Teaching Archives: Reprising the Diary Project

Lesson Learned. Hopes confirmed. Teens are fascinated by archives.
How could they not be? We should have known this all along!

Last week in this space, I introduced a course I was preparing to teach at the high school where I serve as an information specialist. Over the course of the week, the twelve classes I taught on Introduction to Information began to morph. What started out as a very formally laid out series of ideas melted into a few very big ones. Information is everywhere. We need to pay attention to details. We need to pay attention to what we know versus what we think we know to distinguish truth from fiction - to build our knowledge and to properly educate ourselves.

All freshmen English students took a test on evaluating information during the first half of one of their English periods this week. My lesson on what information REALLY is took place during the second half of the period. My goal was to give them a broad understanding of information and to show them that information does not have to be as dry as a test. I had objects for show and tell that I wove into the presentation. I had a stereoscope, photographs, war ration coupons, a primer. One class, on the second or third day of teaching, had split up. About half the class was still testing while the other half sat patiently in the chair waiting for the lesson. I pulled out the stereoscope. This was not part of the original plan.

"Let's have a little show and tell before the rest of the class gets here. Has anyone ever seen one of these?" There was an immediate buzz and we began talking about the Viewmasters we had as children. I passed around the stereoscope for the students to get a closer look. The remaining test-takers started to trickle over.

"Has anyone ever gotten stickers from their teachers for doing good work in school?" Hands fly up in the air. "Well before there were stickers, students got 'Rewards of merit,' like these. Students valued them so much that they would stick them in scrapbooks. You can see the remnants of the scrapbook on the back of these cards." Pass them around. And so we went on...I had planned to start my presentation with a photo from Ransom Riggs' book, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, but the archival materials proved to be a better warm up.

At the end of this lesson, the 5th one this year, a teacher said something profound to me. It was my second class with this teacher this autumn. I had worked with her rather closely last year designing a research curriculum for ninth graders and I greatly value her teaching expertise. She said, "Melissa, that was your best information presentation yet. You don't need to teach them everything in this lesson. You just need to get them interested."

Parts where I had picked up steam earlier in the week -- evaluating photos, viewing letters and diaries -- those related to archives, stayed in my presentation. Parts where I found I had lost steam were removed. "What does the word 'information' mean? What's an information resource?"

Show and tell led to discussing photographs. I kept Ransom Riggs' images as fodder. Here's an example of one we discussed.

photo from "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children"

Me: "What do you see here?"
A moment of quiet.
Students: "OHHHH! There's one girl and two reflections! Maybe that's her dead sister! Maybe its her alter ago..."
Me: "Wait. Back up. First tell me what you actually see. One girl. Two reflections. What else?"
Them: "Gravestones... Water... One tall gravestone one short...oh! creepy! the short one isn't reflecting!"
Me: "Ok. Use knowledge you already have. Information in your head...why is the short one not reflecting?"
Blank stares and then someone says, "It's too short."
Me: "How do you know that? AHA! We need to have some understanding of math to know that don't we?"

Nearly every class had the same conversation with the same elements of the photo pointed out to me.

Me: "Now tell me based on your knowledge of the real world, what is happening here? Why are there two reflections?" We talked about double exposure and darkrooms and light sources.
"Now, let's do what Riggs' did and jump out of reality and make up a story. Now we can go back to our ideas about alter egos and dead sisters."

The exercise in which I had them close their eyes to picture a library memory (see last week's post) became close your eyes and picture a place that you love. "Picture an amusement park or a ball game. What sights and sounds and smells were there? Take in the information with all of your senses. Pay attention to details." It's the details that mattered and the information. Not the library setting. One can get a "sense of place" anywhere.

We went through many photos analyzing each. This included Riggs' photos and photos that I had collected at local antique shops. [Search "More Finds at the Local Antique Shop in this blog for samples of my collecting.] Then, I pulled out the diary.

I explained the research that I did with my daughter.
Me: "I found this diary in an antique shop in Massachusetts. I wanted to learn who wrote it."...
"On page 2 it talks about a train crash near Wells and Kennebunk. Where do you think this diary was written? [silence] What state?"
Students: "MAINE!"
Me: "I don't know why, but the author wrote first and last names of friends. I don't know about you, but when I write in my diary I write first names only. Maybe first and last names was common diary writing then. I could research that if I wanted to, but that's not the direction I wanted to head. How can I find out more about these people with their first and last names as information at my fingertips?"
Students: "GOOGLE IT!"
Me: "Yep, that's what I did and on books.google.com, I found their names in a book called "Businessmen of Maine....Do you know about books.google.com?...that's all I found on the Internet. Where should I go now?"
Students: [some confusion and then usually a tentative...] "Go to Maine?"
Me: "YES! Where am I going in Maine?"
Students: "To the library!"
Me: "What library?...what am I looking up at the library?" and so I revealed the clues. Then I revealed a dead end. I knew all about the people and places surrounding my diarist, but I didn't know my diarist so I re-read the diary. A clue that I had originally ignored stuck out. I told the students that the diarist mentioned a marriage on a particular date, but I had ignored it because it was mentioned so matter-of-factly that I thought I misunderstood. This time through, I decided to pursue it as if the person was really married on that date. Sometimes we don't see what's right in front of us. Instead of throwing up our hands and saying "There's no information!" sometimes we need to slow down and re-evaluate.
Me:"Where do I go to find out about marriages?"
Student smirking: "The Internet!"
Me smirking back: "NO! Where do I go? (quiet) If your parents were married, what document says that they were married?"
Student tentatively: "A Marriage certificate."

Early in the presentation, I showed students places I had worked to shatter their ideas about what the "information sciences" entails. I have had such a varied and unusual career that when I was putting together my presentation this seemed like a worthwhile thing to highlight. However, my discussion of my own career became more important with this line of thought. I had shown students a picture of a town hall vault and explained that important town records were kept there.

Student: "You would go to town hall to find a marriage certificate..."

The pieces came together. They were getting the idea about following an information trail. I revealed who my diary writer was and showed pictures of him, his house, his business, his marriage record. I showed an advertisement for his business and the plot map for his grave.

After one class, a teacher told me that a student had leaned over to her to whisper that the fact that I had visited his grave was really cool.

At the end, we talked about different ways of learning and creating a makerspace in our library. We talked about behavioral expectations. We talked about books. They were paying attention. I felt like I was getting to know them as a class. (I am excited about the school year now!)

Moral: Wherever you are evaluating information, the rules of slowing down and thinking about what is going on applies. I think this is the most important thing my students learned from me this week. Information is everywhere and we need to pay attention to appreciate it. Oh yeah, and archives are cool!

The ins and outs of finding out more will come throughout their high school careers.

If any students are reading this, thanks for a great week! I look forward to learning more with you. Thanks for teaching ME about what is important.

Our Past

I have difficulty reading articles like this:
The Brink of Oblivion: Inside Nazi-Occupied Poland, 1939-1940

I wonder if the face that stares back at me in the article's photo is one of my family members.
Gone. Unknown. Unremembered by those who live after.

I am left only to remember the passed-down stories.

Those who could identify the faces of my unremembered family members are long gone.

I wonder if one of the color slides in Hugo Jaeger's leather satchel was a portrait of one of my great aunts, or great uncles, or my great-grandmother.

Stories buried in our archives can touch raw wounds that may never heal.

Our archives help define who we are and how we got here.

They help us remember that we are lucky to be here at all.

The grandchild of World War II Holocaust survivors,

who saves others' memories in part because she could not save the memories of those closest to her.

Her blood.

Her kin.

Our past.

More Finds at the Local Antique Shop: Mother's Day

It's been awhile since I wrote up something for "More Finds at the Local Antique Shop." In honor of Mother's Day, today's post includes some of the mother and child photos from my orphan photo collection. Though these mothers are unidentified, their faces are a tribute to moms everywhere. Happy Mother's Day! [Label your photos!]

More Finds at the Local Antique Shop - Fiction Story Based on Orphan Photos

I just read an interesting fiction book called Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. For me, it was an entertaining light read. Aimed at a young adult market, the book is a fantasy that mixes supernatural and mystery. It focus on the relationship between a boy and his grandfather, who was full of fanciful stories from his past that left his family wondering about their veracity. Despite the fiction genre, the story prompted me to think about how family legends grow from untested stories and we are left to pick out the truth among the tall tales.

The aspect of the book that I found most interesting was a use of "authentic, vintage found photographs." The author seems to have used real, unusual pictures to mold his characters. Fitting in with my "More Finds at the Local Antique Shop" theme, the book is a perfect demonstration of how imagination can be stirred by abandoned orphan photos.

Author Ransom Riggs thanks those private collectors who contributed images for him to complete his first novel. He writes about the images at the end of the book, "They were lent from the personal archives of ten collectors, people who have spent years and countless hours hunting through giant bins of unsorted snapshots at flea markets and antiques malls and yard sales to find a transcendent few, rescuing images of historical significance and arresting beauty from obscurity - and most likely, the dump. Their work is an unglamorous labor of love and I think they are the unsung heroes of the photography world."

I look forward to Mr. Riggs next book and hope that he sticks with this writing method. Here is another Cultural Heritage Collaborator to add to our list. A fiction writer steeped in a love of primary sources can be a great friend to archivists. Such a person can sing the praises of cultural heritage resources and help the world realize their beauty and value.

More Finds at the Local Antique Shop - Creating Context

Last week, I wrote that archivists focus mainly on the materials that they keep and not necessarily the people who make those materials. Now that I've cleared up a little confusion I found among some of my contemporaries about an archivist's role, perhaps this will befuddle matters once again...  It's time for another round of "More Finds at the Local Antique Shop." This time I have an agenda beyond my interesting finds. Of course archivists don't keep things just to keep "stuff." There is certainly more to it than that. So take a look at these two photos. Form your impressions about them and then read on...

These photos reflect diverse subjects and portray different sensibilities. The first feels like a snap shot. The second is most definitely a posed studio photo. The first gives us a sense of place. The second does not. The image with the building impels us to focus on the setting much more than on the people pictured, whereas the image of the woman makes us focus on the details of her dress, pose and expression -- essentially on her. Most obviously, the first image is one that can stand as representative of poverty and the second as one of wealth.

Unfortunately, these are "orphan" photos from an antique shop. I do not know who these people are. I do not know anything about their lives other than what I see here. Without doing some research, I do not know if my impressions about them are true or false constructs. I wonder if other materials that reflect the lives of these people exist somewhere -- either in a family collection or in a repository. I wonder if there is a collection that tells their full stories. If such collections exist, and if I were to somehow find them, would the other materials in that collection confirm my impressions of these people or would they negate them, A third scenario is that they may balance them, providing other dimensions to my first impressions to make me better understand the purpose of these images in the lives of the people depicted. Perhaps they would show the people in different circumstances, in different clothing, or in a different setting.

An archivist focuses on the materials for which we care, but equally importantly, we focus on the context of that material. Without context, all materials can easily be considered "orphaned." The collections archivists build aim to tell about their subjects by retaining a connection to those subjects or creators of the materials. We track from where materials came (provenance) to tell the history of the material itself and so that we can attest to its authenticity. We aim to keep order given to materials by their creators to further retain context. Though we keep groups of records with different provenances separated, we aim to put materials with related contexts together in larger "collections" with resources from multiple people and places reflecting a larger story. So while the safekeeping of materials is the archivist's main goal, it is a goal with a purpose of forming connections among similar materials to help shed light on the individuals, their communities, and the human condition.

***

Exercise: A Personal Item Out of Context

Pull a random item from your own collection. What does that item tell you about the person it reflects? If this is a subject you know well, is what you think of that item influenced by what you already know about the subject? Let's pretend you know nothing about the person or people pictured. Would you draw different conclusions about the image than you do with some background knowledge?

To make my point, here is an unusual photo of me from my family collection: 

What conclusions might one draw about me based on this image? What do you think I'm doing here and why? Do you think this is an important part of my story or just a simple snapshot? (This is in fact a highly significant moment in my life and an activity that has an ongoing presence in my household almost ten years after this photo was taken. I'll tell the story about it one day...maybe in a new presentation somewhere or when I'm hurting for blogging ideas...)

While going through your own images and documents, consider their context. What context do your materials retain? What is missing? How difficult is it to retain the context of materials? How easily can context be lost?

   

Orphan Photo Contest

I'm giving orphan photos the attention that they deserve this week!

Orphan Photos and the Arts

Last year I posted about how to cull photos. That post generated a lengthy discussion about orphan images. One person who commented mentioned the value of using the materials for historic interpretation, which is something that I do regularly on this blog. One thing that did not gain too much buzz was the value of orphan photos for artistic inspiration. It is this second idea to which I am dedicating my next couple of posts.

I have collected many orphan photos for the "More Finds at the Local Antiques Shop" column in this blog. I have also spent time working as a professional photographer. I grew up "taking pictures" and loving the whole idea of them as both a piece of history and art. A little known fact about me is that I won an award in my high school as best artist in my class because of my own photography. (Ah! Perhaps the mention of this is another sign that middle age has indeed set in -- that time when one feels the need to reminisce about high school awards?) I retain an artist's sense of wonder.

The artistic side of me screams for release once in awhile. A few weeks ago  I decided to take some of my orphan images and I made a collage for myself. It is now framed and waiting for me to hang it somewhere.

I know none of the people in this collage and yet I feel as if I know them all. The images I choose for "More Finds at the Local Antique Shop" are ones that strike me as I thumb through boxes of photos. I might be called to them by the eyes of the subjects, their style of dress, or their activities...whatever caught my initial interest grows inside of me and I imagine what the lives of these people were like. In fact, I have such a propensity for imaginings that I am creating a class for children that will teach them how to "read" a photograph, discover as much "truth" about it as they can, and then creatively write about it. (It is my hope that this class will let kids flex some artistic brain cells. I also hope that it will ultimately help develop critical thinkers who can better discern the differences between fact and fiction because of their participation in the exercises.)

Orphan photos naturally elicit a sense of history and wonder if you examine them carefully. If one searches beyond the obvious, one can imbue additional value into an orphan photo by attaching some meaningful purpose to it. To put it simply: Writing and creating with orphan photos is a useful exercise for an individual's creativity. It is also of value to the anonymous object, re-attaching some meaning for its existence.

I still believe that one should not keep every unidentified photo, but one way to deal with orphan images is to creatively use them to make something beautiful and / or thought provoking. In my next post, I will discuss some things to look for in orphan photos so that you too can be creative with those images that have lost their context. I hope that you will share some of your own artistic endeavors.

***
Let me just say for those who may be concerned...I am not recommending all unidentified photos should be cut up and glued...I plan to give ideas for good practice in my next post, including the need to consider using copies for projects and a reminder that many orphan photos retain value despite the anonymity of the subject.

Home is Where the Photos Are

My grandparents continue to smile
upon us from the walls of my home.

My friend Marian over at Roots and Rambles said that I got her thinking when I wrote this on my Facebook wall, "Hanging photos of my family makes home seem even more like home." Now she's got me thinking about how family heirlooms help us create a sense of place, making our house into a home.


Photos are always the first thing that come out of boxes when I move to a new home. I must hang at least a few pictures of my favorite people around me before I can turn to the unpacking of dishes, clothes, and other living necessities. When I unwrap my wedding photos from newsprint, look at the giggling face of my daughter from when she was a baby, and place a photo of my siblings on the mantle, I feel like I am branding a new home. To me, putting out photos is like breaking a glass of champagne over the bough of a ship. Photos launch my new life in a new place, on untouched waters that hold awaiting happy memories.

Marian feels similarly about some heirlooms from her childhood and wrote about them, "I never realized the impact that having items from my family and from my childhood would have on how I felt about my environment. The connection with my family and with my past was strong and powerful.  It gave me a tremendous sense of comfort."


My Facebook post about hanging photos referred to some pictures I took this Thanksgiving when my siblings came to visit with their families. And indeed it was comfort that I sought when I hung them. It has been a difficult year for me, but Thanksgiving marked a turning point and a long weekend that I hope to remember forever. I sit at a new desk that I have placed next to my Christmas tree. The walls were bare. The lights of the tree helped further warm a sunny room on a cold weekend, but the space needed these photos to make it perfect.


I have family heirlooms that instill similar comforting feelings, but for me, it has always been photos that warm me most. I was attracted to photography in high school and studied to become a professional photo-journalist in college before switching majors. Photographs seem to capture the essence of a person and freeze it in time in a remarkable way. So, while my brother and sister may live a distance away, I feel their essence smiling at me right now while I write this from my desk. Home is where the photos are because I have those faces smiling at me from every wall and I feel blessed by their presence.

More Finds at the Local Antique Shop - Etsy Descriptions

I've noticed something when I peruse online sites for items to use as samples in classes. Some people who sell ephemera and photos come up with some pretty strange titles and descriptions for their wares. For example:

A seller titles a photo "But She's Got Cooties" and explains, "This is an original vintage photograph from the 1940s. It shows a brother and sister sitting on a bench, the brother doesn't seem very happy about it." Actually, to me, the brother seems perfectly comfortable to be sitting on a park bench with his sister, but he SEEMS to be squinting into the sun!


I have wondered about these descriptions lately. Does labeling images with a cute or catchy title, pointing out people's flaws, or otherwise subjectively responding to an image enhance its worth to a potential buyer?


For another image, the same seller titles it "Mischief on His Mind" and writes, "This is an original vintage photograph from the 1940s. It shows a young boy on his porch with toy gun at his hip and a trouble making look on his face." I don't see trouble. Here I see boredom. I wonder if the boy is unhappy to be stopped during his play so that a grownup can take a picture, but I don't know this for sure. I certainly would not call this image, "Taking a Breather from Cowboys and Indians So Mom Can Take a Picture."


I find myself connecting these labeled images to museum paintings. Is this labeling of images a way of marketing or a way of "curating?" Do the sellers really believe the things they point out in the images or is it solely a gimmick?  If these sellers really are interpreting these photos in these ways that are perplexing to a professional, does this give cultural heritage professionals some room for educating? I wonder if a museum can use online Etsy images as a tool for helping individuals better interpret the images they see.  


Does it really matter that people subjectively interpret and label such photos? I think it does and that's why I feel compelled to point out these strange descriptions in this blog. The meaning we attach to images we see should be backed by knowledge and research. It is easy to ascribe meaning to something based on our own point of view and experiences. It is much harder to put our personal feelings aside to make educated interpretations about the things we see and hear. So while the descriptions may be "clever," they help perpetuate stereotypes, prejudices, misinformation, and ignorance. 


And on that note, I'm going to share an image I purchased that one might call "cute." It has a great composition, and the kid's eyes just pull me in. I am not going to say something such as the girl is playing mommy or that she is taking her new carriage from grandma for a spin because I just don't know if that is true. I hope that you enjoy it anyway - without a catchy title.

 

More Finds at the Local Antique Shop - Orphan Suitors

I have been saving this photo for a rainy day. (Not literally...though it is literally a rainy day here in New Hampshire. So that works well, I guess.) This image just tickles my funny bone. I often find orphan images of people outdoors in a strange location and I find this one particularly appealing.

Orphan images are those that have been separated from their owners with no identification that links them to those who took the photos. Sometimes, orphan photos have some identification, but you need to dig to figure out who the people really are. Sometimes these images are labeled with a name. If you are lucky, you'll get a first AND a last name. Sometimes these images have a location with or without a name. Sometimes the images list a photography studio, though that doesn't happen often with these outdoor images and is instead a clue when looking at formal portraits. All of these elements can help you do research to find more information about the image.

This particular image has no identification, but it reminds me of a spot in nearby Manchester, New Hampshire. When the leaves fall in another month, I plan to check out a local park that I know well from its old birches. I found this picture at an antique shop within thirty minutes of that park. Many times the images I find in shops are not from the area, but making the assumption that the image is from around here gives me a good place to start.

This image is pleasing to me because it ties the past to the present. We often don't think about our ancestors being silly and climbing trees. This could be me in a tree. (This even reminds me of a photo I have of myself upside down with  my sister, hanging from a fallen tree in the woods.Though we were not dressed nearly as finely.) The old-fashioned garb here is a bit surprising as my mind sorts out a familiar landscape with the people sporting trends from the past. People have been silly forever, I bet. Yet, somehow we focus on dates and names and events. We can forget the simple humanity of those who came before us -- the small joyful moments and memories that dotted their lives. This is a part of history that I love -- seeing the common threads that bind people. This lucky lady has two handsome beaus with her. Is one her boyfriend? Is the person taking the picture another girlfriend? Why did they decide to pose in the tree? I am so happy that they did. I can relate and thus, history and their lives are more meaningful to me.

More Finds at the Local Antique Shop - What's Old is New

One of the most wonderful things about archives is their ability to connect the past to the present. Consider this nineteenth century postcard of two women sharing letters. As soon as I saw it, I thought of my best girlfriends. They are the women who are always there for me and who love me for who I am no matter what. They are the ones who always make me feel comfortable and at ease. They are the people with whom I share a laugh and who can make me happy even when I am in a terrible mood. Women's relationships have not changed all that much, have they?

This image reminds me of passing letters back and forth to high school pals, giggling over confessed secrets and prizing an unspoken understanding between us. I feel as if  these women and I are part of some exclusive historical club of female bonding that is only separated by time. I was pleased to turn over the card to see written in pencil "my girlfriends May Doyle and Inez, Rose - Pearl Brown." Attaching names to faces, even if it never brings me more information than that, gives me another connection to these sisters from the past.

Lately, I have been talking a lot about communities as my colleague Sue West and I grow our "Life in Context" program. In addition to my connections to my girlfriends and to these women of the past, there is another connection at work with this image. I bought this postcard from an online site. I am a regular buyer here on this site, so I feel a community connection to it. Another thing I get out of this postcard is a connection to the particular woman who packaged it. She always packages my purchases carefully, includes a nice handwritten note, and puts a few "freebie" images inside the envelope for me. When I open the envelope, I get a whiff of a pleasant floral fragrance that reminds me of my grandmother. I wonder if the woman's house smells like this scent or if she specifically spritzes items that leave her possession as a little extra something special (This is not good from a preservation standpoint, but lovely from an old-fashioned, reminiscing, making something more personal standpoint.)

Archives have the ability to make us feel part of things larger than ourselves. I wish that I could meet these women, but I already feel as if I know them.

Photo preservation, display and backup

This week I am preparing a new presentation for my local library, which runs a program called "Teachable Tuesdays." This program invites local experts in different fields and enthusiasts with expertise to share their knowledge with other community members. I was delighted to be asked by the local librarian to present an session on photographs. It think that the informal early afternoon setup of the program will invite lots of great discussion.


I plan to incorporate ideas I presented in these recent blog posts about organizing and culling photographs to get us started and to get people thinking:
Organizing Family Photos: Getting Over the Hump 
Culling Family Photographs
Response to Culling Photographs


I want to add some additional points:


Very Basic Preservation – To help ensure that your photographs last a long time, use appropriate supplies from companies such as Gaylord, Conservation Resources, Hollinger Metal Edge and University Products. Most fundamentally, avoid PVCs and seek items that pass the P.A.T. This rating tells us that items have been tested to determine their suitability for storing images and that they do not contain chemical additives or coatings that can harm photographs. I've said this before in earlier posts, but it is worth repeating. I recommend that people consider albums versus boxes. Both can be appropriate for long term storage and it becomes mostly an expense and time issue. Do not feel that you need to create beautiful albums or scrapbooks for all your materials. Boxes come in many different sizes, are cheaper than albums, and take less effort to fill. You can stand images upright in boxes or lie them down if they are oversized. I use appropriate plastic enclosures for collections that will be handled by children and adults. I use albums with slipcovers to keep off dust for images I prize most, want to highlight, and want to view with others regularly.


Displaying – I recommend creating duplicates of prints and storing originals away. Use the copies for display. If you must or have a strong desire to use originals, then use preservation safe mat board and framing techniques with UV filtering glass. Be aware that the type of ink and paper used to create the image, the climate of your home, the light that hits the image, and other environmental elements can be factors influencing the longevity of your prints in both storage and on display.

Backing up – Scanning old printed family photographs is an idea gaining popularity and is most useful for giving you better access to your images. Follow points I recommend in earlier articles for organizing your files. Make  duplicate digital files in a variety of places. For example, you may keep images on your computer, have some on a separate drive or server in your home or in someone else's home as a disaster planning measure, and keep others online for additional off-site safety. An online site has the added advantage of giving you, friends and family easy access and the ability to sort, print, and otherwise make use of favorite images.  Be aware of migrating issues. Keep up with changes in technology, changing your equipment and the formats of your digital files as necessary. Become familiar with accepted standard formats for photos (TIFF files, jpgs and others) and the value of each. Make prints of digital files as desirable for access and as another backup measure, but as I mentioned earlier be aware of the stability of the materials you use.

A thoughtful approach to keeping your photographs is very important to their longevity. I look forward to "Teachable Tuesday" and hope that we can get a good discussion going about caring for personal family photos. What are your thoughts?

More Finds at the Local Antique Shop - World War One Soldier

Soldiers jump out at me when browsing through orphan photo collections in antique shops. Coveted by many collectors, the soldiers stand as representatives of events that we automatically recognize as historically significant. Their faces seem haunted by the context of their story. The photos that I usually find like this in a shop have nothing indicating the subject of, or the story behind, the picture. This one did and that is what attracted me to it:

"Rec'd at Brest, France. May 23, 1919. Waiting to sail for home U.S.A. Says (?) I'm sending this to give you a faint idea of what I looked like as a soldier."








The first thing I noticed was the slight silvering of the image. It has likely been kept next to an acidic piece of paper (perhaps an envelope?) in an inadequate environment for many years. Proper boxing and climate controls will slow down that deterioration.

I next noticed how young the soldier looks. I realized that I was placing this man in the context of my own life, when many people are starting to look "young" to me. In reality, the people who survived this war were about 70 years older than I. History is a funny thing in that one tends to transport oneself to the time one is contemplating. Portraits drive home the point that the person who looks back at us through the picture could have been someone we knew, if we were just born during another time. The people from history are not all that different from us.

World War I ended in November 1918. This image has the date May 1919. I therefore know that this soldier survived. He talks about what he "looked like as a soldier." He is through with his service. Some of the "haunted" feeling I got from a first glimpse at the gentleman's face is gone. I now feel relief.

I wonder why he sent this home to the U.S. and to whom. The postcard is not dated or stamped. Can I assume he sent it in an envelope? Was the writing on the back of the image written by him or copied from a letter by the recipient. The use of the word that I think is "Says" seems to indicate that maybe this was copied. Are the people to whom he is writing waiting for him overseas? Was he unable to write to them and send a photo during the war for some reason? He had his whole life ahead of him. What was he planning? As he wrote these words, was he too thinking about his service ending and wondering what came next - he looking forward and me looking back?
***
The last U.S. veteran of World War One died about a month ago.   Archives are working hard to preserve the legacy of the Great War. It becomes harder to preserve memories once the people who lived through the stories are gone.
Europeana, a collaborative project that gives access to Europe's cultural heritage, recently put out a call asking for help with World War One records:
Crowdsourcing history: European museums need your help to digitise World War One records is one example of ways professionals and non-professionals can work together to save our heritage. This project and similar ones in repositories around the world are part of the important work that cultural heritage professionals do to ensure that history is not forgotten.