Toronto. The popularity of mid 1800s printing made possible the Victorian practice of making a photographic album. This practice carried on well into the next century.
When the idea of albums disappeared, a drawer, shoe box or other small space served to hold photos of family interest and history.
When digital photography came along, most images were simply filed in a computer or smart phone. Sadly, changes in technology may mean the files cannot be opened in the future, or viewer formats may change making old files forever un-viewable.
A simple solution would be to routinely print those images felt to be of future interest to a family genealogist or historian.
Note: The title of this post is a riff on Shakespeare’s famous soliloquy from Hamlet, “To be or not to be”. And the title of the photo is a riff on a line from a 1966 song by Simon and Garfunkel, “59th Street Bridge Song“.
