Australian War Memorial - original photos not digital copies

[earlybird]

I just received a reply from the Australian War Memorial saying thank you, but no thank you, they couldn't accept digital copies of photos for consideration. Unfortunately I'm not the holder of the original photos in my family otherwise I would have happily donated them so now I'll have to tactfully suggest to the owner they consider donating them.
Rumour has it that this relative may have 'disposed' of the originals and only kept digital copies! Some people have no sense of history

So a warning - if family members are going to have a 'cleanout' (and you have forewarning) but they're not prepared to give the photos to anyone else, suggest they make a donation to an appropriate institution or museum. EB

[Trixie_au]

Oh wow, that's really interesting. I would've thought they would rather have a digital copy than NO photo at all.

I only have copies of the studio photos of our family members who served, I know where a couple of WW1 originals are but the holders of them don't have the interest in family history that we do either. I fear for the fate of these photo's going forward.

[earlybird]

Yes, I'm surprised the AWM doesn't accept copies particularly if they're trying to get photos of all servicemen & women (nurses) from WW1. The chances of originals being available 100 years after hostilities commenced would be decreasing by the year.

[John915]

Good evening,

That brings to mind a previous thread about a dustman in Brighton. Over the course of many years he has rescued a hoard of photos and other items from the war years. Thrown out by families who have either no sense of history or just nowhere to keep all this "rubbish" as they consider it to be.

I suspect that what is left in existence now is quite a small proportion of what used to be in family albums or scrap books. Which is quite saddenning. I have no photos at all of my paternal grandfather from WW1.

John915

[rusted]

I actually found the only photo I know exists of my maternal grandfather yesterday, and believe it or not at the Australian War memorial, its a photo of the reinforcements to the 4th light horse regiment lined up at station pier in Melbourne ready to embark.
He didn't make it the the last great cavalry charge at Beersheba because he caught Pneumonia on the ship, missed it by 3 days. Which may be a good thing for me I suppose.

[Billyblue]

I would suggest that the reason the AWM doesn't want digital photos is that they may have been photoshopped.
They would prefer to do their own touchups.

Dawn M

[andycand]

Hi

Another reason could be to avoid any potential copyright issues. The person supplying the digital copy may have obtained it from a source that is the subject of copyright such as a publication or the internet. The only way they can be certain is to access the original photo and get permission from the owner to use that photo.

Andy