Preserving the Past

Shortly after my father died 2 1/2 years ago, my mother brought this battered box out from under her bed. Inside was a scrapbook that my aunt had made chronicling Daddy's stint in the Army during World War II.

The information in the scrapbook was priceless, but the pages were tattered and crumbling. Deciding I needed to do something about it, I brought it home. Initially I bought a traditional scrapbook and thought I would attempt to remove everything from the deteriorating pages and recreate the whole thing.

The more I studied it, however, the more I decided it would be an almost impossible task. As you can see from this picture, she used Scotch tape to secure many of the items, and I was afraid of doing further damage. The scrapbook also contained numerous newspaper clippings that she had glued to the pages.

I finally decided that the most important things I could salvage were Daddy's letters and other correspondence as well as the photographs. Most of the postcards were secured with tape along one edge, so it was pretty easy to scan both sides. The letters, for the most part, were inside their original envelopes.

I spent hours with the scanner and photo editing software. I also scanned other memorablia and even some of the original pages to use as background. After creating a digital scrapbook, I had a book printed for my mother and also one for myself. The letters and postcards are easy to read, and the photographs and other illustrations help to document Daddy's Army days both here in the United States and in Europe.

Here's the cover and a couple of pages from my finished project. The book is 104 pages long and covers everything from Daddy's induction in June of 1943 to his discharge in April of 1946, just seven months before I was born.

To visit more Met Monday participants, go to Between Naps on the Porch. Thanks to Susan for hosting this event to kick off the week.