Photograph albums

I feel the same way about photograph albums as I do about scrapbooks. I love and hate them. For me, photographs are more relatable and pleasurable than accumulated stuff and I love looking at photographs, even of people I don't know. I find them endlessly fascinating, even the poor quality images, which are found in everyone's family photograph albums. In this photograph album, we see family life from babyhood, high school graduation, your adulthood, leisure group and vacation highlights, young love, and a new generation of babies. The only image missing is the wedding photo which probably was too large for the album and had a place of honor in the home. Photograph albums are very relatable. Most photograph albums, like scrapbooks, are composed of a mixture of materials that speed deterioration and acidification of the contents. As an archivist I recognize that they are a preservation nightmare. Digitial images have cut into the photograph album business, but people still create photograph albums for special events like weddings, anniversaries, graduations, or the birth of a new baby. The plastic sleeves usually deteriorate and stick to the images. If you tape or glue photos to paper pages, the adhesive will damage the images. Writing on images in ink or with marker also speeds deterioration. If you enjoy creating scrapbooks, and many do, please realize they are short-term items and enjoy them while they last. Enjoy these photographs, a view of American life, from a 1940s Horn family photograph album.