Death of a scrapbook may sound dramatic, but I have had to witness this and it is painful. Although this page is an artistic treasure with captivating photos, it could end up in the trash in 75 years. It lacks the essential component of journaling. Without even bare bones journaling, future generations won’t have a clue as to who the people are, how they are related, or even when the event took place.
This is a particular I am having issues with as I go through my mom’s things. We have been transitioning her to an Independent Living facility, and while some people wrote on pictures… I mean LITERALLY WROTE ON PICTURES! I have many a stack of unnamed pictures and only my mom and my aunt will have any clue as to who is in the photos. My job is to find out who they are before their minds are no longer helpful.
Sitting in my mother’s house in Orinda, California piling books in boxes to go away when I came across a very ornate photo album. The photos look of the 1890’s but there is not a single word about who the people are, or who the album even belong to. You see, she rescued it from the book room donations where she volunteered. The scrapboook/photo album was heading for the dump.
I released the ornate metal clasp and the album opened to reveal beautiful pages, each framing a professional black-and-white photo. The photos showed babies, family groups, and couples, all clad in expensive late-19th-century attire. My 60+ year-old heart ached for the family that had discarded this part of its history
As a seasoned scrapbooker, I knew the problem: The album held, not a single clue as to who the people in the album were.
In fewer than 75 years the nameless subjects of the Victorian photo album became meaningless to the person who had inherited it. (This is my secret fear, so I am trying to put more thought into my journaling).
Scrapbooking has brought about an awareness of preserving family memories. The goal is that future generations-even third, fourth, and beyond will be able to see themselves in the faces of their ancestors. They will also be able to see the world in the timeframe the photo was taken. I love the picture I found of my mother at age 3 sitting on the hood of a ’49 Ford.
Cherished Memories or Trash?
Are we creating cherished treasures of family history or trash for the 2070 version of a landfill? Will we leave behind useful and pertinent information or beautifully crafted pages that will be worthless mysteries to our descendants?
In his work as a research scientist at the Image Permanence Institute at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, Daniel Burge has seen dozens of orphaned photo albums. The one thing all of the discarded albums have in common is an absence of meaningful labeling, he says. scrapbook life insurance. There is lots of pertinent information including the name of the person and their beneficiary.
“An image becomes meaningful only when we know who we are seeing,” Burge said. “If we can’t make a connection to that image, we usually feel no need to keep the photograph. ”
Although better than nothing, the words “You and Grandma Mary” written below a photo leaves a lot to speculation. Conversely, “Seth Michael Lincoln and Grandma Mary Todd Lincoln” is loaded with information. The second label not only identifies the faces in the photo, the inclusion of Grandma’s maiden name tells future generations that they are descended from the Todd line.
Take the test
I am not suggesting all scrapbookers become hard-core genealogists, but that we leave enough clues to make our albums meaningful to our future generations. Take this test and apply it to each of your albums. Put yourself in the shoes of your own great-grandson (born after your death) as he looks through an album you made 75 years ago. His mother inherited the book from her father, who had inherited it from you. Distance and expense limit visits with family, and each generation has had less and less contact.
Now your great-grandson and his wife are disposing of his mother’s things. Is there enough information in your album to make it worth keeping? Or do you hear the wife saying, “It’s pretty but who are these people? Our house is cluttered enough. ” Goodbye, album. Hello, city dump!
What to include
Follow these simple tips to ensure that your descendants will treasure your scrapbooks.
- Be a forward thinker. Assemble your albums with the distant future in mind.
- Label, label, label the photos on each page in case the page is ever separated from the album.
- Record surnames throughout each album. Yes, even the surnames of your own children. I find this tough when I have 10 pages of photos of my mother growing up, putting her name and year on each one feels excessive until you tell a story about the photo, event, or person.
- Include maiden names now and then, especially on pages that include extended family It’s a simple way to show family ties.
- Label in the first person sparingly. It’s OK to refer to yourself as Mom sometimes, but make sure your name is also included
- Put a date on every page. The ‘Johnny’s 16th Birthday” page will have more meaning in 2070 if the reader isn’t wondering if the party took place in 1990 or 2010. If it doesn’t work on the front, sign and date the back of your pages.
- Briefly explain family connections. They needn’t be clever nor lengthy.
For those who still think journal ink detracts from the beauty of the album, think about how seeing the album in a landfill someday would detract from its beauty. •
If you read my newsletter this week, you read about the evolution of your personal scrapbook style. I found an old list that I thought you would find interesting. You will see you are not that different from the published scrapbookers you idolize.