To collect and preserve historical photos and other media, make the material
available to the public online at no cost, and return the material to surviving
family members on request.
I started collecting lost photos after doing a project for my father. He was keeper of the Perkins family archives, storing several generations of family photos. A few years ago I set about scanning the entire archive, around 23,000 photos I think. I finished that project and gave him a copy of the complete archive. I sometimes ask him about some of those pictures (Who is this? When did that happen? Do you remember such-and-such happening?) but it bugs me that we don't know who a lot of the people are in the older photos.
I visit auctions, swapmeets, and thrift stores and I occasionally find photo albums or packets of photos from a few years back to over 100 years ago. It bugs me the same way as my family archive- so many memories, so much time, so much history lost, all these photos destined for...what, a dumpster in back of some anonymous junk store?
I started this project because I wanted to preserve what I could of the lives and memories of the people that took these photos.
There is an extensive FAQ here. If you have any questions or complaints, that's where to start.
Click on the link for each family under the Photos tab to see the page for that family.
If you are one of the people in these photos, if you know any of the people in these photos, or if you still have any questions, please contact me here.
>>> If there is any information you want to add to this site- especially genealogy info- please contact me here.
Since the rule of thumb for this page is to include photos that are at least 20-25 years old, most of the Family 1 photos are from the 1970's and 1980's. I haven't included the Perkins family archive because there are a number of people in them that I know and who are currently alive. I know the photographers for many of these photos. In creating this page, for Family 1, I am working under several conditions requested by various people as to which photos I can and can't post. For this reason, the Family 1 photos posted here consist mainly of a trolley museum, cats, my early childhood, and my high school (graduated 1989). There are currently (as of April 1, 2016) 151 images in this set.
Family 2 Nothing written on the backs of these photos. 99 images in this set.
If you have a batch of photos that you want to donate, please contact us
here. You can
get an invoice and declare the photos as charitable donations
on your taxes.
If you are a person or company and you want to donate equipment, you can get
an invoice and declare that as a charitable contribution as well. We
currently have several 8.5 x 11 flatbed scanners and a Wolverine single slide
scanner. We could use any flatbed scanner with a larger surface area
and/or a slide scanner with an automatic feeder. Please contact us
here.
If you want to donate funds to Lost Photos, please click on the donate button
below. Contributions go toward equipment, increased hosting space, and
scanning hours/employee time. If we get an angel donor, our goals include
at least 1 full time employee and perpetual hosting for the photos.
