House in the Mountains: Displaying Old Photographs

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Displaying Old Photographs

Hi Everyone!
Happy September!
Do you believe it's already September?
Here in Northeastern Pennsylvania it's been quite cool. The feeling of Fall is in the air. It makes me want to run out and buy those beautiful colorful mums and pumpkins that I love. But the flowers in the garden are looking so beautiful at the moment. I can't bring myself to replacing them just yet.

Nothing says Fall like sunflowers in the kitchen!!

Todays post is about old photographs. Recently we inherited a couple of old photo albums from Phil's mom and grandmother. The albums were in poor condition so we decided to place these old pictures in new albums. Phil worked for months on this project. So many pictures from so long ago. Some pictures of people we didn't even know. Pictures of celebrations and holidays. People laughing and smiling for the camera. I was amazed at how many photos were taken at what seemed to be just an ordinary Sunday dinner. They were photos of different times, times when the whole family came together to share a meal. Much different then the pictures we take today.
After finishing the albums we decided to take a few of the pictures and display them, The people in these photos were our relatives, our history. Seeing their happy times and realizing how important these times were to them, so important that they needed to capture these moments in pictures. We just knew we had to give them more prominence than being stuffed in a closet until our children inherited them some day.
We chose to display them on a wall in our hallway. The frames I used were simple and mostly the same. This keeps the display from looking too busy. I also believe that the more simple the frame the more you appreciate the picture We used mostly original photos not copies. I hung them symmetrical, again to try and keep it pleasing to the eye. Most of the pictures were black and white and sepia. This kept the display looking old world. We also had some original birth certificates and wedding certificates that we hung. The pictures go back as far as my great grandmother. Some of them are as old as the early 1900s. My only regret is that the wall isn't bigger.

We still have a few more to add. We have been waiting for family members to send us some old pictures that we didn't have to add to our wall. I like the fact that it is always being added to.