36 Years of Photographs

In 36 years of marriage, 7 children, 20 moves, and three countries, I have taken a LOT of pictures.  I have used a 110 film camera, a minolta with the film advance on the bottom of the camera, several point-and-shoot load-your-own film cameras, passed on the kodak advantix, and settled on the kodak disposable as my camera of choice for over 10 years.  Now I have a Nikon coolpix I have used for 4 years.  I still have a kodak disposable.  I take fewer pictures nowadays.

In the 1980s I separated my photos for the first time, no labeling included.
In the early 1990s, I put the best photos in an album because we were living in France at the time.  That was a good idea.  Never did it again.
Recently I began sorting the photos again, no labeling, and realized that I needed to do better. 

So I started labeling each pack of photos, after throwing out the unnecessary ones, and then I divided them up between the children and parents.  I archived the negatives with a little paper label detailing the contents.  Each child then has an envelope of photos with a line describing each photo written on the outside.  The envelopes go into each child's small photo storage box.  I don't combine years, but each year has several envelopes with the months listed on the outside. When the envelope can't hold any more photos, or there isn't room to write on the outside anymore, I start a new envelope.

This is a lot of work.  I can only do two or three packs each time I sit down.  I've decided to list out each year's photos before doing any dividing.  So I can sit in front of the tv and go through several packs at a time.  Then I set up a cardtable in the extra bedroom and lay out all the stuff I need to divide the photos into envelopes and separate the negatives.  I use a light table set up on a folding music stand to look at the negatives.  I put the labeled negative sheet into a page protector and label it with the months that are inside it.  Then the page protectors go into a labeled three ring binder.

You see, I finally realized that I, the Mother, am the only one who knows the history of most of these photos.  (Well, not counting the ones taken at Scout Camp, Girls Camp, Youth Conference, Handcart Trek, business trip, etc.)  If I don't at least write on the back the date, people, and place of the photo, no one will know anything about them after I am gone. 

Last summer I was in Utah visiting.  There were two weddings (sisters) and nearly all of us were together.  Each of us were handed a stack of photos and encouraged to sort them out, to keep what we wanted and set the rest aside.  There were scads of photos, all unlabeled.  That's when I realized that photos need to be labeled. 

Our mother made each of us baby books, done in the 1990s, just before the "Archival Quality" info came out.  I received my baby book after the birth of my seventh child.  My children don't have baby books. The thought of making them made me frantic.  I really couldn't do them.  I might have showed my new Baby Book to my children.  I'm not sure.

This brings up the question:  Who Looks At Photo Albums Anymore?  Seriously.  Who??