Archdiocese of Denver Preserves 100 Years of History with PhotoShelter

A century of faith and storytelling

The Archdiocese of Denver has served northern Colorado since 1887, supporting over 600,000 Catholics, 500 priests and deacons, and numerous schools, hospitals, and ministries. With parishes operating food banks, hosting toy drives, and running community programs, the archdiocese is deeply rooted in service and tradition.

Over time, their extensive history produced a vast archive of photos and media documenting more than a century of community life. To preserve this legacy and support daily creative needs, the Archdiocese sought a digital asset management system that could organize, protect, and share their growing archive.

The challenge: Organizing and sharing 100 years of content

As the former Managing Editor of the Denver Catholic (the Archdiocese’s publication), Aaron Lambert managed the church’s storytelling efforts and oversaw its photo archive. His role required distributing content to parishes, ministries, and creative teams while safeguarding historic media files. But without a modern system, historic content was hard to find, file sharing across departments was inefficient, and the sheer volume of assets created a risk of loss or mismanagement. 

Key challenges included:

• Historic archives were difficult to manage. Lambert explained that the archdiocese had amassed an extensive digital collection, including a photo archive spanning more than a century of its history. Managing, organizing, and preserving these assets in a way that kept them accessible had become increasingly overwhelming.

• File sharing across ministries was inefficient. Each parish, school, and ministry needed access to visual content for their own communications. Without a centralized platform, staff spent extra time searching or requesting assets.

• Ease of use and scalability were critical. As Lambert explained, they needed a user-friendly platform that would make it simple to share brand assets, photos, and other digital materials with the many parishes and ministries they support.

“The Archdiocese of Denver has been in existence since 1887, and as we have moved into the digital age, we have accumulated quite an extensive amount of digital assets, not least of which is a robust photo archive documenting over 100 years of the history of the archdiocese.”

Aaron Lambert, former Managing Editor, Denver Catholic

The solution: Building a modern archive with PhotoShelter

Before PhotoShelter, managing the archdiocese’s archive was time-consuming and fragmented. Now, with a centralized DAM, their content is preserved, searchable, and easily shareable across their community.

Here’s how PhotoShelter helped transform their workflows:

• Centralized storage protects the legacy. All historic and modern assets are securely stored on a single platform. This ensures that more than a century of photos and media will be preserved and accessible for future generations.

• PhotoShelter AI saves valuable time. By using advanced tagging and discovery features, staff and parishes can now locate assets quickly. As Lambert noted, ease of use was a deciding factor in choosing PhotoShelter over other systems.

• Simple sharing supports community needs. With PhotoShelter, parishes, schools, and ministries can access the files they need without bottlenecks. Now, they’re confident that PhotoShelter will help them achieve the needs of the archdiocese.

“In addition to needing a platform to store all of these assets on, we also needed a user-friendly platform to easily share brand assets, photos and other digital collateral with the many parishes and ministries that we support. We feel that PhotoShelter will allow us to accomplish this goal.”

Aaron Lambert, former Managing Editor, Denver Catholic

Preserving history while supporting community

By choosing PhotoShelter, the Archdiocese of Denver has ensured its vast archive of photos and media will be preserved for generations, while making it easier to support parishes and ministries today. What was once a fragmented and time-consuming process is now a streamlined system where historic content is protected, searchable, and easily shared. With a user-friendly platform and powerful AI features, the Archdiocese can focus less on managing files and more on telling the story of its faith and community for the next 100 years.