An archivist's nightmare

I have spoken about Project Archive before. My scanning slowed down to a halt, mostly with just the rest of Life getting in the way. My grandmother, whose slides I had borrowed in the first place, bought a scanner and offered to scan the slides since "she's got nothing but free time". My grandmother is 86 and very computer savvy, considering her age.

On Sunday we were hosting a dinner and she mentioned how she had gone through the slides, picked out the ones she wanted to scan, and thrown out the rest. Already picked up by the garbage men. I have no idea what she actually saved, but I would guess it's close to 5% of the original slides.

I was, and am, heartbroken.

Of the few slides I had scanned before, I have ones from parades from 1958 (I think - the box with the details is not probably at the dump) as well as the one below - which is one of my favourites. It has my dad and his brothers, my grandparents, and my great-grandparents. My only great-grandparents that I remember. The best part about the picture is the coffee table which is in use in our basement.

Short of destroying everything, I can't think of anything worse for an archiving project that someone selectivity destroying artifacts. If my grandmother had called me in the middle of the night with a "if you're not here in 30 minutes I'm going to burn them", I would have been there in 15 - and it's a 20 minute drive.

I'm just so upset. I want to go and take them all away before more get thrown out, but I can't. They are her's and what she decides to do with them is her decision, even if I don't agree with it. And that breaks my heart.

I think that it's time to shop for a bulk slide scanner.