Wednesday 30 November 2011

A Wonderful Antique from my Photo Scanning Project


In one of my boxes of old photographs, I found this truly wonderful gem. It is a small cardboard folder to hold photographs after they were developed at the photography store. That is, once one had shot a roll of film, it was taken to the store for developing and at the store, they mounted the developed photos in these little cardboard folders, or albums (as it says on the cover). This little folder is about 4 inches by 4 1/2 inches.   


This is what the folder looks like when I open it up and lay it flat. There is a little advertising for Kodak Film, "In the Yellow Box" on the back. In the drawing of the Kodak film box, you can see the the words "Verichrome" and "Safety Film" (whatever that means). I also like the spaces on the folder where someone could write something on the line next to "Subject", "Place" and "Date". No one wrote anything on this folder - I remember that we rarely did. 


When you open the folder, there are 6 photos held in place by a metal fastener. I suspect there were more originally but some have fallen out. This "album" has pictures taken at Christmas, circa 1956. On the left is my brother Paul, who got a drum set for Christmas. I am in the middle, looking more interested in Paul's drum set than the doll I got for Christmas. My sister Marilyn is on the right, hugging her new doll.    


The photos are turned over like pages in a book (or album, of course). The photographic paper is notched around the edges. The way they are attached is rather fragile, so it is impressive that the photos are still in this album. This is a photograph of my sister on the left, me, my Mother and my brother Paul. My Mother was reading a book to us but when the photo was taken, she was looking up at the photographer, not the book.


This is the back of the last photograph in the folder. You can see how they are attached and held in place by a metal fastener. The statement "They don't make them like they used to" sure does apply to this little album. Does anyone else remember these quaint relics of a bygone time?

3 comments:

Knatolee said...

I have similar little albums that belonged to my parents, and they are very cool! I also have a bunch of plastic "Blacks" albums from the 80s. They don't give you free albums with film processing anymore!

Ronna said...

I have a few of those old albums from back in the Saint John days when my family got together each summer to visit our grandparents. The best is the family concert album. Each kid performed. Very cute. (I wasn't born yet!)

Sarah said...

Old Christmas photos are the best! I'd love to do a collage of them throughout time.