Thirty years ago when asked to publish a pictorial history book on local culture, I scoffed at the thought. Who needed a pictorial history of anything? To my way of thinking, it was simply a means by which college professors fulfilled their publishing requirement without doing any real scholarship. I was never impressed with them; and as many of my museum colleagues thought, they were a waste of time, talent and resources. Recently I had to eat my words and I wish to apologize to all the authors of such books for my poor judgment.
It became clear when I was working on the history of an upstate S.C. county that the best resource of information for the county was indeed the pictorial history book. My colleague, Paul Gettys, even purchased one of them to share with me due to the remarkable and accurate data the book offered. In reality, finding the source and locale of many historically important homes is an achievement, but in many cases, the houses shown in the book are gone. Just as we have found out by reviewing historic survey cards, about 25-30 percent of the subjects are no longer standing. It is therefore highly beneficial that these picture books were indeed published.
Besides the pictures of building and individuals, the books that R&R is using to mine data are helpful in that they showcase what was important to the individual community they depict. And yes, Roots & Recall does request permission to use images and information from the authors. But it still leaves me wondering just what has happened to so many of the images from these books. Do they remain with caring loved ones who know their value or have they been thrown to the curbside?