BATON ROUGE - Inside John B. Cade Library on the campus of Southern University, the Archive Department works to preserve thousands of historical photos and documents as the school's official repository.

Angela Proctor, the head archivist and digitization librarian, watches over the past, carrying it into the future.

"Southern's history is my passion and I think it's unique," Proctor said.

In 2024, the university partnered with Getty Images to help digitize boxes upon boxes of photographs in the archives to make them more publicly accessible. Proctor said preservation is a big part of the work of the archives, citing climate control and humidity as factors that contribute to damage to collections.

"If you have a flood or anything happens, your originals are then no longer available. So, the technology part of what we do, is a really big impact because it allows us to have your history in more than one location," Proctor said.

Proctor estimates that students on the projects, who are paid for their work, scanned roughly 10% of the thousands of photographs so far.

Along with the photos, the university also entered two sets of slave narratives into the school's digital archives. The two separate collections are maintained by the university and detail first-hand accounts of people who were enslaved before and during the Civil War.

"This was constructed by our dean, John B Cade, and he was a history person. He instilled in the students... he had them go out and interview ex-slaves. They were students, they were in school," Proctor said.

Proctor said the department preserves history, so others might look back and learn from it.

"You can't erase it, but it does repeat itself. The importance of having these narratives from this time frame... it's important because as time changes or we're reverting back, we're starting to see these narratives come into play," she said.

Proctor's work with Southern University spans 40 years, not including the time when she attended as a student herself.
"When I was a student here, half these buildings weren't here, you know? I've gotten this opportunity to see how the university has evolved," she said.

To find the Archives Department's database, click here.