PLACES, faces and scenes from the region’s glorious past are now on display at Tamworth Regional Gallery.

In a collaboration between Tamworth Regional Gallery director Bridget Guthrie and Tamworth Regional Film and Sound Archive volunteers, the exhibition, Our Region In Film and Sound, was conceived.

“We saw it as an opportunity to tell local stories and inform people about the wonderful resources on offer at this amazing archive we have on our doorstep,” Ms Guthrie said.

“Many people aren’t even aware of its existence, so this was a very public way to get the word out there and shine some light on these extraordinary caretakers of the region’s past.”

The exhibition comprises glass slides covering decades of Tamworth district’s people and their lives and lots of slides feature service personnel, examples of various cameras, pro- jectors and recording devices used throughout the decades, enlarged prints of photographs from various eras – and more.

Archive secretary John Vickery says there are 35,000 items that can be located on the archive’s database, available on the Tamworth Regional Council website, www.tamworth.nsw.gov.au

Although items can be searched for and located on the database, the items can’t be viewed.

“If it’s on the database, people can get the number of the item, come in and see us and view it or perhaps, get a copy of the item if it’s a photograph or film footage,” Mr Vickery said.

“One woman came in recently and was researching her family tree. She didn’t have a photo of her grandfather, but we did, in one of the glass slides taken at Ison’s theatre all those years ago.”

The Tamworth Regional Film and Sound Archive, which has been operating for the past 20 years, is quite unique in that it’s the only such archive in Australia, apart from the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra, which has offices in each capital city.

The exhibition wraps up August 22.