Those old photos and school report cards you've been storing in the attic could be the key to understanding the 20th century.
So say administrators at the Howard County Historical Society, who want to add modern photos, business records and other documents to its collection of postcards, scrapbooks and account books dating to the 1790s.
"We'd really like to have more photos and personal records," said archivist Hank Griffith, who helps oversee the library on Court Avenue in Ellicott City. "This is tomorrow's history, and if you don't get it while it's here, it's gone."
Part of the Howard County Historical Society, the library has a collection of primary source materials that includes photos, annual agricultural reports, World War II selective service records, mortgage documents, property deeds and voter registration records.
It also has rare materials such as account books owned by Charles Carroll, who signed the Declaration of Independence. Dating to 1794, the books list clothing, shoes and other goods Carroll distributed to his slaves as well as debits and expenditures on mills and properties he owned throughout present-day Howard County.
Many of the library's records come from the county's well-to-do families. But to give an accurate view of the area's history, the library tries to collect materials from many diverse sources.
"If you have a wide variety of things, you still have a skewed but more rounded vision" of history, said Mary Mannix, the library's director.
To protect treasured documents, staff members suggest that the papers be stored in acid-free boxes in a place with low humidity and temperatures between 68 and 72 degrees Fahrenheit.
"So much of the damage to things comes from handling," Mr. Griffith said. "It's the fluctuation in temperature that makes paper contract and expand."
Many of the library's materials are donated by county residents. "People stroll up and give us stuff," Ms. Mannix said.
Recently, a man donated several boxes filled with agricultural extension records, annual reports and photos of proud youngsters posing with well-groomed calves and cows.
"We're getting a very good view of life in western Howard County," Ms. Mannix said. But she said the library has scant records of blacks and other minorities in the county.
"We'd really like to have more photos and personal records," Mr. Griffith said.
Staff members said the library attracts about 800 researchers a year, including genealogists and students researching school projects.
Last year, about 50 eighth-graders from Patapsco Valley Middle School in Ellicott City used the library to make a docudrama about the flood of 1868. The video is scheduled to air in April on Cable 6.
For the docudrama, students used information from marriage certificates, mortgage papers, deeds and census reports.
"It's really a service," eighth-grade social studies teacher Katherine Potocki said. "To me, it's such a neat way for the library to be used and get kids into the library."
To donate materials to the library, call library Director Mary Mannix at 750-0370 or visit the society at 8328 Court Ave., open Tuesdays noon to 8 p.m. and Saturdays noon to 5 p.m.