Scanning Through Time

Bill Kelly, Susan Petersen, Mabel Petersen, Otto Petersen
circa 1964

I've been wanting to scan the family 2 x 2 slides from the 1960s for a long, long time. Eight years ago I bought a scanner that scanned slides, negatives, photographs and documents. As happens, I've upgraded computers twice since then and the software no longer works on my new computers. HP no longer upgrades drivers for that scanner. On the recommendation of some folks in the Technology for Genealogy Facebook group, I tried VueScan software - a good resource, but again, it requires the HP drivers to work.

About a year ago, without reading all of the product details, I purchased a Wolverine slide scanner. It's a standalone scanner that does 35mm slides and negatives. I didn't catch the point that it was 35mm only. So that turned out to be a waste of money since I wanted to scan the 2 x 2 slides.

After reading a lot of product descriptions and reviews online and asking for advice from the aforementioned "TechGen" group, I went to Office Depot and got the Epson V500. Normally I buy nearly everything online, but I didn't want to make the 35mm mistake again. And it happened to be on sale last week. I asked the clerk to unpack the box so I could see the mattes used for slide placement. He even got a ruler for me so I could measure them. Finally! I have the slide scanning assembly line up and running.

Trip Down Memory Lane


What a delight it has been to go through these photographs from 50 years ago. But also very sad - of all of the people in the pictures, my Dad and I are just about the only ones still living. I think I had forgotten just how much time I spent with family during my teenage years. Most of my memories of the 1960s are of going to concerts and pinning up photos from TeenSet and 16 on my bedroom walls.

There are photos of me with all three sets of grandparents. I have two sets on my Dad's side since his parents divorced and remarried. The photo above was taken at Christmas, 1964, in our home. This is the only photograph of me with both of my grandfathers, Bill Kelly and Otto "Grandpa Pete" Petersen. What a treasure to discover this among the slides. I also see that we are eating from Grandma Kelly's china, a set I still have today.

It seems like a lot of our family gatherings revolved around either the dinner table or the outdoor grill and patio. It seems like our patio and deck were a focal point of our activities. I also noticed that when we took posed pictures, we stood in front of a fir tree in our front yard. It's interesting to see how it grew over the years.

In addition to photographs of special occasions, there are photos of everyday life - like when I won radio contests to get Perky's Pizza or Diet Rite Cola - there are pictures of me with the coupon and with the pizzas! Junior High and High School graduation events are captured in time, as are camping trips and boating adventures, and vacations to Missouri and South Dakota. Dad even captured a shot of me exiting the Varsity theater after watching A Hard Day's Night twice on opening day.

The photos helped me remember just how much I enjoyed hanging out with my parent's friends and the older adults, including my parent's siblings and Dad's aunts and uncle and cousins. I never cared much for the kids my own age or younger, I wanted to listen and participate in the grown-ups conversations. I remember how thrilled I was once I finally graduated from the kid's table at holidays to be able to sit with the adults.

Oh, how I wish I could turn back time and remember all of the stories they told. Mom's family were more storytellers - they loved talking about growing up in Greenwood, Nebraska, life on the farm, and the various injuries they inflicted on one another. Dad is definitely the storyteller in his family. I can ask him one question and the conversation will go on for two hours.

As I reflected on my day of scanning at twilight last evening, I teared up as I said to myself, "I miss my family." But it's so nice to still have those memories and love for them in my heart.

How To Care for Family Photographs - View workshop online

Yesterday, I posted a summary of a workshop I attended on Saturday on caring for your family photographs. You can view a condensed version of this workshop via the Nebraska State Historical Society's YouTube page.

View videos here.

How to Care for and Identify Family Photographs - workshop highlights

The Kelly Brothers
Paul "D.R" and William
William was my grandfather
circa 1900

On March 26, the Nebraska State Historical Society (NSHS) hosted an encore presentation of Picture Perfect and Beyond - How to Care For and Identify Your Family Photographs. The workshop was held at the Nebraska History Museum in Lincoln. About 50 people attended the presentation given by Karen Keehr, curator of the visual and audio collection at the NSHS and Kay Cynova, director of interpretation at Stuhr Museum in Grand Island, Nebraska.

This was a day packed full of great information on the care and handling of your personal family photo archives as well as providing hints on how to determine the approximate time frame when a photograph was made.

Karen discussed the history of photographic images. I enjoyed learning a bit more about the process behind daguerreotypes and ambrotypes.

Tintypes (also known as ferrotypes) became popular during the Civil War. Because they were sturdy, these photographs were easy for soldiers to send home and they wouldn't be damanged in the mail. Photographers kept a supply of props on hand to be used in photographs. Karen pointed out that a uniform being worn by a solider may not be an indication of his rank - it may be a costume in the photographer's wardrobe collection.

Not all archival products are created equal.

There are many storage products on the market for your family photograph collection. Karen explained that there is no uniform standard for the use of the word "archival" on a product. She emphasized that storage products should meet the Photographic Activity Test (PAT). She shared different examples of products that should be used to protect your collection.

Always look for acid free, lignin free and unbuffered in archival products.

Best places in the home to store your collection

Perhaps you already know to avoid the following: attics, basements, garages, barns. Under a bed or interior closets are the best locations in your home. It's also important to not save old newspapers with your photographs. Newspapers are very acidic and can damage your photographs.

Labeling and identifying photographs

1. Write on the back, not on the front.
2. Write on the edge of the back of the photo.
3. Always use pencil (loud gasps from everyone in the room at the mention of the word Sharpie!)
4. A woodless graphite pencil should be used; it will write on coated paper (like modern photographs). Use soft or extra soft.
5. Print the information; do not use cursive writing style.
6. Don't use labels; eventually the glue will dry, fall off and leave a yellow stain on the photograph
7. Photo albums are fine as long as they meet the PAT standard.

If you want to display a historic photograph, get the best copy possible to display and keep the original protected and out of sunlight.

Digitizing Your Collection

Karen emphasized that if you plan to digitize your collection, realize that this is a long term commitment. You will have to keep up with the technology each time the medium changes. For example, computers that will read five inch floppy disks are out of use today.

When scanning photographs, she recommended scanning a master file at 600 - 1200 pixels per inch (ppi). Images should be scanned as an uncompressed .tiff file which will retain all aspects of the scan. Do not alter this master scan. Back these up and store them separately. You can then make low resolution copies at 150 ppi (web and PowerPoint) and 300 ppi for printing. You can make color adjustments and editing on the copies - never on the master scan.

The Ears Have It

When trying to determine if two photographs are of the same person, look at the ears. Karen said that everyone's ears are unique to them and are the best facial feature to use in identifying people in photographs once you have confirmed an image as a specific person.

Backup! Backup! Backup!

Your digital collection must be backed up with duplicate copies stored offsite or via remote web storage ("the cloud").

A summary of Kay's session on identifying the age of a photo will be shared in a separate post.

Photographing Your Family - tips from National Geographic's Joel Sartore

Joel Sartore
National Geographic Photographer
from Lincoln, Nebraska

Lifelong Nebraskan and Lincoln resident Joel Sartore is a nationally recognized photographer who has been shooting pictures for National Geographic for the last 20 years. This morning, he visited with Cathy Blythe on KFOR radio about Photographing Your Family: And All the Kids and Friends and Animals Who Wander Through Too (National Geographic Photography Field Guides), which was published in 2008.

With the holidays and family time coming up, he offers a lot of tips about creative ways of photographing those who are nearest and dearest to you. Joel offers tips for creating photographs that will be meaningful and interesting for generations to come.

Some of his tips:

• Don't line everyone up in a row staring at the camera.
• Flash ruins more photos than it helps. If you can't turn off the flash, put some duct tape over it.
• Look for photo opportunities in everyday life.
• Do your photographs tell a story about a person's life?
• Do you have photographs of family members doing their job?
• Cameras - you get what you pay for.
• Use soft natural light.

Listen to Cathy's interview with Joel on this KFOR podcast. (please note: KFOR podcasts are available only for about one month).

If you enjoyed this podcast, you might also enjoy Joel's 2007 speech on the environment and nature photography at the E N Thompson Forum lecture series at the Lied Center for Performing Arts. It's also available on video. I was there!

Joel's website: JoelSartore.com

Visit Joel Sartore on Facebook

When you get out the camera this holiday season, shoot outside the box - try some different angles and perspectives. Let your photographs tell a story about your family.