IAAM History Free Document Scanning Day at The International American Museum

Join us on Monday, Oct. 14 for a special family and community history event at the IAAM. Preserve your family’s history with the IAAM’s Center for Family History, Faith-Based team and Vivid-Pix. The public will have the opportunity to scan and digitize up to 10 family photos (pre-1970s) and documents* using scanning software from Vivid-Pix (to use the scanner, photos and documents need to be 11”x17” or smaller).

This scanning event is free and will be held in the public Garden Level of the museum.

Please bring a 1 terrabyte USB drive. The digital scans of your documents and pictures will be saved on this drive for you to take home. You will also be asked to complete and sign a short donation form for the Center to add your donated records to the Center for Family History's archive.

Family elders can join, too. There will be a commemorative “story booth” audio recording area where  elders can record family memories or historic community memories from "back in the day."

There will be plenty of fun activities for younger family members, making this a day for the whole family!

Sign up to guarantee a time for a 15-minute scanning spot.

*Acceptable Documents & Images

• Church Obituaries
• Funeral Programs
• Birth Records
• Delayed Birth Records
• Marriage Records
• Death Records
• Pre-1970 Family Photographs
• Pictures of Old Black Charleston (neighborhoods, businesses, etc.)
• Family Bibles (with family birth, marriage, and death entries)
• Slavery-related documents

View the traveling Harriet Tubman The Journey to Freedom statue on the Garden Level when you visit. You can also visit the Follow the North Star exhibit before it leaves the Museum on its national tour (requires admission ticket)

If you would like to preserve the African American history of your community, and live within a 90-minute radius of Charleston, please contact cfh@iaamuseum.org to arrange an IAAM History scanning day in 2025.