowledge of the city’s history by identifying old photographs through its history scavenger hunt.

It’s asking for volunteers to help take on this big project and to solve the mystery.

The clues are in photographs of parks.

Volunteers will help identify parks that were photographed from the early 1900s up through the 1990s with little or no information attached to them.

Digital Projects Coordinator Katie Farmer said there are 1,500 photographs and the man behind the camera is Rupert Daily whom was a photographer with Indy Parks for 40 years.

These photographs are a part of the library’s Digital Indy collection.

It’s an online archive of documents, images, videos, and recordings that highlight local history.

“It’s important for this to exists because in order to move forward you have to know your history. Having access to that history has been a major barrier prior to digitization efforts,” Farmer said.

Farmer added there is no deadline to identifying the photos, but it is giving themselves a year to get it done.

The library is also raising money to complete this project.

This collection will be among the digital collections of the Indianapolis fire, police department and Indianapolis Public Schools.