old black and white photos

[11-87]

I have a bunch of old black and white pictures with unknown faces. What do I do. Just throw them, or does anybody do things with them?

[Cicada]

I've seen where there is a market for old photographs. Not sure where to try to sell them, or how much work it might be. Every now and then, I go into a store with old photos on the wall.

[Ufatz]

Dump them at local historical society. They'll either find a use for a few of them or toss 'em out for you.

[nofishfisherman]

If there is some sort of significance to the photos there may be people who want them. But if its just B&W photos of great-uncle Jimmy's birthday party there probably won't be much of a market for them.

[Steve Foss]

As part of our handyman/maintenance service, we do property cleanouts and estate sales. Some clients just shrug and tell us to get rid of all of it however we want to, but we always sort through and hold back photographs.

And usually the family looks through them and finds a bunch that they didn't realize were there, and that they don't want to part with.

Being a photographer myself, and with my spouse as a professional photo retoucher/restorer, we often then scan the old prints and retouch them as digital images.

Are these family photos? If so, my bet is someone in the extended family will be interested in them. Shame to toss them, if that's the case. If they're not family, then I agree they can be given to the local historical society for review.

Generally, I have a hard time throwing away old B&W photographs. I know about the hassle and space required to keep them. It's an instinct thing with me. Someone, somewhere, can find a use/interest in them . . .

[fishinchicks]

We just celebrated our farm's 100th anniversary. In preparing for the celebration, we started digging through old photo albums. I am so thankful nobody tossed them! Some were over 100 years old. We were able to identify some unmarked photos using different clues between known persons and the unidentified.

If they are from your family, see if a family member who is interested in genealogy is interested. If not, give them to the historical society. You never know when someone will want to research them.