Preserving the stories and records that matter most
Cultura Archive and Heritage Services is a veteran-owned business based in Guerneville, California. We help families, community groups, and local institutions turn scattered, fragile collections into organized, lasting archives they can understand, use, and share with confidence.
Why Cultura was founded
Cultura grew from Dustin J. Wagner’s work across applied anthropology, historical archaeology, archival research, collections documentation, and community history. Again and again, meaningful photographs, records, heirlooms, historic places, and first-person memories became difficult to access because they were scattered, fragile, undocumented, or known only to one person. Cultura was created to give families and organizations an approachable way to preserve those materials before they are lost. The goal is never simply scanning items, but building organized, human-reviewed records that you can truly understand, control, use, and pass forward.
Grounded background and practical experience
Dustin holds a Bachelor of Arts, with a major in Anthropology, from San José State University. His archival experience includes work with the Arizona State Archives and the National Archives’ Revolutionary War pension-file transcription project, along with transcription, indexing, collections documentation, preservation-centered digitization, and public-history work. His field experience includes historical archaeology in California, USA, and across the West Indies, including Nevis, Dominica, and Martinique, as well as mobile photography, 360-degree imagery, photogrammetry, and LiDAR documentation. As a U.S. Navy veteran, he brings disciplined documentation and service-centered communication to Cultura’s work. He also served as a camera operator on filmmaker Sammer Abu AlRagheb’s master’s documentary, The Preservation of Gwoka in the Lesser Antilles, about Afro-Caribbean music, culture, and heritage. View the documentary project.
Who we work with and our connected approach
Cultura’s services are designed for private families, historical societies, museums, libraries, nonprofits, community organizations, small businesses with legacy records, researchers, and stewards of historic sites facing mixed records, aging formats, missing labels, or institutional memory held by one person. Cultura treats documents, objects, places, and living memory as connected parts of the same story. Each project is preservation-first, rights-aware, and structured around human review, clear file naming, useful metadata, realistic maintenance plans, and client authority over private records.
"Every photograph, document, and spoken memory carries irreplaceable value. We are here to help you safeguard those pieces so they endure for generations."
Ready to preserve your history? Contact us at info@culturaservices.com to discuss your project.