Marking milestone anniversaries involves celebrating our shared past, present, and future.
Many records of our past celebrations have been preserved in the City of Winnipeg Archives. Most of these records are correspondence and photographs of how we celebrated.
Another important type of record that gives us a glimpse into the past is video.
“We are fortunate that events from the city’s 75th anniversary were partly captured in film,” said Sarah Ramsden, Senior Archivist in our Archives.
Winnipeg Celebrates: A Picture Story of Winnipeg’s 75th Anniversary Week by Ivan Lambert features the parade held that year. The parade was a celebration of our history, culture, and industry. It also provides a unique look at Winnipeg's cultural diversity in 1949.
Lambert gifted the City the film reel and a projector for playing it. These have been preserved by Archives staff. The film was eventually digitized to improve access.
Preserving our present
As we celebrate 150 years as a city, we know many of the records will be digital. Instead of film reels, videos will be on formats such as MP4.
Archives staff have started the work to preserve these digital records for future generations. This includes securing storage space for a growing volume of records. Video files are particularly large and require a lot of storage space.
They are also busy creating copies to preserve the files. Preserving digital files is more complicated than other types of records. Digital files also have incredibly short life-spans when compared to other records.
“One of the challenges with any kind of digital record is making sure that as technology changes, we still have applications that can open and read these files,” said Ramsden.
“If we don’t, we have to look at changing the file format to make sure it’s accessible. We then must document all the actions that were taken. We do this so we can prove the record is still a true and accurate version of the original.”
Archives staff have made progress to address these challenges. They are dedicated to ensure our digital heritage is preserved.
To see examples of how filmmakers use video to tell stories, visit the City of Winnipeg Archives’ Souvenirs exhibit.