Select Page

About the Project

Our Mission

Our mission is to build a digital archive of local historic documents, photos, maps, and personal accounts that tell the unique history of Natchitoches Parish Louisiana. The intent of this website is to provide an easy way to collect, share, enjoy, and learn from the stories of this old place we call home.

 

Why Do This?

While millions of historic photos and documents of Natchitoches can be found in museums and library archives throughout the parish, state of Louisiana, and other parts of the United States, many millions more are stored in our own homes and have been passed down from generation to generation. Our parents’, grandparents’, and even great-grandparents’ snapshots reveal historic information about our unique history including rural buildings, people, and customs.

A wealth of Natchitoches Parish history to be found in documents and on images tucked away in photo albums and shoeboxes in our own closets and attics. We believe there is an urgency to collect these stories and items they are lost to history with the passing of time, or discarded, and are sadly gone forever.

With your help, our objective is to collect and save as many of these historically relevant documents and images from old Natchitoches as we can. We expect to remain busy. Hopefully, as people learn of our work, more and more material will be made available to us, and with each passing year, more images from the 60s, 70s, and 80s are becoming historically relevant.

 

What’s Been Done So Far?

The Historic Natchitoches Archive Project began as an idea by a local resident and web developer.  This website was launched to inform the communities and organizations in Natchitoches Parish about the project. We are currently sponsored by small group of volunteers. A database is being developed that will be easily accessible to the public via the Internet. As participation and technology allows, we hope to bring the experiences of Historic Natchitoches to visitors in new and exciting ways.

 

How Can I Get Involved?

We would like to continue to scan, collect, and catalog documents and images. This website is only one way that the public can experience Historic Natchitoches. As time and volunteer participation allows, we would like to schedule themed photo exhibitions in the near future that would focus on our military, local cultures, events, and notable figures of Natchitoches, Louisiana.

To help add to our Historic Natchitoches Archive Project, bring your photos and documents to one of our next Scan Day events. For details and considerations regarding having your images scanned, please see the attached Scan Day information sheet.

  • Sign up for our newsletter to receive our updates and event notifications.
  • Volunteer to help scan documents and images.
  • Volunteer as a field photographer to help catalog items or locations that are not possible to scan.
  • Create An Account and upload your high resolution photos to be included in the database.

 

If you have specific questions about items you think we’d be interested in collecting, contact us here on the web site and we will arrange to have someone get back to you.