Horsham Historical Society was recently successful in receiving a $2000 grant to purchase a new computer for public use through the state government's Local History Grants Program.

Society president Rod Jenkinson said the computer would allow community members to access the group's 55,000-plus collection of digitised photographs from the Wimmera's past.

The computer will also store the group's digitised collection of records and interviews from cassette tapes.

"This will allow the public to access our collection for easily. We've been digitising our photo collection for a while now," he said.

"We always have a computer available in our offices for the public to use, but this will give people the chance to better see what we've got in our collection."

In the society's collection are many photographs taken of the Wimmera during the 1920s by studio photographer Samuel Cahill.

The collection also features glass negatives and broadsheet newspapers, including a copy of the Horsham Times from 1873.

"We've also got a lot of photos from the Mail-Times over the years," Mr Jenkinson said.

Mr Jenkinson said the society hoped to apply for more grants in the future.

"We're keen to do heritage signs in Firebrace Street in the future to show the history of businesses are specific sites. We also need money to keep binding the local papers," he said.

The computer will be installed by the end of the July and will be available for public use.

The Horsham Historical Society is located at 33 Pynsent Street, Horsham on Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 1.30pm and 4.30pm.

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