Want our old slides? (FFS)

[themaelane]

My grandfather was a scout leader. He has many slides from his years, many from late-50's, 60's, 70's. He was in Whitehouse, NJ, Troop 198. He has long since perished, and my grandmother is trying to clear out old stuff from their house.

 

The slides include Jamborees and troop activities. My grandmother can ship them to you (with my uncle's help) for no charge but that of the shipping.

 

If you can direct me to another more appropriate place to post this, I'd be appreciative. Thanks!

[DLister]

The local council for that area might be interested in preserving that history. If you don't know what council it is, you can find it by inputting the address at https://beascout.scouting.org/.

[moosetracker]

A better place I would recommend is to contact the troop (if still existing.) One position in the troop is as Troop Historian.. If the troop is utilizing it you have a young man who will be happy to take those slides, and figure out how to incorporate them into the Troops history.

 

My son got slides from an old scout master of a similar era. He went through them all looking at them through a light box, picked out the better ones. Then the troop paid to have them changed to jpg.. They now have a nice slide show of that era.

[bt01]

That sounds like a good idea. Do more than a web search. Not all units are on the web. The local council should be on the web and they can help.

[Adam S]

That is in Central New Jersey Council http://www.cnjcscouting.org/

 

https://beascout.scouting.org/BeAScoutMap.aspx

No troop 198

but there is a 199 which means they might be in the area

and a 1980 so maybe there was another 198 durign a merge and they opted for 1980...

Of course it could just mean 198 exists but is not listed...

[Hawkrod]

I can only hope that somebody from the area does step up and preserve these. I am on the west coast and have collected a huge amout of local historical memorabilia because it is important and too many people forget where we came from. Old slides can easily be used to make modern prints (many scanners now will do it automatically!). I have collected a bunch of stuff like this and using frames from the local dollar store, I intend to eventually decorate buildings through out our local camp as soon as it is rebuilt. Unfortunately I have not been lucky enough to get something like boxes of slides and I sure wish I had. My best item is a 16MM film reel with dozens of vintage clips that I am planning to capture images from. Something simple like this can make a camp experience just that much more for boys attending camp and can also improve morale of camp staff when they are associated with the history. Sometimes it is about the show you create along with the program, it just adds to the experience. Putting vintage Scout pictures in hallways, mess halls, and the like will do a lot more than many realize. It has a positive psychological impact. Just in case anybody is reading this and wants some ideas, another inexpensive thing that you can do is use old Boys Life magazines as art because they tend to have little value but a lot of impact. If you have an ODS area at camp you can post ads from BL showing camping gear that BSA used to sell, it is amazing how excited the boys can get looking at old stuff like this! Just be sure they are mounted in such a way that they are protected from the elements (it isn't as hard as you might think!).

[themaelane]

Thank you so much for all the great advice you all have given! I have emailed my mom to check on the troop number, maybe I wrote it down wrong. I'll see if it still exists or not.

 

My grandma said she asked the local people if they wanted, and they said no, but... well I'd like to double check that Its good to hear that you think I've got the right idea that a troop historian would be interested in these.

 

So glad I found this forum, I hate it when old historic items get lost. Speaking of which, I think I have an old-ish Jamboree plate around here from my great aunt, maybe I should look and see who might want that!

[shortridge]

Hawkrod ... ODS?

 

Old Darn Stuff?

[Hawkrod]

Sorry, ODS = Out Door Skills, I sometimes forget that everybody has their own terms!(This message has been edited by Hawkrod)

[Kudu]

themaelane writes:

 

My grandma said she asked the local people if they wanted, and they said no...I hate it when old historic items get lost.

 

The best way to keep them from getting lost is to give the slides to a Scout History Website such as mine or another with the clear understanding that he or she will convert them to jpg files and make them available to everyone.

 

That way future local people including Troop Historians (boys who change jobs every six months) can find them via Google and quickly download them in a usable format.

 

Far more important than one Troop Historian is everyone else in the world (including real historians) who Google with an interest not in the Troop number, but the universal historical subject matter of the photographs themselves.

 

Any Scouting historian will tell you that most of the millions and millions of Scouting photographs taken over the last century have ended up in landfills after spending a few decades in the drawers of well-meaning people.

 

Yours at 300 feet,

 

Kudu

 

Scout History

http://kudu.net