Where should I donate my Army Nurse grandmother's WWI photo album?

November 16, 2020 8:28 AM

I am a single woman with no kids who has an amazing album of photos that my grandmother took in 1918 France while she was an Army nurse there. Since there's no family to leave this to, I'd like to donate the album to a library or museum (after scanning all the photos of course.) What is a reputable place to donate this that will take care of it and actually find it valuable/useful?

I also have my grandfather's mess kit (same war) and both their dog tags, and it might be convenient if they could all go to the same place, but not absolutely necessary. And my sister has a sort of framed cartoon of a WWI barracks which turns out to be caricatures of real soldiers, etc (their names are on the back, which we never knew until we inherited these things and it came down off the wall.)

posted by OolooKitty to Society & Culture (6 answers total)

Best answer: First place I would contact would a the local history museum where either your grandmother lived or she grew up.
posted by tman99 at 8:35 AM on November 16, 2020 [3 favorites]

Best answer: The Military Women's Memorial in DC!
posted by corb at 8:35 AM on November 16, 2020 [9 favorites]

Best answer: love corb's idea for actual donation purposes. Additionally, there are lots of online groups who would be grateful to see them, digitized... I'm a member of the facebook group "vintage photographs" and I know they'd love them. Probably someone there would colorize them for you too, unless you told them not to.
posted by fingersandtoes at 8:46 AM on November 16, 2020 [3 favorites]

Best answer: There is a National World War I Museum which accepts donations.
posted by gudrun at 9:30 AM on November 16, 2020 [3 favorites]

Best answer: If you don't mind spending the time doing it, you may want to upload them to an ancestry account for their names/profiles. I had some pictures of my grandma's cousins who are really removed from my family and they were thrilled to see all these pictures they had no idea existed of their parents and grandparents and were curious why *I* had them (I'm like their grandparents 1st cousin 4x removed or something) because we'd never met, though their generation was close to my grandma and her parents in the early 20th century.
posted by Tchad at 11:34 AM on November 16, 2020 [7 favorites]

Best answer: Sorry Im so late to respond. Try the Nursing History Museum in Philadephia.
posted by SyraCarol at 5:24 PM on November 17, 2020