The past can be a fascinating place. An Anthropologist by training and finder of interesting things by avocation, Hugh Blackmer, began rescuing old photos from antique shops on Nova Scotia (the former Acadia) several decades ago. He's now posting them on-line for his Nova Scotia Faces project. He's using Flickr and experimenting with a wiki. He's finding some wonderfuloldmoments.
posted by mmahaffie (16 comments total)
Wonderful! Thanks for passing this on. I have a whole passel of photos that were just sitting around in our church and I love poring through them to try and figure them out. posted by Biblio at 5:57 PM on January 12, 2006
Thank you! posted by Miko at 6:15 PM on January 12, 2006
I do this too! I love finding old photos and postcards at salvage places. Groovy links! posted by dejah420 at 6:42 PM on January 12, 2006
Beautiful! I love stuff like this! posted by snsranch at 6:45 PM on January 12, 2006
Thank you. I love this stuff.
ndouvid has been posting an utterly fantastic found album on Flickr too. It's still coming in, trulywonderful. posted by unSane at 6:46 PM on January 12, 2006
It's weird, and yet fascinating, to see how other people view the history of your home like this. As someone born and mostly raised in Nova Scotia, I can't imagine it being interesting, even in terms of historical record. But I think there's something about these kinds of extremely old photos which appeals to people, regardless of the setting. My family has "family photos" tucked away which are no different than these, and I imagine if most people looked into it, they could find such relics of their own past as well. But it really does make a difference to see a wide variety of them from the same general area. posted by nightchrome at 6:56 PM on January 12, 2006
In viewing these links I can't help but think of the photography of Disfarmer who captured the "spirit" of Heber Springs, Arkansas at the turn of the last century. posted by ericb at 7:13 PM on January 12, 2006
God, people were uglier back then. posted by gottabefunky at 8:51 PM on January 12, 2006
God, people were uglier back then.
You know, I don't think they were. Compare apples to apples -- imagine looking at a random assemblage of American family snapshots from, say the 1990s. Plenty of ugly all around!
They just look ugly in a different way than we look ugly. posted by Miko at 9:36 PM on January 12, 2006
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posted by Biblio at 5:57 PM on January 12, 2006