Digital Preservation

help from home

You can help preserve history from the comfort of your home!

If you’d like to help with our preservation efforts, consider transcribing historical documents, ephemera, and manuscripts for our digital archive all from your computer. Join us in our goal in making our town’s historical documents and data more accessible to all. (This section coming soon!)

Digital Detectives
In spite of our best efforts to keep detailed records, some photographs remain unidentified. Help us give names to the unnamed persons in our Unknown Database. Delve into old photographs and tintypes, chase down clues, and spend some time sleuthing.

Help identify >

Direct Results

Designated Preservation Funds

Interested in supporting a specific preservation cause? Donate to one of our designated preservation funds.

  • Preservation Maintenance Fund: Helps us hold on to the pieces of our history. Without vital maintenance our buildings are at risk. Your donations provide a source of income to preserve, safeguard and improve Durham’s historic buildings.


  • Union Church Museum Fund:  Support our plans to turn the Union Church into a Durham history museum for all to enjoy. This fund goes towards exhibition materials and supplies.


  • Collections and Archives Fund: Your kind donations go to supporting our collections department in their efforts to procure proper storage and archival materials to prevent further damage and continue important acquisitions for the archives.

*Funding page coming soon!

Painting the Union Church

Old Town Hall

Methodist Church Historic Register

Fixing the Union Church

Recapping Steeple

1979

Revere Bell

1979

Success in Steps

With the instrumental support from the community, the Durham Historical Society has achieved impactful results. Our preservation projects, while demanding, remain some of our most significant work.

Past Projects

Gone, but Not Forgotten


For various reasons and in various ways Durham has lost structures that played a significant role in the story of our town. Here we pay tribute to the buildings that used to stand proud in Durham and the lives that echoed in their walls. Let this serve as a testament to the importance of these structures and their direct connection to our community’s past.

In Memoriam: The Lost Buildings