Old landscape photographs always get me excited because I study forest succession. It can take centuries for a forest to work its way from young to mature, and I can’t wait that long. So if an old photo can tell me what a forest looked like several decades ago, I will listen. I was pleased by what I heard yesterday at the Salisbury Historical Society’s program on old photos.
Salisbury history buffs examine old photos on display, April 25, 2010.
Barry Whitney found some old slides that had been prepared around 1987 by James Petersen, Jr. for a lecture on Salisbury history. Accompanying the slides of old black and white photos were typed index cards with the text of his talk and a description of each slide. Barry presented this talk in the old Town Hall, complete with projected slides and his reading of the cards. Some of the photos have been featured in the Salisbury history books by Max and James E. Petersen, but some I had never seen before.
Barry is compiling a digital collection of these and other old photos, so it will be more efficient to find a photo relevant to your interest. It might be a great project for students at Salisbury Community School to find the locations from which some of the old photos were taken and retake them. The digital collection will be an important resource for people studying many subjects, or for people who just like old photos. It was great to meet some of those people at this event.