When I got my first digital camera a few years ago, I found that I started taking more pictures than I ever did with my old 35mm camera. Back in the pre-digital days you had to buy the rolls of film and lug them around with you. On a typical vacation I would take 5 rolls of film and get about 100 fairly decent pictures. That seemed like a lot at the time. By comparison, on the last vacation my husband I went on, I took over 250 pictures on my digital camera in just one day.
With my 35mm, I had to really think about what pictures I wanted to take. I didn’t want to waste expensive film on blurry shots of the dogs chasing each other around the backyard. Now, I can take as many shots as I want and just delete the ones that don’t turn out. I’m not sure which is better. Taking the time to get one quality shot? Or taking lots of shots hoping I can use at least one of them?
In the first half of the 20th century, most people probably didn’t have the time or the means to take a lot of pictures. So, the pictures they did take really meant something to them. Whether it was a picture of a home, of a child, or of a family gathering, pictures held a special place in people’s hearts.
Last fall, the Beloit Public Library proudly displayed a collection of photographs from the Beloit Oral History Project. Most of the photographs were of people and places connected with the Fairbanks Flats. The photographs captured moments of family life and community fellowship. They are photographs that show the true quality of the people who took them and of the people who posed for them.
In honor of National Black History Month, the library is happy to announce that these photographs will be on our website as of February 1st. They are part of our Digital Collection and are available for both viewing and printing. Visit www.beloitlibrary.info, click on Electronic Resources and then click on Digital Collections. Each photo is indexed by the year it was taken and by the people or places in the photo.
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