Fort Smith (Jan 10/05) - The curator of the Northern Life Museum is asking people in Fort Smith to root through their family albums and old shoeboxes for photos of river traffic from times gone by.

Kevin Brunt would like to supplement the museum's photo collection and may use the pictures in new displays.

Curator Kevin Brunt checks out Canus, the legendary whooping crane, prior to the Northern Life Museum's reopening last summer.

By canvassing the community, he hopes to get a wide selection of photos from which he can create the most representative displays of Fort Smith's shipping heritage.

"We don't have that many photos and there are gaps in the collection," said Brunt.

The museum could use photos from other archives and museums, but those sources charge reproduction fees.

By using scans of photographs brought in by the community, the museum can avoid the undue expense while making the displays more personal and locally relevant.

In particular, Brunt is seeking photos of the Radium King in action and of the shipyards that were once located in Fort Smith.

The Radium King is now drydocked in the museum's backyard, and is the centrepiece of the outdoor exhibits.

The museum won't keep the photos. Staff will scan them into an easily stored digital format and return them to their owners.

Brunt plans to enlarge the photos he selects and use them on interpretive panels for the inside and outside exhibits.

"One of the big challenges with photographs is convincing people that they're valuable," said Brunt.

Another is identifying the people and places in the photos for posterity.

"I have pictures I took myself five or six years ago where I can't remember someone's name," he said laughing.