Donate to Richmond In Sight

Current Storage System:
Your donation, even though it is no longer tax deductible, provides Richmond In Sight:
  • with equipment to restore, and archive materials to preserve, the Stilson photograph collection
  • materials to produce and share presentations as well as edit, layout and print books and images
  • basic expenses like tolls, parking and gas incurred while collecting oral histories or giving presentations
  • build and set-up a computer and storage system to operate a large format scanner donated recently

Richmond In Sight is a nonprofit organization created to restore and preserve these precious glimpses of an earlier Richmond and beyond the city limits.  The Harris Stilson collection is a treasure. It shouldn’t be hoarded but shared. Presentations at schools, neighborhood associations, and other venues will bring Richmond history alive to a larger audience. Likewise, the oral histories of our elderly Richmonders that I record are priceless pieces of our past. Their stories, combined with the Stilson photos, allow us a rare visit to Richmond of the early 1900s. That vision is the inspiration for Richmond In Sight.

Before this can happen, the images need to be restored to a viewable format. Hundreds of the nearly 3,000 images are negatives and must be scanned, printed and indexed. The prints need to be restored and preserved.  When someone asks if I have a photo of a particular subject, my answer is “maybe”. Without a complete indexing and the scanning of all the images, there is no way to know what is in the pictures.

Doing all this is expensive. We’re applying for grants but that takes time and time is my worst enemy.  The people I’m interviewing are dying. I’ve lost two dear friends recently and others are becoming frail or memories are failing. These fading pictures need protection and I can’t supply that. I need access to the pictures while I write books, offer online services and make presentations. I need indexing and working prints. We do not have the funds to restore them so that we can do those things.  I want Harry’s pictures to be seen, to be a learning tool and a way for Richmonders to connect with who we were a century ago.

For that to happen, we need financial help. We’re hoping that corporate and private donations will speed our work. Your tax-deductible donation will get us a little closer to the restoration of a priceless piece of Richmond history.  If you have access to a corporate ear, we can use all the help we can get. You can contact us using the form on our contact page or simply send a check to:

Richmond In Sight
PO Box 65
Midlothian Virginia, 23113