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Re: scrapbooks



What you do is sit down with your grandmother and you do not leave the table
until she's told you who the people are in the photos.  This is not an
option: if you can do it you owe it to your family to do it.  Otherwise you
have albums/loose prints of people you know to be relatives, but people w/o
names, w/o histories.  Useless to you & the generations that will follow
you.  My mother died last year at 91 and I'm happy I got her to sit down &
ID many of the people in her albums - and sorry I didn't get her to do more
sooner.
Who was it who said:  "Seize the moment!?"  [I think it was Nixon in China
quoting Mao, but it applies in this case]
Once they're gone, your memory's gone
Allan Goodrich

-----Original Message-----
From: Archives & Archivists [mailto:ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU]On Behalf
Of Sharon
Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2001 12:51 PM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Re: scrapbooks

Hi Beth,

Good luck getting your grandmother to identify the photos. Maybe you
can bribe her with lunch or a gift, but please make her feel the importance
of sharing the past with you and your family.

It is going to be a big job, but those of us with hundreds of color photos
need to get busy scanning and digitizing them before it is too late.  If
we save them on cdroms, perhaps they will last a while. If we share them
online with dozens of family members, perhaps someones copies will
survive. And if we print them out on archival paper, perhaps paper copies
will survive a while as well.

Good luck saving all those memories!

Sharon Centanne
Genealogical Research Instructor and Family Archivist

Beth Harris wrote:

> I assume you are talking about Creative Memories.  I guess I'm sticking my
> neck out here but may I say a word or two in their defense?  I believe the
> literature claims they used Henry Wilhelm, author of The Permanence and
> Care of Color Photographs, as a consultant  The materials are acid- and
> lignin-free.  They also strongly encourage you to document all the "what,
> where, when and why" of the photographs.  They also recommend storing
> photos in good environments (away from light, humidity, etc.).  Photo
> corners and sleeves are available for those who don't want to use the
> double-sided tape directly on their photos.
>
> On the other hand, they do encourage cutting photos (they call it
> cropping),  which certainly isn't a recommended archival procedure.  They
> recommend against cutting "older" photographs (also polaroids) but the
> problem with this reasoning is that eventually photos taken today will be
> "old" to another generation.  They also don't tell people that color
photos
> aren't going to last as long as the B&W's.  (A fact that I try very hard
> not to think about since my of my photos are in color.)   In addition,
> putting these photos in albums requires one to put their fingers all over
> the photos but nothing is said about cleaning off the oils off the photos
> when done.  No doubt, folks with CM albums will find their finger prints
> have been preserved along with their photos!  (By the way, does anyone
> recommend - - or not recommend -- PEC-12 Archival Photographic Emulsion
> Cleaner?  This is supposed to safely clean finger prints, dirt, etc. of
> photos.)
>
> OK, by now you've guessed it...I've attended a few CM classes myself
> (gasp!).  My sister used to be a consultant and begged me to try it (she
> was trying to drum up business)--what could I do?!! She's my sister!!  She
> would have never forgiven me if I hadn't helped her out.  I've been hiding
> my dark secret from my archival collegues ever since for fear of being
> shunned!!  :)
>
> I still feel nervous about certain aspects of CM and I'm certainly not
> endorsing it to archival patrons but in my opinion, CM is far better than
> the album of wonderful old photos my 71 year old mother has of her parents
> and great grandparents but no information.  I have repeatedly asked her to
> identify the photos for me but she hasn't done it yet.  Right now, they
are
> just neat old photos of strangers which carry no personal meaning for me.
> I'm afraid that she'll never get around to it or forget so much that the
> information won't get saved and I'll be clueless about my family history.
> I'll just have to keep after her to do it.  Sigh!
>
>  OK...fire away..just be gentle!
>
> I'd love to hear other's opinions, too, especailly about the PEC-12.
>
> At 09:19 AM 8/7/2001 -0700, you wrote:
> >Just this morning on the FOX news there was a big thing
> about>scrapbooking... they have all the little stickers and special
cutters
> and paper and everything all there; for a small fee you can ravage and
> destroy your family archives, excuse me, I mean create cute scrapbooks, to
> your heart's content.  ....
>  At least they claim to use archival supplies, not the rubber
> cement-sticky-tape of the past.
>
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--
ÐÏ à¡± á

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Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
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Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>