SDC Miscellaneous Photographs Volunteer Scheme
The SDC has many thousands of images as photographs and slides (both in 35mm and glass slides) that are being digitised. The problem is that many have no accompanying information and so it may not be known who, what and (importantly) when they were taken. This means part of the SDC history is being lost … but you can help.
We are seeking individuals to look at these photographs and make comment to help us identifying what each one is. This can be done in your own time and own pace via the SDC website. You may also not know everything about a particular image but collectively we can piece together the jigsaws of time.
- Login to the Members area of the SDC website – this is so when you want to you can then make comments (otherwise you can only view the photographs)
- Go to the SDC Digital Archive and choose the Category ‘Miscellaneous Photographs‘ and click ‘Submit’. You can now browse the photographs available so far.
- Please make a comment and add any details you recall such as peoples name(s), location and especially dates (even a year can help). Any comments will be public so only post what you would deem to be publicly acceptable.
- Even if you recognise no one or the event or place please comment ‘NTA’ (Nothing to Add). Why? Well, we will be counting how many photographs have been scanned by who and inviting our top volunteers to a thank you meal in early 2025 (UK location with travel at own expense) for your volunteering and effort as well as to meet like minded SDC experts.
- Want to do more? Then please email us re coming to Perkin House to scan in more photographs for uploading – all training (and tea/coffee & biscuits) will be provided (if you can photocopy you can scan images for the SDC!).
Perhaps you are now thinking why are we doing this?
- In addition to ensuring we do not lose some SDC history it helps to piece together that history and link events and people.
- For example, the SDC website now has an almost complete list of SDC Medal Recipients over the years, to which we are adding the medal citations and, through this work, also photographs of the medal recipients.
- Items on the SDC website Digital Archive can then also be linked allowing individuals to see what a SDC President did before becoming President, for example – what Medals did they receive, for what work and when?
- Has someone you know received a SDC medal before and for what reason? You can now start to look that up on the SDC website Digital Archive. If not, then why not nominate them for a medal?
- Who were the past stalwarts of the Society? What did they do and what did they look like? Images are very important for everyone to visualise how we got to this point in the SDC history and in 2024 the SDC is 140 years old!
Here are 2 examples of how we can move from an image with little information to a picture of a person and what they have given to the Society and Colour Community: