Did you know that the month of September is National Save Your Photos Month?
Since this topic is especially near and dear to our hearts, here are some examples of photo collections we are thankful to have in our collections. Stick around until the end for some tips on how to preserve your own personal photos!
Album of Early Vancouver Photos, Unknown English Photographer, ca. 1880-1910
While we have many photos in our collection that were taken earlier in history, this anonymous album is one of our earliest private photo collections that features the city of Vancouver. This album was donated to UBC Rare Books and Special Collections by the illustrious Vancouver antiques dealer Uno Langmann.
The album features 201 photos, around 76 of which are albumen photographic prints which utilized an interesting type of late 19th century photographic technology that used albumen (egg whites) to bind photosensitive chemicals and silver to a paper base. The albumin images are often accompanied by matching silver gelatin negatives.
The album includes photos of the Granville Bridge under construction, local Indigenous peoples, Niagara Falls in Ontario, and a variety of scenes and buildings from early colonial life in Vancouver.
Eric Hegg’s Klondike Photo Album, 1898
When the Klondike Gold Rush sent thousands north to make their fortune in the Klondike gold rush, Swedish-American photographer Eric A. Hegg joined a group of prospectors heading North in 1897, accompanied by fellow photographer P.E. Larss. Many of these photos were developed in a travelling darkroom built inside the bow of a small boat that was specially designed for the journey.
The album contains 48 images of travel, landscapes, and people Hegg and Larss encountered on their journey through the Chilkoot and White Pass Trails, as well as their river journeys on the way to the Klondike frontier.
Frank Jue’s Childhood Album, ca. 1900-1919
This album from the Chung Collection was originally compiled by Frank Jue (Jue Fong), a Chinese-American tenor singer from Oregon.
Compiled in his teenage years, this album consists of photographs of family, friends and events taking place in his hometown in Oregon, as well as his travels across America. Often accompanied by humourous captions, this album offers rare insight into the personal life and adventures of a Chinese-American teen in 1910’s America that wouldn’t be too out of place on a modern social media feed!
Peter Anderson, 1889-1953
Peter Anderson was born in Onsjo, Sweden. He emigrated to the United States in 1885, before following the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897, where he then made his fortune. After the Gold Rush, he set up a mill in Washington state before coming north to British Columbia, where he started his own logging company with his sons in Knox Bay and Grassy Bay, B.C.
The Peter Anderson Photo Collection was digitized after being donated to UBC Rare Books and Special Collections and consists of a variety of photographs of the early logging industry in British Columbia, including those of the Knox Bay Camp (1890s-1929), alongside Anderson’s personal reminiscences about his own life and family.
Anderson’s son Dewey fought for the American Army in WWI and his other son Clay fought for the Canadian Forces.
Other Photos and Collections
Every image on Open Collections required some degree of preservation before finding its way into our collection, and most of the items featured here owe their existence to family members, friends, or strangers who took care to keep them safe until the present.
Some photos show signs of failed preservation that occurred before they were digitized for Open Collections and have lost some of their former detail. In addition, many photos lack the full context required to make complete sense of when they were taken, and who they were taken by.
While many of these photos weren’t considered valuable at the time they were taken, they have proved remarkably relevant and interesting in 2026.
What Can You Do to Save Your Own Photos?
While it might not seem worth it to preserve our photos in the digital age, we can never know who might be grateful to have them in the future, whether that’s a museum or archive, or future members of your own family.
If you’ve been thinking about going through your personal photos, here’s some basic advice on how you can do that.
All Photos
- Make an effort to catalog and date photos of important events, people and places that might soon fade from living memory
- Try to catalog what photos you have and make a plan who will get them after you
- Regularly go through your photos and decide which ones you want to keep!
Physical Photos/Negatives
For example: Kodak film strips, slides, negatives, glass plates, or paper-based photos.
- If you find unfamiliar photos that were produced by an unknown method – research which photo production technique(s) were used to create them
- Some types of old photographs are very delicate and can degrade over time, so make an effort to identify these so you can store them safely for the future!
- Make sure to keep all physical photos away from high heat, humidity, dust, dirt and light – Some types of photos may require specific preservation measures.
- Avoid storing photos in basements or attics! These are often the worst places for bugs, moisture, and dust that will damage your photos over time.
Digital Photos
- Take the time every year or every few months to clean out your camera rolls or memory cards and find a secure place to back-up your pictures.
- If you want to be extra secure used the 3-2-1 backup rule that involves storing essential digital records in 3 different locations instead of just 1
- While digital photos typically have metadata that includes time and location data, it’s important to document names, context, or other details that might get lost over time
- Use a helpful file folder structure that’s easy for you (and others!) to understand now or in 50 years!
- Include dates and helpful names for each folder of photos,
- Example: “College Graduation, John Doe, 1998-06-26” or “Jane Doe, baby pictures, 0-3 years, 1993-1996”
- To avoid data loss, try to save your photos in the best file format and at the best available quality: TIFF (.tif), JPEG2000 (.jp2), PNG (.png) or JPEG/JFIF (.jpg)
- Some file formats, such as the standard JPEG (.jpeg) are smaller and more prone to losing data over time
Check out the following helpful links for more advice on this topic!
- Government of Canada – Photo Preservation Guidelines
- Library of Congress – Guides for Digital Preservation
- Library of Congress – File Formats
- PSAP – Photo Identification guide
- Alberta Archives – Preservation Tips
Thank you for reading our post and be sure to check out some of these image collections!
Related Blog Posts
- How We Digitize: An Audio Cassette Tape (2019)
- How We Digitize: An Open Book with the ATIZ (2015)
- How We Digitize: Audio Edition! (2015)
- How We Digitize: Digital Preservation, Part 1 (2015)
- How We Digitize: Digital Preservation, Part 2 (2015)
- How We Digitize: Flatbed Scanning (2014)
- How We Digitize: Imaging UBC’s ‘Gazing at Taishan’ Poem (2015)
- How We Digitize: Microfilm (2019)
- How We Digitize: Multipage Scanners (2014)
