Plant City Photo Archives has named David Moon as executive director.
Moon replaced Samantha Poirier, who was hired in 2021 but resigned after accepting a position at an archival institution in Massachusetts.
“It’s been a great learning experience for me and I’ve really appreciated the support of the community and how welcoming everyone was,” she said. “I’m hoping to take what I learned here and keep building on that.”
Moon, who has worked for the Orange County Convention and Visitors Bureau as a Web Designer and Marketing Coordinator, is experienced in Internet management and social media as well as fundraising via crowdsourcing. He also founded the Chattanooga Historical Society in January 2014 after noticing a lack of online Chattanooga history apart from Civil War documents and photographs. It began as a grassroots effort to expand Chattanooga’s online historical footprint, focusing on the post-Civil War era.
“The story of the actual city and its industrial growth and the people that lived there was lost because the Civil War overshadowed that history,” he said. “We started to mass a collection of physical assets which turned into an archive which turned into a nonprofit which turned into the historical society.”
With a passion for history and a proven track record of leadership in cultural preservation, Moon looks forward to his new role to preserve Plant City’s rich heritage and promote historical education. “This was a unique opportunity to step into something I felt like I had experience with and could help move forward,” he said.
One of his primary goals is to bring history closer to people’s lives, making it more accessible and engaging for residents of all ages. “There’s so much history here with a lot yet to be discovered,” he said. “While more than a hundred thousand photos have been digitized, I plan to take it to the next level to attract a worldwide audience where people can access the photos online instead of just at the archives.”
Moon is accepting physical and digital images to add to the current collection. As a non-profit organization funded entirely by private donations, he’s also encouraging people to make a one-time financial donation or consider becoming a member, starting at $35 per year.
Plant City Photo Archives President Ed Verner, who, along with search committee chairman Bill Thomas, Robert Trinkle, Marion Smith, Felix Haynes, Faychone Durant and John Haney, hired Moon after n exhaustive three month search, is pleased with their selection.
“His past work and passion for photo-history spoke well of him on paper but also he really reached out to study our past and current track in ways that let us know how truly interested he was in the Plant City Photo Archives, specifically.,” said Verner. “Usually one can be a bit wary of a candidate being sycophantish with false ‘interest’ and yet with Mr. Moon it was apparent that he has the passion and knowledge that we were hoping for.”
Verner said as the organization has aged, there’s now a lot of work to be done to re-engage with its membership and broaden its support base. “Mr. Moon appears ready and eager to move in those directions with us.”
The Plant City Photo Archives, located at 106 S. Evers St., is open Monday – Thursday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. For more information visit plantcityphotoarchives.org or call 813-754-1578.