Introducing the Founders Pass (and My Growing Digital Archive)
I’ve been heads-down on Vintage Reveries in “one-woman operation” mode — listing inventory, writing, rebuilding systems, and generally trying to keep the creative machine moving without burning out.
And at the same time, I’ve been falling back into a very specific rabbit hole that has followed me for years:
Digitizing vintage publications.
I got myself an IRIScan 7 Pro with Christmas money (nerd alert), and that was it. I immediately went back to scanning. Back to the old familiar ritual of turning paper into pixels — preserving things that might otherwise disappear, and sharing them with people who actually care.
But here’s the thing:
I have a lot of scans. Years worth. And I’m finally ready to organize them into something sustainable.
So today, I’m introducing something new on Vintage Reveries:
The Founders Pass
The Founders Pass is a 90-day membership that gives you access to my full digital archive as it exists right now — and everything I add to it while you’re a member.
Right now, the archive includes:
- The 1924 St. Louis Fashion Pageant (high-res scans + PDFs)
- Character Reading (1924–25) (high-res scans + PDFs)
- The 1916 Book of Birds (high-res scans + PDFs)
- Plus: two additional Character Reading issues (from 1923 and 1927) I haven’t released as separate products yet — but they’re included inside the membership archive right now because I scanned them over the Christmas holiday with my new IrisScan, too.
You can grab the Founders Pass here:
https://vintagereveries.com/shop/downloads/founders-pass/
Why a membership?
Because I’m sitting on a whole library — and the old way of releasing it (one polished WooCommerce product at a time) is slow. It’s the “perfect or nothing” trap.
This membership lets me do it differently:
- I can scan and upload fast
- you get access immediately
- and I can come back later to do the pretty part (individual product pages, descriptions, SEO, etc.) without holding the archive hostage in the meantime.
It’s the difference between “this has to be a finished product” and “this can be a living collection.”
What it looks like right now (and what I’m improving)
Right now, the member archive is functional — not fancy.
I’m using ProfilePress + WP File Download, and I spent basically all day getting the setup to behave (permissions, file paths, integrations, all the weird WordPress stuff that makes you question your life choices).
The cool part: WP File Download is synced to Google Drive.
That means I can add files to Drive — already organized, already zipped — and they show up in the members area without me manually uploading giant files to my server.
This saves my hosting, saves my time, and makes it much easier for me to keep adding new material.
At the moment, it shows as a simple file list. It works. It delivers. And now that the plumbing is in place, I’ll be improving the front-end experience as I add more categories, better organization, and a cleaner browsing system.
Also: I’m still working out a few kinks (and I’m pretty sure that by the end of this, I’ll be an expert in both ProfilePress and WP File Download whether I wanted to be or not).
What you can do with the archive
Everything I’m scanning is either:
- public domain
- copyright expired
- or copyright not renewed (I’m careful about this)
So here’s my stance:
I don’t care what you do with the public domain content.
Use it for art. Research. Education. Collage. Blogging. Graphics. Journaling. Inspiration. Weird niche projects.
The only thing I’m not licensing is reselling my exact work product — meaning:
- don’t take my zipped files and resell the zipped files
- don’t take my PDFs and resell the PDFs I compiled
If you want to build your own derivative collection? Go for it. If you want to use images inside your own work? Absolutely. If you want to remix, transform, reference, research, teach — yes.
This membership is me asking to be paid for the labor of scanning, organizing, hosting, and building the system that makes this archive usable.
Why it’s $30 for 90 days
Because this is the “Founders” phase.
It’s intentionally priced as a low barrier membership while I:
- build the archive up fast
- work out the user experience
- and add more and more of what I’ve scanned over the years
If you join now, you’re early. You’re supporting the build. You’re helping shape what this becomes.
5% donation to the Internet Archive
I’m also donating 5% of all membership fees to the Internet Archive (archive.org).
I believe in what they’re doing — not as a vibe, but as infrastructure. Digital preservation matters. Web pages disappear. Old magazines get chopped up for junk journals. History gets lost, rewritten, or reduced to aesthetic fragments.
And archive.org is one of the few institutions trying to hold the line.
I already donate when I can (usually late at night when I’m reading something on archive.org and the donation banner catches me in my feelings), but I want this archive project to be connected to the broader mission.
So 5% goes to them.
What’s coming next
This is just the beginning.
My next big upload will likely be The Language of Fashion / the 1939 Fashion Dictionary (Mary Brooks Picken) — which I confirmed is public domain because the copyright was not renewed.
That dictionary is foundational for something else I’m building, too: a deeper fashion knowledgebase for AI-assisted listing and identification work.
But even if you don’t care about that part — if you just like old magazines, illustrations, ads, writing, and forgotten cultural artifacts — this archive will keep growing.
The quiet part: why I love this
This is the kind of work that makes me feel calm.
It’s a controlled rabbit hole. It’s tactile history. It’s a way of sharing something meaningful without needing permission from the modern internet to do it.
And honestly — AI has made it possible for me to do this without it taking over my life.
I can scan, brain dump my thoughts, and use AI to help me shape posts and descriptions when I’m tired and scattered. It means I can keep building, keep sharing, and keep publishing — even when my energy is low.
If you want in, the Founders Pass is here:
https://vintagereveries.com/shop/downloads/founders-pass/
And if you join and something feels confusing or clunky, tell me. This is a living archive, and I’m building it in public.
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