When my Grandmother, Maryann, died, boxes of glass plate negatives surfaced made by her father, Cranson Weber Shelley in the early part of the 20th Century. Most of the images were family photos, made with a 4x5 glass plate camera. Their condition was remarkable considering the amount of time they had been in less than ideal storage conditions.

There was a collection of images that stood out from the rest. About 40 still life photos of flowers, made around 1933, I think. Based on the huge disparity of style and approach between the images, what I initially thought was work made by Cranson, has me thinking more and more that the artist was Edna Shelley, the middle daughter, instead. I can’t be sure though, because there is no documenting who did what.

While authorship is important, what truly matters is someone in my family made an amazing portfolio of images that can be seen today. They’re for sale on my Etsy store

Cataloging the glass plate negatives was a peek into my mother’s family. Seeing my aunts and uncles when they were young is a way to connect through time. When I was born, they all were late middle age. Seeing the family resemblances, familiar expressions that have been passed down is especially interesting.

A bigger takeaway for me was realizing how important film photography is for recording and preserving family records. Being able to scan 100+ year old negatives and make them new again is a thrill. There will always be a way to digitize analog film, but digital files might not always last 100 years. I’ve lost some important family images in the last ten years. Hard drives go bad, processed film does not.