Update on the slide situation

All the way back in January, I mentioned slides absolutely do not last.

https://baby-steps-v.blogspot.com/2022/01/slides-public-service-announcement.html?m=1

We do not have a lot of slides, but we do have some that we want to save. Preserving slides means converting them to digital, quickly.

Our local library has lots of electronic and craft/skill equipment available for use. So 3-D Printers, scanners, sewing machines, soldering equipment, etc. 

The library slide scanner is an Epson, but more complex than the Epson we have at home. This one has a special light, down the center. (See my arrow).

The holder positions the slides exactly under the extra light.

It scans four slides at a time.

It was about the same speed as our regular flatbed Epson scanner at home. The scanning app/buttons were exactly the same. 

The conversion quality is good. The photo with the boys and the car on the computer screen was a slide. Now it is a digital photo. (Yes, that photo is hysterical. It was my husband doing some type of slide photo assignment for a college photography class in the early 1980’s. Normally he did not/does not take slides. Those were college buddies.)

So we will be able to convert all our keeper slides to digital photos, easily and for (nearly) free. The only expense was we replaced our memory stick. Memory sticks also do not last.

We scan the slides on the library system. We save them on a memory stick plugged into the library computer. We bring the memory stick home, plug it into our computer, save the digital photos.

This scanner will also scan negatives. We have not yet tried that, we think all our negatives have been printed. Plus, there  are still photo stores that will print negatives. But those brick and mortar/local photo stores are dwindling very quickly. In my area, we are down to Walgreens photo lab (in the store) and some things have to be mailed for processing. And we have one local specialty photo store left. 

A public service announcement about old yearbooks

I am pleased to share - my senior yearbook (1979) went to a county library. I used the post office’s book rate, shipping was very inexpensive. (My brother is now looking thru his things to see if he still has his yearbooks.)

This is not the library in my old high school town. It is actually the next town over, but in the same county. 

This library has a very large genealogy department including a huge collection of local high school yearbooks that they have scanned and put online. Their goal is to get one copy of every yearbook from all the high schools in their county. 

The 1931 yearbook, from my maternal grandfather, is posted on their site. 1931 was his sophomore year. His other three years worth of yearbooks are missing from the collection. He went to a high school two towns over from mine, but in the same county. 

In the process of looking at his one yearbook online, and (really) missing the other three of his years, it was clear the library needed more yearbooks to complete their collection. I found they had all their gap years posted on a “want list” by high school. And I realized all my own high school years (and my brother’s) were on that list. I called to verify and get the shipping address. 

The librarians were excited. I was bittersweet. I was so glad to have found a worthwhile home for my senior yearbook, but a little sad to only be shipping one book, not four.  

I thought I had yearbooks from all four of my high school years. And I thought I knew exactly where they were, in a box in the attic with my husband’s yearbooks. But mine from 9th thru 11th grade were not there, which is a mystery. 

In the process of hunting for my missing yearbooks, my mom realized she still had a variety of yearbooks from her second husband. Some high school, some college, some from when he was teaching, all of these were old. I donated them to the genealogy department my local library, they have a national collection of materials. They are very pleased to get them. 

The unknown photos from my great grandmother’s album

As I mentioned, after I shipped hundreds of photos, I was able to focus on what I had left. Besides my direct line keepers, I had a lot of unknowns. I do not pitch photos easily, but I also have a use it or lose it philosophy, finding a solution for a pile of unidentifiable photos required thought. 

Last month, with much relief, I dropped a large envelope with 152 photos off at the local genealogy department. Yes, that picture (below) is 152 photos, doesn’t look like that much, does it? 

In Indiana, many county libraries have very good (staffed) genealogy departments. I use several of them regularly. The one in my town happens to be one of the best in the country.  

I had called earlier and explained that I had unlabeled photos from my great grandmother’s album that were approximately WWI era. They discussed it within the department and then called to say that yes, they wanted them, if I was willing to write an accompanying piece about my great grandmother. 

I wrote, youngest helped me edit. I included information about my great grandma’s parents and grandparents and two husband’s. I talked about the restaurant that her mother and step-father ran in the early 1900’s near the railroad station, where they worked and met many people. I talked about who might be in the photos, mentioning family lines and WWI soldiers. 

The library is going to scan the photos and include my piece when they post the collection online. I am not sure if it will be edited or included as I wrote it. 

The relief, to have something meaningful to do with those photos, was huge. I estimate that most were taken before 1922. So yes, 100 year old photos. 

I could not bring myself to pitch them. But I had to think very hard what to do with them.