These photos were originally preserved on a CD by Gramma and Grampa, who painstakingly converted over 500 deteriorating slides to digital format. The photos have been preserved here and split into albums based on the groupings they created. The following note was included on the original CD:

Why and How We Came to Prepare the Photo CD

Background: The Challenge of Preserving Family Photos

The Problem: Deteriorating Slides from 1964

In those days there were only black & white print. Color was only available at 35mm slides. He took many slides using Kodachrome, Ektachrome, and Ansco film. Only the Kodachrome dyes have been stable over the years. The other film have deteriorated greatly, some to the extent that only threads remain.

We became concerned that we had no way to preserve these slides, and there was a problem with how to pass them down to our children.

Finding a Solution: The Digital Camera Approach

Now, with the age of computers and digitally stored pictures, we had a way not only to preserve the slides but also by using CD-ROM's to give each of you a copy of all the slides.

The Process:

Finding an economical way to convert 500+ slides to digital format posed a problem. This was solved by using a digital camera with a close-up lens. We breadboarded a setup by making a light source from a coffee can, a slide holder from some plastic and cardboard, and mounted a camera.

Then came the task of photographing and cleaning up all the slides. Some were degraded so much that there was no color information left except for red. These were converted to black and white.

Handling Out-of-Focus Images:

Others still had some color information; these were improved as best we could. We converted all the slides, even those that were out of focus or blurred.

The Final Decision:

Please bear with us. We decided late in the process that we would also scan the old photographs we have filed away. Some of these are from the early 1900's. This way you all will have copies of the most important family history.

What We've Included

We have included software for viewing (Slideshow). The slides were given numerical file names.

Family Member Index:

The first digit indicates a grouping as follows:

• 0xx = Intro, Pat & Bob's meeting, etc.
• 1xx = David
• 2xx = Lynn
• 3xx = Mark
• 4xx = Joe
• 5xx = Jean
• 6xx = Carl
• 7xx = Lesley
• 8xx = Groups of children
• 9xx = family, friends, Dad overseas, etc.

Note About Younger Children:

You will notice that the younger children have fewer slides. That is because when color prints became available, we stopped taking slides in preference to color prints.

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Closing Thoughts

You all have books with your photographs in them.

We hope you enjoy them.

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Love, Mom & Dad, Gramma & Grampa