COBWEB CORNERS: Save your old pictures!
By Mel McFarland I love old pictures! I can look at old pictures for hours. Every now and then I find some real gems in the antique shops around. Usually what interests me is the background of some picture of somebody's child or pet. I have a small collection that are not even train related! ![]() Post cards are also along the same line, but old photos are even better. I have seen post cards of several streets here in Colorado City, but few show the things that pop up in old pictures. Unfortunately, not many area residents could afford cameras in the early days, but some were real "Kodakers." Some even developed their own pictures. I have collected a few from these. One man lived near where the post office is on 25th. I know that because I have several pictures he took over a hundred years ago. We can be really fortunate that some of these were saved, but many have been thrown away over the years. Who wants to see pictures of Uncle Bob's house? Well, maybe whoever lives there now might, even whoever might be researching houses that are now long gone on Colorado Avenue! The buildings that once stood on Cucharras between 24th and 26th for example, are largely unknown except for records that give basic dimensions. I found pictures of the old Colorado-Philadelphia Mill which sat off South 31st. In the background is a picture of a hotel that burned down not long afterwards. The point of all this is to alert you to the historical importance of that old shoebox of pictures you may be thinking of tossing. You may not know who is in the pictures; many people never wrote down this information. But if you do know, use a soft pencil to note it on the back. If it is in an album, keep it that way unless it is really badly damaged. If there is nobody to pass it on to, check with libraries or museums with an interest in the subject. The local library might not be interested in pictures from Kansas or Iowa, but they sure might be! Even though the electronic era is here, people are still writing books and many are doing genealogy. Please help preserve our past for our future! |