What to do with old Chromes from the early 50's on

Eric Rose · Nov 19, 2019

I am in the process of going through my fathers old collection of mainly Kodachrome slides. They range from the early 50's to the mid 70's. Really old photos of Vegas, LA, Paris, London, Hong Kong all over the place. Seems like such a waste to just bin them.

I am scanning the ones that are of interest to me but there are thousands of images I don't want to keep. At my age you just can't hang on to everything.

Any suggestions what I should do with them? Given I live in Canada if anyone wants them shipped it will be expensive. All the slides, or most of them anyway, are in metal holders.

Eric

StanMac · Nov 19, 2019

I did a quick google for historical photo archiving and Getty Images came up along with the US Library of Congress. If you can separate them by country, state, or province, I’d bet there would be a historical foundation or archive in that entity that you could donate them to. A bit of research would be involved, though.

Stan

AgX · Nov 20, 2019

"Really old photos of Vegas, LA, Paris, London, Hong Kong all over the place."

To historians they only would be of interest if they would show something different, than thousands of other tourist photos.

For a general public you might think of projects like these:
https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/private-west-germany-made-public-a-heritage-project.135023/
Maybe there is such too for eg. Las Vegas.

Kino · Nov 20, 2019

Eric Rose said:
I am in the process of going through my fathers old collection of mainly Kodachrome slides. They range from the early 50's to the mid 70's. Really old photos of Vegas, LA, Paris, London, Hong Kong all over the place. Seems like such a waste to just bin them.

I am scanning the ones that are of interest to me but there are thousands of images I don't want to keep. At my age you just can't hang on to everything.

Any suggestions what I should do with them? Given I live in Canada if anyone wants them shipped it will be expensive. All the slides, or most of them anyway, are in metal holders.

Eric

Eric,

That's humorous in a way to me; I have hundreds of Aviation slides of a Famous Canadian I don't know what to do with!

Maybe we can meet at the border and do an exchange!

However, we would be right back were we started; staring at slides that shouldn't be thrown out but unsure of what to do with them...

I am willing to send an email to Helena Zinkham, Chief of the Prints and Photograph Division at the Library of Congress, inquiring as to their interest (not my division), but it would be best if you provide some basics.

Maybe a rough count estimate, a sample slide or two and a statement of what you would expect from the donation.

Let me know if you are serious.

guangong · Nov 20, 2019

Facing a similar problem, but from the other end. I shall shortly devote 40 min a day to sorting out my slides so that there will be fewer for family to go through.
One piece of advice I picked up 6 decades ago was to buy the slides usually sold at tourist sites ( or postcards) and not shoot those scenes but something else. Or to show something different. Also, pics I took with a definite purpose in mind. Therefore, my discards can be selected mostly from aesthetic considerations.
I am afraid that if some kind of preselection is not carried out, the whole unsourced mess will just be tossed.

BAC1967 · Nov 20, 2019

I’m currently going through about 3,600 slides my father took from 1964 to the 1990’s. He had them in carousels that take up a lot of space. I’m viewing each carousel (100 slides each), scanning the ones I like the best then I’m putting them into slide boxes that take up much less space. The best storage box I found is the Logan Deluxe Slide file #200. It’s a metal box that holds about 750 glass less slides. From there I’m not sure where they will ultimately go but this will buy them some time.

Wallendo · Nov 20, 2019

Fortunately, my father is still doing well in his 80's, but I expect to face a similar situation at some time. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of slides, most of them still in very good condition. He has forgotten the location and situations of a few or them. Most of them are of little historical interest.

In general, historical photos of famous places are usually useless, there are just so many of them. Old photos from smaller communities may be of interest to local libraries and historical societies. And even them, a photograph of a hardware store may be of more interest than a photograph of a monument.

I realize that 99% of the photographs I have taken is of little interest to anyone besides me. I look at some of my old travel slides from the early 80's, but their value is primarily that I was there ... and I took the picture.

As for old photos, when I get a chance I post them on the internet in case someone has an interest in them. I save all the slides, knowing that most will be thrown away long before the Kodachromes go bad.

Andrew O'Neill · Nov 20, 2019

Eric, do you have siblings?

dmr · Nov 20, 2019

Eric Rose said:
Really old photos of Vegas

My hunch is that someone on www.vegasmessageboard.com would probably want those of Las Vegas. Vintage LV photos are always popular with users there. If I had more spare time I would volunteer to scan them and post them on Flickr or something, but spare time is one thing I've been short of lately.

(If you want, I would be willing to post a note there asking if there is any interest. Please let me know if you want me to.)

Eric Rose · Nov 21, 2019

The thing is these slides are REALLY heavy. There is no way I am going to pay shipping! I would estimate at least 60 lbs.

AgX · Nov 21, 2019

Unmount them... By the way, I am ignorant on (full) metal slide mounts. Could you make me wiser?

Alan Edward Klein · Nov 21, 2019

BAC1967 said:
I’m currently going through about 3,600 slides my father took from 1964 to the 1990’s. He had them in carousels that take up a lot of space. I’m viewing each carousel (100 slides each), scanning the ones I like the best then I’m putting them into slide boxes that take up much less space. The best storage box I found is the Logan Deluxe Slide file #200. It’s a metal box that holds about 750 glass less slides. From there I’m not sure where they will ultimately go but this will buy them some time.

I did that with my own slide when I moved and the projector broke. I pulled the best mostly family shots. Then I scanned them and made a slide show as a video that can be played on a desktop, cellphone or my 4k UHDTV. I added background music and title and credits and copied them onto DVD's (now memory cards) and gave to family members. I also dumped a couple on Youtube. Here's one I did of a scuba vacation on Ektachromes shot 35 years ago. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDzogShfhgCHh2rVvEsFOJQ My kid's slide shows I mainly gave to my kid rather than post them on Youtube but there are some there although it was from digital pictures. That's the one called Coney Island etc.

The trick is to be very selective in culling the shots, something I wish I was even more selective of.

What to do with old Chromes from the early 50's on

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