ABOUT US:

First, we'd like to thank you for your interest in and support of Northwest Indiana's history. It is through the still and motion pictures of our past that provide a valuable and nostalgic glimpse into where we've been and where we're going. MAHP is fortunate and pleased to be able to provide some of these memorable links to our past.

 Our Mission Statement

Mid-American Heritage Preservation Foundation, Incorporated is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to the digital preservation of historic films and images for the benefit of students, educators and researchers worldwide.

What does “digital preservation” mean?

Digital preservation is how we refer to the process of taking the images from their fragile physical state to a stable digital format.  Reel film, negatives, artwork and photographs are scanned in various ways into a computer hard drive, preserved indefinitely. We transfer these images to digital format so that they will not deteriorate any further to be lost forever.  With the help of state and local libraries and archives, MAHP's intent is to become the Mid-American Region's own historic archive and digital transfer service.  

What does that mean to you? 

This means we are continually searching for and archiving rare, historic films and photographs to make The MAHP your first stop on the road through your past.  Our digital archives contain film footage that can be provided to you on VHS or DVD, and still images that can be provided to you as computer image files in any size and printed copies of sizes up to 2’ X 3’.   We only ask that you donate to the cost of printing and shipping it in return.

Where do we get the images we “preserve”?

You know the kinds of images we’re talking about.  They are in your attic dry-rotting…they are in your basement getting moldy.  Those old films, negatives and photographs that you always meant to do something with.  We provide a transfer service that can digitally reproduce them for you to share with friends and family.  When the images that come to us have some local historic relevance, we will digitally transfer those portions at no cost (provided we are allowed to include them in our archives for future historic productions).

Why are we doing all this archiving?

Often the images that come to us are already in poor condition.  The films are often suffering from “vinegar syndrome” and the images are cracked and faded.  Also, there are few who have working equipment to view their old films, and fewer who actually pull that old projector out of the closet to see these old memories again.  Without physically preserving them so that they are protected from further damage, these images will be lost forever.  Rather than lose access to these small pieces of our history, we digitally preserve them, clean them up or “repair” them digitally, making them available for generations to come.

A note on the images we provide: