By Sara StrongThe Rock County Historical Society is connecting people with the past in a new way.The museum volunteers are caretaking and cataloging old newspaper negatives from the Star Herald and Myhre Studio.Historical Society President Betty Mann said, "Obviously, this is very fascinating to me."The Star Herald negatives are from the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s. The Myhre ones are from 1931 to 1939."We have graduation and confirmation portraits, wedding pictures — everything from the studio in those years," Mann said.Sam and June Polzin found and donated the Myhre negatives.They lived in the former home of photographer Sandy Myhre for about 35 years, before cleaning out the attic and deciding what to do with the treasures."When we found the negatives and pictures, we knew we didn’t want to throw them away, but we didn’t know what to do with them," June said.She knew to contact Mann and the Historical Society.Mann said, "I had no idea what we were getting. We were thrilled to death to get these because it’s a part of our history and we could have lost them forever."The negatives have already come in handy for people doing family research, Mann said.The Historical Society will sell Myhre negatives only if there are duplicates. Otherwise, it will sell reprints for $15 or $20, depending on the size.The Star Herald isn’t claiming royalties from its photo reprints so the Historical Society can keep the profits.The Historical Society owns many pictures other than the newly donated ones and also will sell reprints of those.Dick Herman is one who has taken advantage of the Historical Society pictures. He has ordered reprints of old scenes from Herman Motors.Audrey Wildung has enjoyed combing through the negatives, too. She worked for a few months cataloguing the photos."They’re all organized by year and alphabetically. … I had a lot of fun doing it," Wildung said. "The pictures of the Depression years were interesting."Mann said the Historical Society’s mission is helped by the special negative project."Our local history is on record and these negatives mean we can share pictures with people," she said.
