BRISTOL, Ind. (AP) — An Elkhart County museum’s wide-ranging archives will be digitized thanks to a $37,000 grant from the Indiana Historical Society.

The Elkhart County Historical Society has hired an archivist to determine which parts of the collection will be digitally preserved first.

Museum director Julie Parke tells The Elkhart Truth the archives include everything from old musical instrument catalogues to photographs and even a journal kept by a 19th century prospector as he headed west.

Parke says the museum’s new archivist will guide staff on how to continue to digitize and organize the hundreds of collections that are kept behind closed doors in the museum in Bristol, just northeast of Elkhart.

The museum’s archive includes hundreds or thousands of documents, including church and business records and county birth, death and marriage records.