The Places of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

I have this really cool letter in my collection written from a clothing salesperson to my great-great-great grandfather on April 2, 1895.  He talks about “calling” on my grandfather on May 25th – which also just happens to be my personal birthday…

I love the feel of the paper, the handwriting and the cool, vintage letterhead.  I was curious, so I checked out Google Maps to see if the building still stands. After checking out the street view of the address, I am happy to say
that it still does….  (Can I just insert here how COOL Google Maps is?  I didn’t have to take a trip to Milwaukee to walk down the street and see this building for myself – I just Googled it.)

I have no reason to visit this place – but what a cool connection to know that this was the main place my family bought their clothing from in the late 1800′s…  even cooler that it still stands.

Which brings me to today – many cameras are beginning to include GPS technology to record not only the regular EXIF data but also GPS coordinates of where we were standing when the photo was taken.  Imagine the context that will give our children and grandchildren.  If you don’t have GPS in your camera, many organization software programs allow you to add it after the fact – some even have maps where you can drop a pin!

Another idea – when you think about places that you find yourself going often, take a street view photo of them.  It might be the grocery store, the mall, church, library, etc.  Fifty years down the road things may look quite a bit different.  It is a great idea to photographically record these places now to give future generations context of your time and the places in your life.

Just a thought.