As Santa Barbara’s annual Old Spanish Days Fiesta approaches, some people are making the effort to preserve the memory of past events and the families who experienced them.
On Friday, residents gathered at the Carriage and Western Art Museum in Santa Barbara, where they shared family photos and watched a film featuring images of the events in years past.
The event, titled Framing Fiesta, was organized by the UC Santa Barbara Library.
The library regularly hosts events in which it invites the community to bring family photos to be scanned and preserved as part of the Santa Barbara Community Archive Project.
The project was co-founded in 2022 by library curators Angel Diaz and Laura Jean Treat Liebhaber and was funded by a Humanities for All Quick Grant.
Jessica Law, the associate director of development for the library, said the program helps protect images of the local community in an area that is prone to fires and floods.
She added that many people are also unaware that old photos can fade or fall apart over time.
“We create a digital copy that we keep at the library in perpetuity, and then we provide a hard drive and give the original photo back to community members,” Law said. “The idea is to help preserve and save your photographs.”
Another benefit of the archive is the ability to access old media formats such as VHS tapes. While families may keep old home videos, many lose the ability to watch them if they do not have a way to play tapes or other outdated formats.
The department previously worked with an outside vendor to digitize old movies from the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society. The library later presented the movies in a film compilation that included videos and photos from past festivals and birthdays.
So far, the library has archived photos from 39 families and videos from at least 60 families. The library added 199 photographs to the collection and digitized and processed 397 films in 2025 and 2026.
Law said that one of the nice things about the project is that it lets people see events and people they have never experienced.
“We had one participant who came and had never seen her great-grandfather,” Law said. “So, she was really excited that she got to watch this footage of him (as an) adult. That was really moving.”
Even though the library is willing to scan photos year-round, events such as Fiesta give staff a chance to encourage people to share their old photos.
The library’s archives even include black-and-white recordings of the 1928 Historical Parade. Some of the clips were compiled into a film that was shown to an audience Friday evening.
Law said that one of the interesting things about videos of the early days of the Fiesta is seeing how the festivities have changed.
“The one from 1928 is really interesting because it’s all black and white,” Law said. “You can just see who participated and also the dynamic of (how) it changed over time, like who was participating in Fiesta.”
Another aspect that the archivists noticed was a stronger focus on the event’s Spanish roots and the conquistadors, which changed over time.
To view more of the archive’s footage, visit its website. Residents can learn how to participate in the project and help support its efforts by donating to the Community Archives Fund.
