Historic Family Photos
I love old photos. I feel fortunate that part of my work week often involves researching historic images, whether it’s tracking down an obscure antique, a historic building or town, or images of long gone celebrities and politicians via historical societies or online photography stock houses. There’s a beauty and a romanticism to an older black-and-white image that I always find compelling.
The Library of Congress is full of old photos, many of them available for researchers to view online. I had the wonderful opportunity to dive into its vast collection of Lewis W. Hine images for a recent story and slide show. The faces, and a time and place captured using an old medium, are intriguing to me. We can look at these photographs, a brief moment frozen in time, and ponder the lives lived.
I have old family photos scattered throughout my home. One of my favorites is my Polish grandfather’s basketball team from 1933 (he’s on the bottom far right). My grandfather, Henry Tiska, sent the photo to me as a postcard with his shaky handwriting on the back stating, “Tell me what you have in mind when you finish school. You think I’ll ever see you again.” I was still in college and very much in my own world (having recently made plans to move across the country to Seattle with close friends after graduation without any real job prospects-horrifying to my parents, of course). I had no doubt I would see my grandfather again, and I did. I just didn’t yet realize how fleeting our time is with those we love and when he was gone, it took us all by surprise. I love having this photo of my grandfather in his youth. His words make me miss him, but the photo makes me smile, seeing this young version of a man I knew only as a much older man. Looking at this photograph fills me with memories of a life well lived and a grandfather my sister and I adored.
We’re all fortunate to have photographs in our lives that capture memories in such a tangible way. I have an album full of old family photographs collected by my mother — faces and times gone, but not forgotten. I cherish this book of photographs which holds photos of my biological father, Lee Haas, lost much too young in Vietnam, my grandmother, Anne Zygmont, in a very formal family portrait as a young child with an oversized bow in her hair, my nana, Jean Taylor Handy, being held by her brother, Donald and my great aunt Binnie’s childhood friend, Alexander, sitting on a pinto pony brought around the neighborhood for just such photo opportunities. Photographs to me are a preserved record for us to hold in our hands, a way to remember the importance of what and who has come before us. My hope is that I am able to pass this appreciation for the past along to both of my young daughters.
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Heather, your blog is so touching and heartfelt. I appreciate your love of photography and history and feel so blessed to have you on our team. Your perspective and passion is truly inspiring.
Heather, what lovely memories you’ve shared with all of us, and wonderful photographs too. Thanks for the glimpse into your history!
Wonderful images and such heart warming and interesting stories attached to them.
Thank you for sharing these memories and photographs with us.
thanks so much, lori.
This is the single most important factor that photography provides. Jim Croce wrote the sing “Time in a bottle” and we would all love to be able to open a bottle and have our family and friends back after they have left us. With a camera we capture a little slice of time with our cameras and we can look at these images years later, remembering the day we took the image. Whether the sun was shinning or the grass was fresh cut and the feelings of that moment. I don’t know if this emotion translates for others who weren’t there but at a minimum photographers freeze a moment in time so future generations can look back and appreciate the moment.
Hello Heather, I knew your biological father personally! He was a student teacher of mine in high school, probably around 1967-68 I think. We were at Franklin High School, in Franklin, New Jersey. I remember him as being a very handsome man, genuine, and very personable.Over the years I had often wondered what had happened to him, to later discover that he was lost in Vietnam. It was very saddening for me. I had found him on the Virtual Wall, where there was a brief account of the unfortunate event. I soon after, purchased a MIA/KIA stainless steel bracelet with his name and all engraved on it! I wear it to this day! I’m sure he’s with the good Lord!
I absolutely love your photograph of him sitting in the cockpit of that plane!!!
Al
Dear Al,
thank you so much for sharing this memory of my father. i will definitely share your words with my sister and mother as well. this means a lot to me. thank you.
‘best,
Heather