Tucked away in attics and basements across Mt. Lebanon are home movies and photo albums filled with decades of family and local history just waiting to be rediscovered. A new partnership between the Historical Society of Mount Lebanon and a local digitization company is making it easier for residents to preserve those memories.
“The stars really just aligned,” said Jenny Wood, vice president of the historical society.
Looking for help digitizing old football videos for an upcoming April exhibit, the historical society got in touch with Dan and Brittany Fleming, Ph.D., the co-owners of Memory Lane Media in Indiana, Pa. That is when they learned the couple was looking to expand their business into the Pittsburgh area.
Wood said Memory Lane Media provides a high level of personal care when preserving priceless memories. The historical society wanted to ensure it was partnering with a trustworthy company that community members would feel comfortable working with.
“They are a family-owned business, and they really understand how important this is to people,” Wood said. “They understand the emotional attachment.”
Memory Lane Media is also looking forward to the new partnership with the historical society.
“The people talk the language of history here,” Dan Fleming said. “They understand the one-of-a-kind nature of the things we are receiving.”
It was not a very “scientific process” in choosing the municipality, Fleming said. Brittany’s sister and brother-in-law, James and Alexis Ellermeyer, recently moved to Mt. Lebanon. While visiting them, “we fell in love with the community,” Fleming said. “We could feel that it’s a very family-oriented area.”
“[We] shared with Jenny that we were looking for something down in the Pittsburgh area, and it made perfect sense for the location,” he said.
Memory Lane Media got its start out of necessity. In 2016, Dan, then working in sales, and Brittany, a professor of digital media at Slippery Rock University, wanted to digitize family videos for their upcoming wedding reception. But they could not find a nearby business able to accommodate their needs.
“Brittany said, ‘You’re not mailing out our stuff. What if they get lost? What are we going to do?’” Dan said with a laugh.
Uncomfortable with the idea of sending their family memories across the country, Dan went to Walmart, bought some basic equipment and set up shop in their spare bedroom. After their wedding, they started helping friends and family digitize their family memories as well.
“We could tell what we were doing meant something to people,” Dan said. “When you are handing over one-of-a-kind memories, you want to know there is a person on the other end of it.”
With the addition of the historical society, Memory Lane Media now has five staffed drop-off locations. Mt. Lebanon is the only Allegheny County satellite location serving the Pittsburgh area.
“We field a lot of requests for this type of digitization service,” Wood said.
Memory Lane Media can digitize a wide array of video formats, including 8mm, 16mm and Super 8 reels, as well as VHS, VHS-C, Betamax, MiniDV, Video8, Hi8 and old DVDs. The company also processes photographs, negatives and 35mm slides, along with audio cassettes, reel-to-reel audio and LP records.
Customers can choose multiple options for accessing their newly digitized files, including flash drives, DVD or Blu-ray discs, and extended cloud storage with unlimited shares and downloads. One flash drive can hold hundreds of VHS tapes while maintaining full-quality preservation.
“You can watch home movies on a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean,” Dan said, explaining how these digitized files are often prepared for birthdays, weddings, funerals and family reunions. “You can put your family’s entire story on one USB.”
Customers work directly with Memory Lane Media to discuss their specific needs and costs. They can then bring their materials to the historical society, where volunteers will help them fill out a form, label everything and place the items in a secure box for Memory Lane Media to pick up. In-person meetings with Memory Lane Media are also available by appointment.
The company also offers restoration services for damaged materials, including broken tape cases, low-quality audio and film damage from water, mold or mildew — services many companies are unwilling to provide.
“That’s something, with time, that is becoming more and more necessary,” Dan said. “A lot of companies won’t deal with that and will just throw it away. We’ll clean it off and care for it.”
Even for those not yet considering digitizing their materials, Dan recommends moving important family memories out of attics and basements to prevent further deterioration. He emphasized that storing them in a temperature-controlled environment can help preserve them and slow the aging process.
To learn more, visit memorylanemedia.online.
