Organizing and preserving your photos and other memorabilia is a great way to approach a personal history project. We begin the process by identifying the materials to be addressed. 

• Photos (loose in albums, hanging on the walls)

• Negatives

• Slides

• Home movies (8mm, VHS)

• Important documents (letters, diaries, diplomas, birth certificates)

• Genealogical information (family bibles, family trees, “Descendants of…” books)

Some less obvious items include:

• Electronically stored items, either on computers, hard drives or cloud storage (emails, photos, videos, documents)

• Paintings

• Textiles

• Collections (dishware, matchbooks, dolls, tools)

• Clothing (wedding dresses, vintage outfits)

• Furniture

• Other family heirlooms

In the sorting process, we prioritize photos and documents for scanning while photographing other types of physical items such as textiles, furniture, or collections. Unboxing mementos often reveals problems with condition due either to aging or improper storage. Objects long forgotten may suddenly become prized items, of interest to many family members—who may now become concerned that future generations may not recognize a particular image as their great-great-grandmother. All of these issues can be addressed by preserving, digitally archiving, and logging information about materials while capturing the family stories they represent through interviews.