Chagrin Falls Historical Society Photograph Collection

The Chagrin Falls Historical Society is fortunate to have an extensive photograph collection which chronicles the businesses, government, houses, schools, and people of the Village and the surrounding area. The collection includes a series of glass plate images from the 1860s, photographs from The Chagrin Falls Exponent, images from the files of The Chagrin Valley Times, 1970s photos of businesses and of houses within the historic districts, and numerous photographs donated by Village residents and Village photographers.

Due to the efforts of several volunteers over the years, the majority of the collection has been cataloged; each photograph has been assigned a distinct accession number and stored in an acid free folder; and photographs are sorted and stored in topical boxes.

The current photography committee has been digitizing and electronically cataloging this collection over the past 4 years. To date 2,600 photographs have been processed. This represents approximately 70% of the cataloged collection and about 40% of all photographs held by the Society. The volunteers have also scanned images loaned to the Society. Paper reports and digital images have been shared with The Chagrin Falls Alumni Association and The Chagrin Valley Little Theater and upon request to other Village organizations.

The archiving software used to catalog the photographs permits us to search for photos of houses by address and to search for images of people by name even if the individual is pictured with a group.

Z. Sykora