Robert Nawrocki is one of the volunteers at the St. Augustine Historical Society.
He takes care of some of the most important pieces of history. He showed Action News Jax artwork from the 1870’s, drawn by the Plains Indians.
“They documented what was their life on the plains but they also document what happened here in St. Augustine,” Nawrocki said.
In the six years he has worked for the organization, it's been the third time since the documents have seen the light of day. He said keeping the documents out of the light is the only way to preserve them.
Nawrocki said other fragile pieces of history need to be preserved such as a maps of St Augustine in 1777 and 1821.
“This is a very valuable map that's starting to tear,” Nawrocki said. He said the organization needs help and donations from neighbors to assist in the documents' preservation.
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"We’d have to take these out to a specialist who works on these things. They would wash them, de-acidify them and put them on better paper,” he said.
The cost to preserve these maps can be expensive. Preserving two maps could cost about $9,500.
Neighbor Mary Bower works downtown and said people will help keep these maps from falling apart. “Once you erase it, you don't have that history. And you do learn from history,” Bower said.
“This is an expensive undertaking. That’s why we’re reaching out to the community,” Nawrocki said.
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