Would You Like to Display Your Pre-War Family Photos from Europe in a Museum?

The Museum of Family History proudly displays more than a thousand pre-war family photos from Europe. Hundreds of followers of the Museum have e-mailed the Museum scans of their precious family photos, wishing to not only share images of their family members and ancestors with all of us, but to simply honor their memory. Once in a while someone even sees a connection between their family tree and the family tree of the person who posted their family photos and both parties are put in contact with each other.

Also, placing one's family photos within the Museum's "Postcards from Home" permanent exhibition allows one to share their photos with other family members living in different parts of the world, saving them the dilemma of how to send a cousin, for example, a family photo without having to make copies, etc.

So your family photos are always welcome. Within the "Postcards from Home" exhibition, the photos are organized not only by country and town name, but also by family surname, so someone with a particular interest in a country or town or surname can make a specific search.

How does one submit photos for inclusion within the Museum's website?

First, of course, you must scan each photo and document into a folder within your computer, preferably scanning them as jpegs. The Museum prefers that you not send it originals for obvious reasons. If you haven't a scanner, there are many drugstores that have them, and you may scan your photos there by their photo department onto a CD and you can subsequently mail the CD to the Museum.

Then, after you've scanned the photos into a designated folder, you can send them to the Museum in groups of ten or twelve or more depending on the size, at postmaster@museumoffamilyhistory.com . You might want to send a second email at the time to the same e-mail address, letting the Museum know that the photos are on their way. In the subject heading of the e-mail that contains the photos, you may wish to type, for example, "Sam's family photos." I will let you know when I receive them.

If you can identify any/all of the people in each photo, please do. Assign a country and town name to each photo, so at least for the Museum's Postcards from Home exhibition, they can be placed correctly within the exhibition.

If you know the date the photo was taken, or can approximate it, please do. Surely you will not know the name of each person, and you may not have a clue as to the date, but do what you can. Perhaps you can label the photos to reflect their name, or family name. Preferably no spaces should be left between words witin the file name (if possible).

If a particular photo is from a photographic studio, e.g. it has the name of the studio/photographer imprinted at the bottom of the front of the photo mount, don't crop it; simply send the complete front photo, etc. If there is a lithographic design on the back of the photo that tells us the name of the studio, its address, etc., please send that too. There is also no need to touch up the photo as the Museum does that to its satisfaction.

If the photos are simply of life in a town and you don't know the names of the people in the photo, that's fine. Best to e-mail all the photos to the Museum and let me decide what I can and cannot use.

That should do it. If you have any questions, please write to me at steve@museumoffamilyhistory.com and ask.

You can visit the Museum's "Postcards from Home" exhibition at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/pfh-a.htm .