Rochester's history is going digital, as the Rochester Museum and Science Center has unveiled its new online search system, Libcat (libcat.rmsc.org). The system organizes the museum's various collections into one searchable online database.

Archivist Leatrice Kemp says that "with one search anyone can access the library, the archives, and all the photographs and objects we have."

Libcat is just one part of the RMSC's larger effort to get Rochester's history online. The museum previously digitized a portion of its Albert R. Stone Collection, which consists of more than 13,000 images by early the 20th century Rochester newspaper photographer, as part of the Public Library's Rochester Images online database. The new search engine will unify those images with materials from the RMSC archives.

The system uses search tags, arranged in a web of words next to each entry, to help users explore the subjects and topics of the archive. But since the project is still in its initial phase, "we only have one example of being able to search across everything right now - Rattlesnake Pete," Kemp says.

Notable Rochester saloonkeeper and snake enthusiast "Rattlesnake" Pete Gruber appears in 71 of the RMSC's photos, books, and items currently online. Images of Gruber treating snakebite victims can be viewed alongside photos of his snakeskin suit, a collection of Civil War-era guns he owned, and even pictures of the possums Gruber donated to the zoo.

"The next collection we plan on digitizing is the Native American collection," says Kemp, referring to the museum's archive of Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) objects and photographs. The RMSC plans to have 900 items from the collection digitized and searchable by the end of the year.

But with more than 1 million objects in its archives, the RMSC's task is far from complete. Kemp says: "It will be a long, long time before all our objects will be available."