History in Black and White
Teenie Harris and My Sister Working to Preserve the Past
By: Levi Blackman : My sister has always been a big fan of photography. Without her, I think a lot of our family's history would have been lost. At one time, she collected all the older pictures from past generations and did her best to preserve them. Looking at all the old pictures became a huge trip into the past. I got to take a glimpse into where I came from.

Picture from the Teenie Harris Project

I didn't know most of the people in these old pictures. Sometimes a few familiar faces would appear after someone explained to me who these people where. The pictures talked to me with a strong voice. I could picture my mother at one of the small cafes, ordering a float and relaxing with friends.

My sister also talks a lot about the preservation of photographs. She gets onto me a lot about printing pictures from my digital camera on my printer. My pictures won't last a good decade and so their history persevering power is lost.

Looking at black and white pictures make me wish that mine would last forever. Or at least to the point were someone is looking at the picture and thinking to themselves, wow, a color print that is so old fashioned now that we have things like this (holds up new technological advance in the photo industry).

It is difficult to hold on to history, to take that extra step to make sure the certain artifact will be around for many generations, especially when we ourselves will not be around to witness the future enjoying our creation. I respect those who work so hard, because it is a great feeling looking at these older pictures to see just what the past was like. I respect my sister for her work, and I respect the work of many others who spend many lonely hours putting together a record of our society's perception of reality at this time in space.

Picture from the Teenie Harris Project

One such project caught my eye. It is called the Teenie Harris Archive Project and it is run by Department of History at the University of Pittsburgh. They have an online collection of over 80,000 photographs ranging from buildings to people. Most of these pictures are un-named and unknown, so the website allows you to post comments that will go in the official museum and book explaining what people think of the pictures, what memories the pictures bring up, and what the pictures might be of.

You can visit the Tennie Harris Archive Project at http://www.cmoa.org/teenie/info.asp.

To history…if the world ends tomorrow it will all be lost, but at least we remembered.

About the Author

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