Keeping Delray Beach History Alive with The Delray Beach Historical Society

The Delray Beach Historical Society may not be one of the biggest historical organizations around, but their level of commitment to the work is undeniable. Led by Winnie Diggans-Edwards, they’re a passionate team of historians and archivists that are deeply respected by the South Florida community for their tireless work, and exciting contributions through not only great exhibits, but great events as well.

Partners in Preserving History

Our relationship with Delray Beach Historical Society started back in 2023, when DBHS found themselves a little unhappy with the printing and fabrication company they had been using for their displays and exhibits. And with a new gallery rollout on the way, they were shopping for a partner that could be counted on to be there when it mattered, and deliver when they needed it.

After a few meetings between DBHS administration and FS PRO leadership of Zachary Goldberg and Greg Evangelista, an agreement was made which would see Forever Studios take on the development of their latest opening with little time to spare.

Getting Complex, Multi-Piece Projects Done on a Deadline

Zachary and Greg took an inventory of the entire space and scope of work necessary for the job, and every last display and panel was delivered just in the nick of time. Most of the printing was done on cost effective supports which would need to be both affordable, and presentable. As budget considerations were a very important part of the work, FS selected foam core material with a glossy surface, and opted for large format UV printing for the majority of the displays.

This successful first partnership led to a relationship between FS and DBHS which deepened over time, as additional works both big and small ended up in the hands of FS PRO, and in the DBHS buildings. And when media digitization and archiving work was necessary, it was common to see Tom Warnke of DBHS and the South Florida Surfing Museum working with the FS staff to get photographic imagery and film reels just right.

The Development of FS POD, and DBHS as a POD Beta Partner

Entering the latter half of 2024, Forever Studios had finished work on the beta version of what would come to be known as FS POD, or “Forever Studios Print on Demand”; a platform created to enable people and organizations with large image libraries to host entire curated galleries of imagery on the web, with a variety of pre-configured print options available to potential customers.

FS POD, as it would turn out, was a natural fit for DBHS. And almost as soon as work on the platform’s beta was completed, discussions began around onboarding DBHS as FS POD’s first client.

Bringing Delray History to Homes & Businesses Across South Florida

Demand for printed work of DBHS’ image libraries had always been a pretty consistent thing, with individuals and businesses around South Florida regularly asking DBHS how they could make items from their fairly extensive collection of historical imagery into large pieces. And before FS POD, there was never a really great answer for that question. So work began on collecting all of the existing high resolution digital copies of the DBHS image library, and digitizing of any items which had yet to be properly digitized. From there, the Forever Studios Photo Restoration team went to work on a selection of items which were good candidates for digital restoration. Some items were even selected to be colorized, with historical context provided by DBHS to the team here at FS to ensure accuracy of the final colorized images.

After a few weeks of building the collections and importing them onto the FS POD platform, the job was done, and DBHS was the first client for the FS POD beta. They now had their very own “micro-site” where fans and enthusiasts could browse every image in their archives, and order whatever printed items they wanted, in any size, with just a few clicks.

Forever Studios and Delray Beach Historical Society continue to be valued partners to each other to this day. And the biggest winner in all of it is, no doubt, the art of historical preservation.