To say that the process of digitally restoring the images found in the exhibit was laborious would be an understatement to say the least. The project actually started in the spring of 2003 and continued intermittently through to spring of 2005 in time for the opening. Cleaning and preparing, and then scanning the fragile autochromes took a few weeks by itself.

Low resolution copies were then made of each so they could be viewed easily on a PC and evaluated for inclusion in the exhibit. Of the 217 autochromes in the total collection, only 50 of the best were finally chosen to be printed for exhibit, though the actual restoration project included more than that.

The final exhibit also contained some beautiful panoramic images that were taken from celluloids of photographed events in Brilliant, Grand Forks, and Shoreacres, BC from 1927 to 1930. Once the task of restoring the autochromes was accomplished, so began the task of digitizing the celluloid negatives and restoring those for print as well. Though these were in a sense more stable to work with and in slightly better condition than the fragile autochromes, they were equally challenging to digitize and restore due to their size.

The celluloid negatives were taken by Hughes Brothers Studio from Trail, BC. Each negative that was donated had been previously stored in an 8" long metal tube and even though preserved as such, the negatives had scratches and blemishes on them as well - though not overall as bad as the autochromes themselves.