Five Photograph Preservation Challenge

My friend and fellow historian, Charity Barriere Muhammad put out a challenge on her Gumbo For the Soul Foundation Facebook page. The challenge is for people to document five old family photographs including who the person(s) pictured is, where it was taken, approximate year, occasion, and who you got the information from. So, I thought this would be a quick and fun little post. 

The summer before I headed off to Longwood University, I spent the summer researching my family genealogy; this was in 2007. I asked my dad if he had any old family photos. He pulled out two photo albums that his mother, my grandmother, Lona Eberle Long, had put together many many years ago. I’m so glad she did. The album contained LOTS of pictures of family from both the Long and Eberle side of the family, four of which are part of this post.

So after reading this, you, the reader, should give this a shot, it is quite fun and a good way to leave a record for future generations. A picture can speak a thousand words, tell a story. You can either do it like I did in a blog post, do it as a Facebook post, or even do it the old fashion way, write it down.

 

Picture 1:

This is my 3^rd great grandfather, John Haines Long. The picture is believed to have been taken by Matthew Brady at his studio in Washington, D.C. in 1862, during the American Civil War. John was a Sergeant Major in the 124^th Pennsylvania during the Civil War. I found his image in the book, History of the One Hundred and Twenty-Fourth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers in the War of the Rebellion—1862-1863 by Robert M. Green.

 

Picture 2:

This is a picture of my 2^nd great grandfather, John Howard Long, Sr (on the right). The picture was taken at Forest Hill Park in Richmond, Virginia on June 30, 1926. The event was a Virginia Electric & Power Company picnic; John, Sr. was an inspector for the power company. In the picture he is using a lemon squeezer to make lemonade. This picture came from the album my grandmother had made and the information was on the back of the picture.

 

Picture 3:

This is a picture of the Long family at Byrd Park in Richmond on April 20, 1930, Easter Sunday. Pictured are John Howard Long, Sr. (back left), Martha Partin Long, my 2^nd great grandmother (back right), John Howard Long, Jr. (front left), and my great grandfather, Fred Haines Long (front right). The picture is from the above-mentioned album with the information written on the back of the image.

 

Picture 4:

This is a picture of my grandfather, Wilfred Spotswood Long, Sr. The picture was taken in Bremen, Germany in 1945 during World War II. My grandfather was at D-Day, having landed at Normandy on Omaha Beach. He was present at the Battle of the Bulge and fought all the way to Germany. This picture came from the album my grandmother had made in a section that included pictures from my grandfather’s service in the war.

Picture 5:

This is a picture of my paternal grandmother, Lona Blanch Eberle. The picture is from the early 1940s in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. This image came from her album.