PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield's public library, and Pittsfield's Community Development Department announced that the historic Pittsfield Parks Department Scrapbooks are now available for online viewing thanks to a grant from the Pittsfield Community Preservation Committee.

 

Staff of the Parks Department maintained scrapbooks of news clippings, programs, and other documents relating to local sports teams, parades, Winter Carnival Queen contests, diaper derbies, Easter Egg hunts, local playground events, and a host of other city happenings. 

 

In 2008, staff of the Athenaeum's Local History Department accepted 62 scrapbooks, covering the years 1943-2007, that were housed at the Springside House, former headquarters of the Parks Department.

 

Library staff stabilized the volumes and their contents according to archival standards, had them professionally digitized, and made them available for online browsing and searching as a collection in the Internet Archive. The scrapbooks run to over 8700 pages and offer a peek into Pittsfield's rich cultural recreational history.

 

The Community Preservation Act (CPA) was adopted in Massachusetts in 2000. The purpose of CPA is to enable a locally supported fund supplemented with a partial match from the state that could be utilized for projects that involve historic preservation, open space, outdoor recreation, and affordable housing.