What's the oldest photo you own?

480sparky · Dec 31, 2015

Digital or film..... what is the oldest photo you have in your possession? Not one you have downloaded from a website. One you have taken, or one that has been in the family.

For me, it's a class photo of my grandfather. Born in 1903, he appears about 12 or 14 in this image (3rd from left, in back, behind the girl). So that would make the image from 1915-1917.

cherylynne1 · Dec 31, 2015

Pictures are pretty much the only heirlooms in my family. I have copies of pictures of all of my great-grandparents and their siblings....probably from the 1920's. I know my great-grandmother died in 1927, so it's definitely before that. There might even been photos of some of their parents as well...I admit, I never paid much attention as a child to the family history discussions. I'm not sure who inherited the original photos when my grandmother passed away a few years ago, though I would guess it was my aunt.

If I get a chance to dig out the box, I'll see if I can find dates.

But if that doesn't count, since I only have copies, then pictures in my scrapbook would be the oldest originals I have. And the earliest would be, of course, the most important date in the history of mankind: the day I was born.

So it would be from 1987.

jcdeboever · Dec 31, 2015

Great, Great Grandparents (wife's side)
1927?

Grandma still alive, just turned 100. Grandma and Grandpa 1938 (wife's side)

Same lady above a month ago

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CherylL · Dec 31, 2015

An old photo of my father 1926. The photo is cracked almost in half. I tried a little restoration.

Before and After by Cheryl, on Flickr

limr · Dec 31, 2015

My father was born in Portugal in 1916. His mother died either in childbirth or very soon after he was born, and his father was a traveling salesman, so my father was a bit of a vagabond until he was 20 or so. And he had no siblings. So no, as far as I know, there are no pictures of his family or of him as a child. I guess it's possible that maybe an aunt or an uncle had a picture and it exists somewhere in the world, but for all intents and purposes, there are no pictures.

If my mother has pictures of her as a young child, they're likely with one of her sisters in Portugal, and who knows if I'll ever get to see them. The earliest pictures we have, then, are of their wedding from 1958. Actually, my father's passport picture is probably from a couple of years earlier, but still mid-50s is as early as it gets.

katsrevenge · Dec 31, 2015

Somewhere in my family we have an album from the Civil War era. Amazing thing.

hamlet · Jan 1, 2016

Oldest photo i have is of myself as a baby. I'll have to see where it is so i can scan it and upload it.

pjaye · Jan 1, 2016

1870. When my ex husbands grandmother passed away at age 98, we found bags of photo's in her hutch. They are in remarkably good shape.

xDarek · Jan 2, 2016

That's my dad in 1975.This is the oldest photo I got.In this photo, he is 1 year old.

Derrel · Jan 2, 2016

I have some images of my grandfather as a baby, being held by my great grandmother, in 1910. Fairly large negatives which were shot with a very large-bodied old Kodak folder. Later, in the late 1920's when he was 19 or so, my granddad bought a smaller Kodak folder, which I have, and he made a lot of images with that until 1951 or '52, when he went to a Kodak Pony 135-B 35mm viewfinder camera and color slide film. The Kodachrome slides he shot with the Pony are still in pretty good shape (years of dry, dark storage), and I've scanned a hundred or so of those. it's fun to see the 1950's and people now in thir 60's as babies and small children.

jcdeboever · Jan 5, 2016

I found this looking for my vintage photo's ... I think my Dad's Grandmother, not sure, have to ask him. 1890ish I think...

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dennybeall · Jan 6, 2016

This is the original before restoration. It was taken about 1906.

Buckster · Jan 14, 2016

Great grandmother, about 1925, with her three sons, my great-uncles.

I restored this for my grandmother. The original is a very small photo, about the size of a business card, very cracked, stained and so on. I restored then enlarged and printed to 8X10 for framing. My grandmother cried to see this only photo of her mom ever taken (according to her) clearly for the first time.