The prompt this week is just the thing to lead me astray; do I concentrate on books or photos or both?
I have found several books which you might classify as old in one way or another, but they did not contain any loose photos - sepia or otherwise. However I do have a box file (not a cardboard box like Alan's) in which are stored sepia photos, postcards and my newest book.
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| 'Sepia Saturday' Box File |
The photo on the left has been annotated on the back, "Is it you, or is it me? Mick" My wife is convinced that this is her elder sister Mick when she was young.
The one on the right is the old ferry at Hartlepool.
I left with a bit of a quandary. How do you judge the age of a book - by when it was written or when it was printed? Here's four to illustrate the point.
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| Chaucer - The Canterbury Tales & John Bunyan -The Pilgrim's Progress |
Chaucer was born about 1340 and died in 1400. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.
Bunyan, born in 1628, died 1688 lies in the Bunhill Fields Cemetery, London along with Daniel Defoe and William Blake.
The Penguin Classic, The Canterbury Tales was first published in 1951 - note the price of 5/-
The New American Library's edition of The Pilgrim's Progress appeared in 1964 at $1.75.
I noticed that the book in our prompt had the text in two columns. I can match that with our copy, a wedding present from 1958, of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare ( baptised in April 1564, died 23 April 1616).
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| Shakespeare' s The Winter's Tale |
The last of my books is The Pickwick Papers, the first novel of Charles Dickens published in 1836.
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| The Fat Boy Awakes - The Pickwick Papers |
What's special about this book for me? Just look at the inscription.
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| Form Prize at Stamford School 1949 |
Having been carried away by books I turned back to archives and this file of:
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| Prospekt Kort (Postcards) |
This is the file put together by my daughter while I was working in Norway between 1979 and 1988. The cards are those I sent to her during that time - some have appeared on Sepia Saturday before.
In my archive search I came across some 'old' albums.
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| I wonder what happened to them |
But when I turned the page, this is what I found.
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| Honeymoon(?) on the left in 1958; our two sons in 1960s |
The second album contained more photo's, all in colour.
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| Cutting Our Wedding Cake |
Finally I opened the top drawer of the desk in our lounge and found the largest collection of all.
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| Photos, photos, photos! |
Now I need advice. Do I throw them all away when they are all stored here,
and on the Internet?
For other Sepians' views check out the links on Sepia-Saturday-210.
23 comments:
Don't throw away your photos. Give them to your kids if they are interested in them. Your flash drive will either be lost or become nonfunctional. Who knows what will happen to the Internet and things on it now.
Don't throw away your photos. Give them to your kids if they are interested. The flash drive will either become lost or nonfunctional.
Postcardy is right. Things - especially electronic things - become obsolete so fast these days, who knows what will still be around & useful in the even not-so-distant future? Save those photos!
Definitely don't
I scanned thousands of photos...and the backup drive I was using one day never worked again. (back when space on our computer's drive wasn't so big)
Bob,
Only one drawer full of photos? Your falling behind. Never throw a photo away; but if you must part with them, someone somewhere will appreciate it. Pass them on somehow, somewhere.
Fascinating. And you are so well organized ! My 1956 Shakespeare is set out similarly to yours but without the pretty pictures. Perhaps we need a week on book inscriptions Mine might not be historically important but they are definitely nostalgic to me. Like the Georgette Heyer book from four girlfriends for my fifteenth birthday,
Postcardy is right -- today's technology is sure to be obsolete tomorrow.
Congratulations on winning that prize and having the good sense to keep the book -- makes for a good memory to pass along.
I did enjoy your different "take" on this week's theme. Like everyone else here, I echo "Keep Them". I had a scare when I thought I had lost everything on my external drive - fortunately not, but I have heard they are not totally reliable. So I am still sticking with my collection of brown envelopes, broadly sorted into photographs of different family lines.
I have a cookbook from 1935, Mrs. Beeton. All my photos are in albums not loose in drawers.
Sent you an envelope full of stamps yesterday, hope there is something useful.
Keep them. Nothing like holding them in your hand.You look very organized to me also. Great post.
I'll go with the majority. I think throwing away books and photographs is criminal. Besides, books should be read and albums be flipped through in an easy chair, not seated behind a terminal.
A very appropriate post for this weeks theme, Bob. A few years ago I was trying to decide the fate of very very old books circa 1830s-1890s that I had "inherited", from my grandmother. They were annotated and had been gifts to great great granddads but they had no value to me anymore, even for pressing flowers or photos. Save or Trash? I found a solution by donating them to our local library book sale and let someone else decide their value.
We all agree: don't throw those photographs! I'm hoping that, in a few more years, people will appreciate the REAL THING again!
I too am impressed with your organization and enjoyed this review through the books...I have old photos of things and people who will remain mysteries, just for sake of my own satisfaction, I try to toss some, but not successful. I think you should keep yours. Agree with Deb Gould, the photos may become twice as rare
Throw away your photos?? Gasp! Don't do it!!
No, no! Don't throw them away! If you no longer need them, give them to the kids. I love your honeymoon picture the very best of all.
Hugs,
Kathy M.
Fine collection of books and photos. I am impressed with your wedding present, the complete work of W.S.
We got a bible, I would have preferred William Shakespeare's work. Yes, I agree keep your photos stored away safely. Generally photos keep a long time when kept in the dark!
Oh gee I couldn't even part with a photo, pretty much like my books! I do treasure mine, maybe because I have so few compared to other folks. This was a fun read, I always like your humor and comments on each photo.
I do like books with illustrations and the Shakespeare one is a delight. The quick way things go obsolete nowadays means I'd agree with the consensus of keeping those photos.
I can only add my voice of protest - don’t do it! I back mine up on an external hard drive and in the cloud. I’m terrified of the machine malfunctioning. A very enjoyable post - and I crave your Complete Works with those wonderfu illustrations - who was the artist?
Keep them. In the early days (about ten years ago) I scanned a lot of my fathers photos. Luckily I still have the originals because the scans were at really low resolution because I didn't know any better. I've just rescanned at a much better quality but who knows what technology will be available in the future.
@Little Nell - The illustrations were done by Eric Fraser, the illustrator and graphic artist known for us work on the Radio Times and for creating 'Mr Therm' back in the 1930s. You can see some of his work on Flickr.
I'm with the majority. Keep the old photos.
I love the honeymoon photo. You two looked so happy.
Nancy
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