I “rescued” a collection of family photos from an estate sale in my neighborhood, where clearly none of the descendants of people in the photos wanted them, or were alive anymore. They’re mostly from the 20s, and sporadically labelled. I considered donating them to my local historical society, and that may be the answer here — but I’m also taking into consideration the fact that small historical societies don’t always have the tech or resources to handle owning all the old photos that people might want to donate. Or family photo collections just might not be as historically priceless as we like to think. Or, there are cases like yours, where unidentified landscapes are of questionable value — but too “good” to just throw out.

In some cases, though maybe not yours, I feel like the answer probably lies in “donating” these kinds of artifacts to the public domain in digital form, so that if there *are* people to whom they’re valuable, they can access them. I know there were be a lot of cases where museums can’t do this on account of the policies and procedures they must abide by, but sometimes, it will be possible. And certainly it will be possible as an alternative for private collectors vs. donating objects to a resource-strafed institution with too much *stuff* already. I’m very grateful and inspired by museums and individuals who have taken the time to upload “no known copyright restrictions” visual material to Flickr and elsewhere. I find these collections useful for my (design) work, and edifying and enjoyable to look at in general.

I know there’s a lot of open culture discussion already taking place in the community, but I just wanted to start a conversation or provoke thought about how to deal with the plethora of personal/snapshot images that are now kicking around from the early 20th century explosion of popular photography. Are they all valuable? Should we ever throw out 100-year-old photos? How do we preserve them without straining resources? What should individuals who want to contribute these assets to the “public good” do (and what happens to the originals afterwards)?

On Sep 25, 2017, at 11:44 AM, Shannon Lindridge <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

I am processing a small collection of photographs from a local family. Most are from one family member's tour of duty during WWII and there are a few of those I will be contacting the World War II Museum, New Orleans about.

My question to you all is in regards to another part of the collection; a series of travel photographs from 1923 when someone from the family traveled to Colorado, Arizona, California, Alberta, CA. and some unidentified. All are landscape shots, no people and are labeled on the back. With little documentation as to whom in the family went on the trip or a journal/diary about the trip as well as no photographs of the family on this trip, photographs like this are not suitable for us to keep in the collection.

I see their importance as early vacation photographs in a time when traveling by car was quite an adventure. Does anyone know of an institution which collections such early travel vacation photographs? I have thought of contacting each state's archives and/or the National Parks as well as checking with the Smithsonian as one central depository.

Thank-you for your assistance.

Shannon Lindridge
Registrar
Broome County Historical Society
Roberson Museum and Science Center

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