Apparently, our tax dollars aren’t enough, they have a kickstarter campaign going to raise funds to help preserve this collection of photos:
“Our $3,000 goal would provide the funds to digitize the entire 1,650 photo collection and preserve the original photos, including preservation materials (archive boxes, poly slides for each photo). The Institute’s stretch goal of $7,000 would enable the purchase of a quality digital camera and copy stand mount allowing for the photo albums to be digitized without being taken apart.”
Your tax dollars do not factor into it. The U.S. Naval Institute is a private, non-profit professional organization with a membership made up primarily of current and former military members. But anyone with no military experience at all can join. Tom Clancy was a member.