Thursday, July 7, 2011

Treasure of unspeakable value!

My parents had commented to me with one of the fist pictures I scanned, Oh we have that album.
Unidentified girl circa 1860-1870

I was doubtful that it was that same album but curious none the less. It turns out in the back of my grandparents closet burred under various random things was a think very old photo album. So I drove over to my parents house to give it a look, and was not surprised that it is not the same album (Square holes as opposed to round), but was shocked at what it contained. 

Judge this book by the condition of its cover and you will be wrong.


Sitting on my parents table is a old cloth bound book, about 6" thick, the rear cover is torn off and has been sitting on an October 4th 1987 news paper for so long It is now the rear cover. The condition of the book is bad, the bindings are torn, the pages coming loose, there are splotches on the cover and the latch that once held it closed is long gone. However the pictures themselves look almost new. 

I put on my cotton gloves and slowly and carefully opened the cover. 

Not only was it amazingly well preserved (Acid free paper at the beginning of the 20th century?) Every single picture is labeled with a name, and many with a relationship or event title (Cousin or Wedding). This book is the find of all finds for the work we are doing. Thirty Seven pictures, all but one with names! 

My Great Great Great Grandmother, born in 1836

I took possession of the book yesterday, and spent 3+ hours carefully removing each picture, cautiously dusting it off, scanning and then returning it to the book. Most of the pictures are Cabinet Cards and Carte De Visite, with a few Tin Types and other Albumen prints. About 1/2 of the cards are stamped with a photographers information which will help with dating. 

Carte De Visite and Cabinet Cards have been in this book for 100 years or so.


While I was doing this my wife was busily trying to find the people on Ancestry.com, and find out who the relationships are to.

The back page: To Bill & Florence Wilson, Presented by Mother Bishop

So the basic work is done, next will be tagging all the pictures and using the data to identify some of the unknown pictures we are still going through. Hopefully this will help as family and friends slowly piece together  the story these 100+ years of photographs tell. 

Here are just a few of the pictures.

 Florence May Bishop (Thin Albumem print) 

Miss Emma Compton

 Roy Kinser (Aunt Emma's Boy)

Henry and Arthur Bishop <Tin Type>

1 comment:

  1. The most amazing thing is that some one labeled who they are. I still have a pictures of my fathers that I would love to know who they are.

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