Young and old in Hoogeveen dig through photo albums together in search of historical snapshots

View old photos, looking for historical information to then preserve for posterity. The Historical Circle in Hoogeveen is working on it every day. A busy activity, but today they get help from students from the Alfa-College. They archive photos of residents of the Olde Kinholt care center.

“As a Historical Circle, we often receive photo material, but we do not know the story behind the pictures,” explains board member Jeannette van Slochteren-Koops. “Older people live in a care center who may have old photos of Hoogeveen and can tell a story about them. That is why we came up with this plan. The government has a project to involve young people in cultural activities. That is why we have Alfa-College approached and the school wanted to collaborate.”

Residents can bring their own photo book today. It is pleasantly busy in the coffee room of Olde Kinholt. Every few minutes another resident arrives with a photo album. “Here,” points out resident Arend Zomer. “I brought a photo of my former business on the Hoofdstraat in Hoogeveen. That was a grocery store. The first in Drenthe.”

Student Iris from Alfa-College gets the honor of digitizing his photo. She does this with a special app on a tablet. “We scan the photo. The photo then becomes sharper and gets beautiful colors. Then we ask the resident what the story behind the photo is and we save it. It is actually very easy to do.” Summer nods approvingly. “Beautiful, beautiful,” he adds.

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