Steven Wade Veatch is a writer, historian, and Earth scientist whose work bridges deep time and the human story. Through his writing, Veatch invites readers to see the world as a layered archive where nature, time, and human experience meet. Steven is also a member of the Benzie Area Historical Society.
Steven Veatch spends every Friday at the Benzie Area Historical Society digitalizing photographs for the archives, taking original tintype photos and enhancing them. Steven is one of two volunteers that works with the historical photographs. His presentation shared many examples of the digitalizing image process which can take considerable time and can be tedious work to reduce the aging process of the original photographs. The process preserves memories for future generations.
Once photographs are enhanced, you can expand them and learn more about the lifestyle, for example, in the 1800s. Many houseplants and musical instruments can be found in a household.
If anyone has photographs and negatives that involve Benzie County, please consider taking them to the museum to have them digitalized not only for yourself, but for the Historical Society as well. AI (Artificial Intelligence) is used as part of the digitalizing process. Faces are never altered in the photographs. There is not a fee for the digitalizing process, but donations are always welcomed.
Benzie Area Historical Society is in the process of getting equipment for photographic slides.
You can view the photographs online at the Benzie Area Historical Society where the photographs are available for purchase.
Steven recommends that you handle your photographs with care. Always use acid-free materials and stable environments for physical storage. Create high-resolution backups before age and environmental factors cause further degradation. A photo without a name or date is a mystery, so you should identify as much information on the back of the photograph as possible. Industry standard is using a No. 2 pencil on the back of the photograph.
To view a recording of Steven's presentation on the club's unlisted YouTube channel, click the following link: https://youtu.be/qNIs0UVeWSo
To see Steven Veatch essays and articles:
https://coloradoearthscience.blogspot.com/
Poetry:
https://stevenveatch.blogspot.com/
You can contact Steven at steven.veatch@gmail.com