Dive Into Our Digital Collection
The link below will take you to our new PastPerfect Online Collection Database, which provides access to the museum’s artifact collection for anyone conducting research or exploring local history. This digital catalog is actively being updated, and new artifact descriptions and photographs are added regularly. We invite you to browse the collection as it continues to grow and offer deeper insight into the museum’s holdings.
Note: if you encounter an artifact photo that looks like the one below, and desire a better photo, please contact the museum via the “Send Us Feedback” feature on the search results page.
Why are photos like this in the museum’s records?
When the Bedford Heritage Trust took over the collection on behalf of the borough back in 2013, most of the inventory was the written word only. We were fortunate, however, that one former curator of the museum, Larry Yantz, had done a paper inventory around 2005 that included “thumbnail” size photographs (see below), and, 2 years ago, we added these photos to our database.
As part of making our collection available online, we have undertaken to make sure there is a photo of EVERY artifact in the inventory. When we started this effort, there were more than 2000 artifacts lacking ANY photo, and we are pursuing photographing them first. During the process, we are also adding newer, clearer pictures to those that only have the thumbprint. But there are cases where we have not yet updated the ones with thumbprints – so if you encounter one and would like a better photo, please tell us, and we will prioritize taking one and adding it to our database as well as sending you a copy.