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What Should You Do With Old Photo Albums?

April 03, 2024

Reading time: 5 minutes 

Dusty albums. Bulky albums. What do we do with you? We want to lighten our loads and declutter without guilt. 

Who among us compiles physical photo albums anymore? "Back in the day” a store like Target would have had a huge photo department. You could purchase and process film and buy photo frames and albums, along with supplemental inserts in a dizzying array of designs and sizes. 

No, not so anymore.

As we’ve shifted to digital photos, we’ve likewise replaced physical albums with digital-friendly options, including build-your-own photo books, shared digital albums on social media and cloud storage sites, and digital photo frames, like the beautiful frames from Aura. Physical photo albums today are usually reserved for major milestone events, like weddings, trips, and anniversaries, when we feel it’s worthwhile to sit down and thoughtfully curate those experiences.  

Those of us with photo albums tucked in our closets and bookshelves, those that we have created and inherited, not to mention the albums our parents and grandparents own and we’ll inherit one day, need solutions. What do we do with all the existing albums, so they avoid landing in a craft shop or, worse, a dumpster when the details about the people and stories within are lost to time? 

Photo Albums Have Problematic Similarities to Scrapbooks 

Like scrapbooks, photo albums are designed to be shared, in person, and talked through, reminiscing about and reliving with the telling the places you’ve been, the experiences you have had, and more. Unfortunately, also like scrapbooks, photo albums present long-term challenges: 

      1. Do you know the stories behind the photos? (We have tips for that!) Will you remember them? Scrapbooks tend to at least provide more leeway to add notes and stories than photo albums. Stories behind the photos are incredibly vulnerable to being forgotten. We can animate photos in creepy ways, but they cannot remember for us the stories lost. Look back through your albums. Do you recall all the people and events in a way that’s meaningful anymore? 
      2. Albums, the pages within, and the photos will deteriorate. Little known fact outside the photo industry: Those photo prints you ordered in single and even triplicate were never meant to last more than a dozen years, and that's for the highest quality pritns! That’s why the colors change as the chemicals used to create the images degrade and the paper eventually becomes more fragile, too. 
      3. Your album is singular and unique, unless you have access to the negatives. But even then, those are decaying with every passing day as well, so ... 
      4. Albums can be bulky. Do you have room to continue to store them? What about those you may inherit? They are substantial in size and often uncooperative with short shelves and shallow storage. In the words of one Arti Community member, "I’m in my 40s and my albums are still at my parents’ house. I didn't feel the need to take them with me, but, yes, someday I’ll hold onto them. I don’t want to throw them away."

How Can You Preserve Photo Albums?  

And maybe even let some photo albums go ... 

Share the love. At the risk of making a lot of people very angry, we have to say it: You are not beholden to anyone to hold onto your own albums or anyone else's albums. Ask! Do YOU want them? 

Don’t fall for the guilt trip you are getting or think you’ll get. Ideally, you should consider yourself a steward of the history within those albums and as such, ask family members if they want the albums before you take them apart or get rid of them. It’s the kind thing to do. But beyond that, ...

... Digitization has never been easier or more affordable. We have shared tips about digitization in general. You can buy machines to do it yourself, but there’s a catch. We turned to Cathi Nelson, founder and CEO of The Photo Managers, to explain: 

"Many people created scrapbook photo albums during the decades of scrapbooking and those albums are often 12x12, which is too big for traditional flatbed scanners. You can outsource this project to a professional photo manager whose scans allow them to capture the entire page and individual photos.  

If that is not in your budget, and you have a flatbed scanner, such as the Epson v600, scan each page and use photo stitching software to magically merge the pages.  

Another option is to carefullly remove the photos and scan them (front and back). If they are stuck to the pages, you can use a butter knife or dental floss to gently remove the photos."

We want to also celebrate the amazing ease with which apps from modern photo companies like Photomyne and VividPix —with scanners at local museums, libraries, and historical societies that can scan whole album pages up to 11.8" x 17″—can slice up each photo on the page into its own file photo or image file. No need to take the pages apart or tediously scan them one by one. This is great for do-it-yourselfers!

Digitization Wisdom

Before you and as you digitize, keep three things in mind:  

  • Photo layouts may be a part of the story. Some albums may be chronological or thematic. Others are designed for people to arrange photos in a way that may inherently help them to share stories, too. Take this example:

yellowed photo album page with baby photos

Had I scanned each photo and then disassembled the photo album, I would have disconnected these photos from the story of that day as captured in the Artifct, zapping their collective ability to convey a piece of my childhood. Instead, I could photograph or video the album before dismantling, if that’s what I decide to do with the album.

  • Capture ALL the details. You scanned the fronts to get the job done quickly, but did you even look at the backs? Now that you have, how will you preserve the additional details on the back with the photo? In a good-better-best plan, this could be: 
      • Create an index as you go for your photos with the file name and other details you care about (location, people, event, ...) or edit the photo metadata (e.g. date, location, and other information stored with the image file) with the additional information; 
      • Transform the album into a photo book and add the information in the image captions;  
      • Artifct the photos and include what you know about them. Check out our interrogation techniques for photos.
  • Share the stories behind the photos. CONNECT with your loved ones. Don’t be annoying and share 100s of photos from a single trip. Tell them the “best of” or most meaningful moments. Artifct the best ones! Artifcts are easy to share, helping you get the story out there so it can live on. You might also share the Artifct with a friend who is going on a trip to the same place you went and want your tips! You can also easily share an Artifct to a friend’s or family member’s digital photo frame. Ask them how.  

If you are taking the time to create photo albums, maybe take time to create an additional Artifct or two to go with each album, even if the Artifct is of the album itself, and is your story of why you created it, what it means to you, etc. Bonus, you can include audio and video and bring your photo album to life for the next generation.

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Other ARTIcles by Artifcts you may enjoy: 

Photos + Stories Go Better Together: A Conversation with Cathi Nelson, CEO of The Photo Managers

Storytellers, Beware!

Rescue Mission: That’s More Than a Photo

© 2024 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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An Easier and More Personal Approach to Family History

October is Family History Month. And that got us talking about the meaning and value of family history. Have you ever thought much about it? What is “family history” to you?  

If you Google “define family history,” virtual AI machines spin out a definition that is seconded, thirded (Is that a word? No, surely not.) and otherwise backed up by a plethora of sites all talking about family health and medical history. Nope, not what we’re talking about. 

Scroll a bit further and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon church, defines family history as, “Identifying and learning about your ancestors.” What a convenient definition: narrow and deeply supported by the astounding archival records of the church and its home-grown Family Search software. 

Definition of Family History

As much as we appreciate our Mormon friends, there's more to family history than our ancestors, which on its own is already overwhelming. Just thinking of all those ancestors and what to track down about each one, from where, and what to do with what we learn makes us sweat.  

But here’s what we so easily miss in that process – our families today, aka ancestors to future generations. And that is much simpler and an easier place to start for most of us.

Family History & You

We want to help you focus on your family history in a much more personal sense.  

Pause and think about your family. Who comes to mind? A spouse and children, furry or human? A larger blended family? Or perhaps you immediately wrap in your parents, siblings, nieces and nephews, too? No matter who you have in mind, now think about the history of that family unit.  

In practicing this approach, our co-founder Ellen came up with these pieces of history for her family: 

Traditional “Family History” Elements 

      • Lived in WI, NC, DC/VA/MD, and TX, with one daughter who is now more Texan than anything else. 
      • Lots of family travel, mostly road trips, with some far-flung adventures thrown in. 
      • Grounded daily life to work/school, sports, and neighbors. 
      • She and her spouse both worked for the US Federal government and spent the second half of their early careers working from home. 

A lot of what Ellen came up with is covered by public records—birth, death, and marriage certificates, along with newspapers and census and property records. Those are the very same records that genealogists would gather to learn about ancestors from 10s to 100s of years ago.  

Less Traditional, Maybe More Valuable Family History 

      • Own family language, including regular words that have strange meanings as well as words that are entirely made up. 
      • Message boards, whiteboards and letterboards alike that exhibit the personalities of her family as they fill them in. 
      • The recipes for shrimp de jonghe and coffee cake that were stars of every Christmas at home. 
      • The homemade cards Ellen makes for her husband for every Valentines Day, Birthday, and anniversary. 

A black letter board with white plastic letters

Blue colored word cloud with "Family Talk" label 

Sorry, most of these colorful family history Artifcts are private, but here are some pics to give you the ideas.

While traditional elements can tell you a lot and lead to a lot more questions, such as why all the moves, the less traditional family history gives you a feel for what the family dynamics and day-to-day life was really like. What makes the family tick, if you will. When it comes to family history, we care about both types of information and stories.

Family History: 4 Ways to Fill In and Protect Yours 

We challenge you this October to focus on your own family, however defined, and within a narrower scope of time – try just the last few years since COVID, for example. Less stress on the finding. More emphasis on the memories and the sharing. Pick even just one of the following to get yourself started.

Seminal moments.

CELEBRATE them, document them. How you do this is up to you. Conventional options are photo albums and scrapbooks. Grander options are a family reunion tied to an anniversary of some sort. For us, we’re of course more inclined to Artifct that, perhaps starting with Artifcting our Life Firsts checklist (download free here) and “best of” photos for favorites moments and memories, the details of which always fade too soon. 

Critical details.

We’re talking life, death and everything in between. To protect you and your family and all you have built together, take your first steps toward recording life data in a digital vault of your choice, like that offered by Trustworthy. Enter basics first: drivers licenses, passports, and car titles and/or loans. You’ll FEEL the progress. Let it motivate you to keep going: insurance policies, mortgages, 401ks, and more. 

Your photos.

No, photos are not all worth 1,000 words, but you’ll be devastated if they all disappear. We love the advice we’ve heard often from Cathi Nelson, CEO of The Photo Managers, to back them up to three separate locations, e.g., phone, flash drive, the cloud. You should do this often, and software like Mylio can help, but at the VERY least, back up all those pics this month.

Man running in urban setting while holding a leather weekender bag

 
 
CLICK THE IMAGE to read our story: “Emergency Go Bag: Don’t Forget the Memories” for more tips. 

Give a Story, Get a story. 

GIVE A STORY: YOURS! Skip the memoir for now. You’re getting overwhelmed even thinking about it. Write down one story of your own that you love to tell. Now share it with someone, in person and out loud, if possible. Storysharing is more powerful than storytelling because you engage the person in a way that is so much more memorable. Be sure to Artifct yourself telling it too. No one can do it justice the way you do, your voice, your words.

Definition of story sharing

GET A STORY: A FAMILY MEMBER'S. Maybe you remember hearing it once, and you have forgotten the details. Maybe you’ve never heard how grandma came to be a physicist and the projects she worked on. Ask. Record it. Artifct it. Share it. And get more tips from, “Storytellers: Beware!

Let This Be the Beginning! 

Whether you’re just getting started and want to go deeper or are already in the thick of family history and are looking for more ideas, even new fodder for family reunions and holidays, enjoy this shortlist of Arti Community favorites from ARTIcles by Artifcts: 

Happy Artifcting!

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© 2024 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Preserving and Sharing Your (Sports) Collection

Reading time: 4 minutes 

Do Fall weekends find you cheering on your home team? Whether it’s football, baseball, swimming, or soccer, chances are you’ll catch a game or two either in person or with the 21.4 million viewers who tune in to watch their favorite Sunday night matchups.  

Fall may also find you longing for adventure, whether it’s a short drive across town or across state lines or a flight across the country. It’s a great time to travel before the holiday rush, and an even better time to take in some of our country’s museum-worthy sports collections.  

To inspire your trips, we’ve compiled the list below highlighting some of the best sporting collections our country has to offer. And in case you find yourself staring at your own sports collection, and you're not sure how to keep track of and share it with others, we've prepared tips about how to Artifct those collections, even if they are not destined for a museum.  

Roadtrip Worthy Sporting Destinations

The National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY is one of the most-visited sports museums in the US. The Museum boasts over 40,000 artifacts, including a baseball thrown by Cy Young in the first modern World Series.  

A close second is the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina. One of the key features of the Museum is a banked speedway modeled after Talladega Superspeedway, featuring 18 cars and a salute to 46 tracks!  

Want to view artifacts AND try your hand at your favorite sport? The International Tennis Hall of Fame and Museum in Newport, RI is adjacent to 13 grass courts open for public play. When not serving up a winning shot, you can watch video highlights from some of the greatest matches in history and learn about Hall of Famers Billie Jean King and Pete Sampras.  

A short drive from Newport, RI will take you to Springfield, MA and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The Hall proudly displays artifacts from when James Naismith introduced the sport to his YMCA class in 1891 (!) in addition to interactive exhibits, skills challenges and decades of basketball history.  

Building and Preserving Your Museum-Worthy Collection 

Aside from having amazing collections and rare artifacts, museums tell stories—the stories of their sport, their legends, and the fans that make it all worthwhile. We get a glimpse into the greats, an understanding of their firsts, and maybe even come away with a newfound appreciation for the past times we love.  

Museums preserve and safeguard artifacts for the next generation. But these artifacts, like the everyday objects we all collect and accumulate, cannot talk. There is no way to know by looking at an object that it was a game winning ball, or a record setting car. Absent the context, the details, and yes, even the story, legend, and lore, all artifacts are just that, artifacts, aka ‘stuff.’  

There is no way to know by looking at an object that it was a game winning ball, or a record setting car.

So how do you build, preserve, and share your collection so that, just like the museums, the story, history, and memories live on? Since we’re Artifcts, we’re a little biased, and our first response is going to be “Artifct that!” whatever ‘that’ may be. It takes time and effort to tell the story behind your collection (whether it be sports memorabilia or art!) and add in the details, the who, what, when, where, and why that will one day (if not today) matter. We made it easy and enjoyable.

We’ve compiled tips below to help you get started. (Go deeper with How to Artifct That Collection.)  

      • Start with the basic facts. What is it, and how did it come into your possession? Does the item have any financial value? If in doubt, request a free valuation from our partners at Heritage Auctions.
      • Next, get nostalgic. Think about your collection this way: If someone were to inherit your collection, are any pieces of particular value to you? Why? 
      • Include photos and videos to augment the description/story. Add audio recordings if you want your family to hear the story the way that you only you can tell it, complete with fun facts. 
      • Now try looking at your collection and natural groupings within it. For example, photos, trading cards, and gear may be three groupings. Start and complete Artifcting for one group before moving on to the next. 
      • Overwhelmed? Start by taking a video of your collection to ensure you have a record of it. You can then dedicate a certain amount of time per day, week, or month to capture details with individual Artifcts for each piece. 

No matter how big or small your collection is, no matter if it is sports ‘stuff,’ or other ‘stuff’ entirely, take a moment to capture at least one piece, one story, one memory. Your family (and maybe even one day a museum!) will thank you.

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© 2024 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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What to Do with All That Sports 'Stuff'

Reading time: 3 minutes 

Fall is nearing, and depending on where you live the air might already feel crisper, the leaves may be starting to change color, and pumpkin spice has undoubtedly infiltrated your daily routine. Fall also brings many back to school and back to sports, not to mention the the start of the NFL season and the MLB World Series.  

Our co-founder Heather’s youngest went back to school last week and in seven short days has started training with her cross-country team, preparing for the start of her Interscholastic Equestrian Association show jumping season, and tapering her long runs ahead of her first half-marathon. Heather’s first thoughts? Where is all that STUFF that goes with it going to go? 

You know what she’s dealing with, no doubt. Probably some ribbons and medals along with event t-shirts, pennants, school spirit wear, and more. The fall sports season kicks off the fall ‘stuff’ season, or at least it seems that way in our founders’ households. 

The fall sports season kicks off the fall ‘stuff’ season.

What to Do with All That Sport Stuff...

Sport ‘stuff’ falls into that tricky category of the ‘tough stuff’ in life. We probably all have it, and yet, what are we supposed to do with it? We save it for the memories, the stories, and the sentiments, but one day, hopefully many years from now, the next generation in our family is going to be staring at that sport stuff wondering, “What next?” Or, in some cases even, “What is this stuff?”  

 

We offer the tips below to help you come to grips with all that sports ‘stuff’ in a way that honors the history, stories, and memories, while also freeing up some much-needed space in your home.  

  • Overwhelmed with old sports equipment? Dedicate an hour a day sorting through what is what and determine what if anything is still usable and whether or not it will be used. Just because it is usable does not mean anyone will actually use it. Donate the usable equipment you no longer need and recycle the rest. Check with local schools and sports clubs. And always Artifct especially sentimental pieces (first cleats, winning baseball from the home opener, etc.) before donating them.  

Short checklist of sports items to preserve

 
 
CLICK THE IMAGE to download your copy of our Wild World of Sports checklist for help getting started. 
  • Buried in medals, ribbons, and medallions? Struggling to remember what they all were for? Take it box by box. Using our Artifcts app, photograph the most memorable or significant mementos and add the details—the who, what, when, where, and why—and share with family and friends. Enjoy reminiscing over those shared memories! 
  • Stressed by the tens of thousands of sports photos on your phone? You’re not alone! It’s easy to snap a photo of the winning goal, or a quick video of the game winning catch. But then life happens. We forget and those photos end up years back on our photo reels. Our tip? Dedicate 15 minutes every Sunday to going through those old sports photos and Artifct the ones that have a special story behind them, add video and audio too to make the photo come to life!  

You may also enjoy A Virtual Impossibility: Keeping Up with All of My Digital Photos -->  

 

A treasured family Artifct complete with video! Sorry, it's private. 

...And Is Any of It Valuable? 

 We’ve heard from our members over the years that sometimes they hold on to the sports ‘stuff’ in hopes of it being valuable one day. We read the headlines about record setting prices on the Babe Ruth "Called Shot” jersey to Muhammad Ali’s title winning belt and we think, “Mmm....maybe one day the [insert prized sports paraphernalia] will be worth that too.” 

Just look at what happened earlier this month when the LA Dodgers released a limited edition bobblehead of star player Shohei Ohtani and his dog Decoy. People were lined up for hours in hopes of scoring one of the bobbleheads, only to immediately turn around and sell them on Ebay. 

Screenshot of news headlines about Ohtani bobblehead sales

When in doubt, Artifct your sports ‘stuff’ and use our “What’s It Worth” feature. Our partners at Heritage Auctions will provide you with a free valuation (make sure you fill in all the details for accuracy!) to help you make an informed decision—keep or sell? And at what price?  

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© 2024 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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