During the last few years I have spent much of my spare time joyfully putting together a digital family album which I was able to share with our two sons and my ten brothers and sisters. Although we had accumulated hundreds, maybe even thousands, of photographs of our immediate family, the photos of our ancestors were few. As a result, I began doing genealogical research. Perhaps it was because of my own focus on photographs and family history that I became aware of the ambiguous emotions generated by the unclaimed photographs I was seeing in antique stores. Seeing a photograph of a seemingly stern gentleman, who could have been my own great-grandfather, I began to realize that even though a known family member had not claimed the old photo, someone could adopt him. Naturally, it was impractical for me to think that I had the extra cash or space to give the homeless photos the respect they deserved.

The idea for Adopt a Photo was conceived early in 2001. I suppose I began this project for at least three reasons. After thirty-some years, I had retired from teaching. I wanted something to fill the gap. The "In the Classroom" link allows me to continue to do what I have loved for so long. Another reason is that photography has been a hobby. Over the years I have taken pictures of nearly everything that has crossed my path--from our two young sons playing in the backyard with friends to mottled stones in mountain streams. During the '80's I set up a dark room and developed my own photographs and published a community yearbook of my home town of Lake Saint Louis, Missouri, where I lived with my husband, Garland, and our two children for twenty-seven years. Now that our children are grown and away and we are semi-retired, we get a kick out of looking at our photo albums and old slides. The third reason is that as I have embraced technology, I have discovered a passion for multimedia and web page design. It is exciting to create a product from sounds, images, and shared thoughts. I actually get a thrill out of building a web page using HTML; and I love the challenge of creating a web site that could inspire the adoption of homeless photos.

I have grown quite fond of the people in the photographs that I have collected thus far. I wonder about them and imagine who they were, what their lives were like, and if they have living descendants. It would be thrilling to learn that a family member has found a long-lost great-grandmother or distant uncle. I want visitors to enjoy the photographs and hope that they will be inspired to adopt a photo. Please check out the "Q & A" link which discusses the various ways you can adopt. We are still collecting photographs and are working to constantly improve the site. We welcome your comments and suggestions.