MARIETTA, GA — The Marietta History Center is launching a new online database, giving the public digital access to thousands of items documenting the city’s past.

The database already features more than 10,000 artifacts, most of them photographs. Collections Manager Christa McCay says the project will continue to grow.

“This is always going to be an ongoing project. Our collection is continuing to grow and so being able to offer this to people is truly something that is not going to be stagnant, it’s always going to have more and more added to it,” she said.

McCay says the digital archive will make the center’s collections more accessible while allowing the public to contribute. She encourages residents to help by crowdsourcing information.

“You can request information to research; you could also, if you found a mistake on it, email me and tell me what was wrong and/or if you happen to know the person in the photograph you can email me too and I can put that information in there,” she said.

The majority of the artifacts online are photos, which McCay says are the easiest items to enter. “A lot of people don’t realize that for a museum to enter in one artifact it takes about 60 minutes,” she explained.

The center hopes to reach 15,000 digitized items by March 2026, adding at least 5,000 more to the collection. McCay says the new database will help identify people, events, and locations captured in the images, noting, “We want to be able to give them the best information possible.”

The launch coincides with the Marietta History Center’s 30th anniversary and provides a new way for residents to explore the community’s long history.

WSB Radio’s Jonathan O’Brien contributed to this story.