An initiative undertaken by the Del Webb Sun Cities Museum two years ago has not only vastly expanded its archives of historical information, it has opened the door to a whole new world of artifacts and material previously unavailable to the general public.

The Del Webb Sun Cities Museum is known for its collection of archival photographs detailing the history of both Sun City and Sun City West.

Most of those photos were obtained from the Del Webb Corporation and are now owned, preserved and showcased by the Sun Cities Area Historical Society, owner of the Del Webb Sun Cities Museum. Assuming ownership of that vast trove of Del Webb photographs in the 1980s led to the creation of the SCAHS.

SCAHS Founder Jane Freeman felt it important to establish a nonprofit organization whose mission was to use those photos to “preserve, protect and promote the history of the Sun Cities.”

Thanks to the efforts of a team of hard-working museum volunteers, the museum’s archives now include much more than just those initial historical photographs.

The museum’s archives include the detailed written history of a number of local clubs, organizations and businesses — as told through scrapbooks, brochures and newspaper articles — and collected, digitized and for the first time ever, made available by the museum to the entire world.

A team of volunteer archivists led by Trustee Barb Wagers has been collating, scanning and organizing a huge collection of material donated over the years. The material is posted and available on the museum’s website atdelwebbsuncitiesmuseum.org.

“I started learning how to best proceed with this project — talking to experts, researching material, and taking webinars — in the summer of 2021. I made a presentation and proposal to the board in October 2021 and the teams started scanning in April of 2022,” recalled Wagers.

All items are categorized in simple online “filing cabinets” that make it easy for casual history buffs or serious researchers to find specific topics and material.

“Our Digitization Project teams have made it possible for you to access the Sun Cities Area Historical Society and the Del Webb Sun Cities Museum history from the comfort of your couch,” said Wagers.

As of October, eight volunteers have scanned nearly 22,000 pages of documents in the last 19 months.

The museum’s desire has always been to preserve the history of the Sun Cities — but space limitations made it impossible to collect and store many of the physical items donated over the years.

Modern technology, however, allows the museum to now convert physical items into digital archives. Books (scrapbooks and photo albums), brochures, postcards, restaurant menus and newspaper articles can now be scanned and collected electronically. The only storage space needed is a hard drive or offsite cloud storage space.

“These new collections not only expand the amount and depth of historical material we have available, but really provide a fresh new perspective on the history of the Sun Cities,” said Bret McKeand, President of the museum’s Board of Trustees. “Most, if not all of this material, is being shown and made available for the first time in years, and in some cases, decades.”

This collection of new historical material includes:

• Scrapbooks, notebooks, photo albums and histories put together and maintained over the years by numerous clubs and organizations - Sun City Saints, Sun City Rockhounds, Sunshine Service, Rotary clubs and more.
• Model home floor plans for the houses sold over the years in Sun City and Sun City West.
• Stories clipped from local newspapers touching on a variety of subjects, including incorporation, recreation, health care, churches and more.
• Community studies conducted by the Del Webb Development Company.

The digitization team has been quietly scanning and copying items for over a year, but the effort took on a new sense of excitement earlier this spring when the team got its own official research office.

In April, the museum moved its Sundome Jr. Theater to the home’s guest bedroom — thereby freeing up a small office that would be converted into the research center.

The new office also doubled as a “working exhibit.” Throughout the summer, visitors to the museum could view exhibits and learn about history — while observing the digitization team as it sifted through collections and scanned documents.

According to Wagers, anyone with a computer can easily access the material.

“We are using Dropbox for our cloud file storage. You do not have to have an account to see and even download our material. We do ask you to abide by our Copyright Statement found at the bottom of each page on our website,” she said.

To access the scanned files, visit the website and click on “Research” in the upper right corner. One can view documents and notebooks by scrolling down the page to the blue filing cabinet drawers.

According to McKeand, the museum is extremely proud of the new additions to its archives — but also extremely grateful to the dedicated team of volunteers who made it happen.

“This couldn’t have been done without such a committed group of volunteers and we are forever grateful for their time and energy,” he said. “We’re confident that future historians, too, will appreciate all the hard work and find this information very valuable.”

In addition to Wagers, the scanning team consisted of Deb Kloehn, Marlene Kozlowski, Sandee Donahue, Gary Belanus, Connie Castillo, Gary Greer, Nancy Foy and Marci Knipschield.