History

After working in film production and film preservation in Hollywood, California for more than 23 years, President and Founder Taylor Whitney, established Preserving The Past, LLC in 1997 to address a void in the access and archival-quality preservation services offered for privately held photographic, film and video collections. Digitizing and scanning was in its infancy and not a part of our initial business model. Rather, we focused on preserving the original element and documenting stories. Strides in technology, steady growth and new development quickly presented opportunities to begin working within different markets such as businesses, museums and academic environments. Working with a collection from The First National Bank of Crown Point Indiana, we organized and assigned Intellectual Order to a collection of over 3,000 items dating from 1846 to the mid-1980s and arranged with the owner for donation to the Lake County Historical Society in Crown Point, Indiana. For Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, we digitized several 35mm film reels (and provided translation for the titles) from a Russian propaganda collection entitled “Leniniana” by a private donor.

Drawing from her past experience in post-production as a rank assistant and film librarian, Taylor realized she possessed the unique combination of knowledge, skill and personality that it takes to guide archivists and librarians through the digitization process and added cultural institutions to our roster of clients. Since those exciting beginnings and with the aid of technological evolution, we have preserved thousands of photographs and millions of feet of moving image film and video.

Each project is approached with the utmost care ensuring our clients’ complete trust and satisfaction. With offices in Los Angeles, California and Rochester, New York, we are privileged to attract and service clients from all over the world.