Description

Join us on the avenue for a Free Community Archiving Day with Vanguard Archives Consulting (VAC). This event is free to attend and participate. No appointment or RSVP is necessary to attend or participate.

Bring your photos and other scannable family valuables to the Historic Avenue Cultural Center. Our professional team will digitize your items on-site and provide digital files as well as guidance for preserving family records, stories, and memories.

Bring:

• Photos

• Letters and cards

• Recipes

• Programs

• Obituaries

• Other scannable family valuables

• Photos or records related to Mobile's historic Davis Avenue

In partnership with the Historic Avenue Cultural Center, we are also seeking any photos or records related to historic Davis Avenue for potential future use by the cultural center in displays and other educational resources (for more information contact VAC).

By hosting Free Community Archiving days, VAC seeks to support communities and families as well as live out its purpose-built mission and community-driven values. Learn more about VAC's services here.

Vanguard Archives Consulting (VAC) is a Mobile, Alabama-based archival consultancy and information management project incubator that specializes in helping communities to lead their own storytelling, self-documentation, and preservation. In addition to their work through free community archiving day events, VAC partners with organizations, institutions, private families, and other partners, such as Cave Canem, the internationally-renown organization for Black poets and poetry, and the Carnegie Museum of Art.

The Historic Avenue Cultural Center opened to the public on October 4, 2023, with "Remembering the Avenue," an exhibition curated by Jada Jones, mapping the history, legacy, and possible futures for historic Davis Avenue. The historic building has a long and significant history, having been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1983. Built as a mini-replica of the Ben May Library on Government Street, it was the Davis Avenue Branch of the Mobile Public Library and served as the local Black library during segregation. It later became the National African American Archives & Museum. In 2018, the Mobile County Commission, led by Commissioner Merceria Ludgood, secured the building for a 50-year term and subsequently invested in renovations and preservation prior to reopening as the cultural center, which anchors Mobile's emerging Civil Rights & Cultural Heritage District.