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Your donation to Old Colorado City Historical Society directly helps preserve the history of Old Colorado City and the Westside. General donations may go toward keeping our History Center's doors open, archival supplies to keep our historic collections safe, educational programs and events, gallery displays, community outreach and events, or a host of other needs.

Object and Artifact Donations

Our Collections & Archives are built almost completely off of donations from our community. We are incredibly grateful that the OCC community trusts us with preserving the history of our area, and are always looking forward to growing our collection. While we wish that we could accept every donation, due to space and preservation costs, we do have to limit our donations to follow our mission of preserving the history of Old Colorado City, the greater Westside neighborhood, and early El Paso County.

Items we DO accept for donation

We accept items directly related to Old Colorado City, the greater Westside neighborhood, and the people who lived here including:

Family history records
Photos - physical and digital
Everyday items - clothing, tools, household items, keepsakes, etc.
Business, school, church, and organization related items
Oral or written histories
Maps
Books for our research library or archives

We also accept unrelated antique items on a smaller scale for use as props during events, or use during educational programming. Please note that these types of items are not added to the History Center's permanent archival collection.

Items we do NOT accept for donation

We do not accept these donations unless they have a tangible relation to Old Colorado City, the greater Westside, or the people who lived here:

Example: we cannot accept a tourist photo from Seven Falls, unless it is of a local Westside family. When in doubt, reach out! info@occhs.org

Large items - pianos, large furniture, sewing machines, trunks
General tourist items from Garden of the Gods, Seven Falls, Pikes Peak, Cave of the Winds, Manitou Cliff Dwellings, Broadmoor.
Postcards unless of Old Colorado City, or addressed to or from Old Colorado City
Items related to Colorado Springs without any ties to Old Colorado City
Items with no local ties unless they may be used as props for events and educational programs.

To Donate:

For best results please email us with the following information:

What your donation consists of
How it is related to Old Colorado City, the Westside, or early El Paso County
If possible, a photo of the item(s)

One of our Collections volunteers will respond to you as soon as possible. Collections volunteers are not at the History Center everyday, so to ensure your donation is properly considered, please email us ahead of time. Drop-in donations are not recommended.

Notes about Donations

As we have limited gallery space, there is no guarantee that all of our artifacts will be on display, but they are always available for research and viewing. Please reach out to us to schedule a time to see archival items.
We accept items on a donation basis only. As a volunteer-run non-profit we do not have a budget for acquisitions.

Digital Donations

Do you have photos or other items you would like to share, but don't want to part with? We accept digital donations!
Don't have a scanner? Afraid to scan fragile items? Schedule a time to allow one of our Collections volunteers to do it for you! We will send you a copy of the files to share with family as well. Email us to discuss potential donations and item limits.