I just wanted to post a quick note here on the subject of family photography, archival photograph storage, labeling images, etc. Before I start, I want to take a few minutes to remind you all of a few things just in case you haven’t been committing everything I’ve said up until this point to memory.

  1. I know way more about the history of photography than the average person
  2. I have an actual bachelors degree from a really expensive university in photography
  3. At said university in said course of study, I learned the proper way to handle, store, love, nurture, care for, and archive precious family photographs.

Ok. Now that we have that out of the way, I would like to reveal a dirty secret here. Now, I am on the path to fixing this.

HOWEVER….

  1. This is my office right now
  2. This is NOT the way you should store your family archives
  3. I am ashamed
  4. This is WHY you need to write people’s names on the backs of their photographs
  5. This is NOT the only box. This is just the only box that is out right now. I’ve put the other ones in the cabinet so they don’t make me cry
mess
My office right now. Since you can’t actually tell, this stack is actually a cardboard box. And the 12″x18″ box is about 7″ deep. There are literally hundreds of unlabeled photographs in this box. Some are from the 1990s. Some are from the 1860s. This is a GIANT undertaking!

In this box are generations and generations and generations of my family from branches and branches and branches. Mom’s side, dad’s side…. you name it. They’re all chucked in this box. The more I dig, the more I find the following:

  1. Pictures of people I didn’t know I had (yes, I found ANOTHER  photo of Hot Great Grandpa!
  2. The more time I spend with these people, the easier it is to tell who they are.

HOWEVER….

I am not 100% sure that I can identify to 100% certainty who everyone is! So, Here’s my disclaimer from this moment going forward.

I pledge to do my best to:

  1. Make this big box magically turn into a beautiful and organized archive of my family history
  2. Correctly identify everyone (because I don’t want to put a name on a photograph if it’s not correct!)
  3. Share these awesome images with everyone

So, HERE WE GO!!!!!