Scrapbooking: Celebrate Your Family's History

Any scrapbook is a "good" scrapbook, but some are clearly better than others. The value of your family archives can be improved by following one simple principle: keep in the back of your mind that a good scrapbook, like a Millennium Time Capsule, demands that the authors and creators assume that they will all be dead when it is finally opened and read.

Every photo should be dated, identified, and captioned to be of value. You and the kids may know who is who in that family photo—but what about the ghosts of the future? I have a dozen boxes of photos, ranging from tintypes to glass plate negatives that have been passed down through the years. They are nearly useless curiosities because there is nothing written on their backs. Most of the images are nameless faces from nameless places out of time.

If you decide to add newspaper clippings to your project, write the date and name of the newspaper on the clipping. Better yet, photocopy and also mount a copy of the newspaper in the scrapbook. Newsprint is high in acid and deteriorates almost before our eyes (ever notice what happens to a newspaper left in the back window of your car on a sunny day?—after just a few hours it looks like its a hundred years old) so be sure the newsprint doesn't touch any of your photos.