Old Houston Photo Collecting

[Amsterdam]

Do any of you explore the Internet for old Houston photos and save the images to your hard drive creating a photo database? It's a hobby of mine resulting in a HUGE collection. It's one thing I love about the Internet. I spend hours Googling images. One thing I have discovered is finding a major city's public libtarry web page, which usually features a digital database of the city's image collection, and downloading everything possible. Especially old movie theatrrs.

[LarryDierker]

I collect current photos, with similar enthusiasm.

[Purpledevil]

Add another to your list, Amsterdam. I am a sucker for images of the past, and have a nice collection of old pictures from around the world wide web, as well as many taken by my family over the years. On recommendation from another member, I recently visited the Julia Ideson Library. If you haven't been before, please set aside a day and have a visit. I think you will really appreciate it.

[Michelle C]

I too have found many photos of Houston on the net as well as this site. Like you I am a sucker for old Houston area photos, I probably have well over a hundred of them on my hard drive. I especially like the photos of Houston from the 30's, 40's, and 50's. The 60's, 70's and 80's are OK too. Past the mid to late 80's do not interest me.

[txn4art]

The Houston History Association website may have additional sources for photos of Houston's past.

[Purpledevil]

The Houston History Association website may have additional sources for photos of Houston's past.

Now see, this is what I love about my fellow HAIFers. Never heard of the HHA, thanks to txn4art, I've now been introduced. Muchas Gracias, txn4art!

Here's the link to the site:

http://www.houstonhistoryassociation.org/

[devonhart]

Back in the 80s I got hooked on collecting antique Houston postcards, shifted to vintages images when google came around, and now love hunting vintage houston footage, coming across some cool stuff over the last few years. I post them here as I find them.

[NenaE]

I've spent the last summer months using GoogleEarth to grab photos of Houston's old neighborhoods. I've collected quite a few photos. Many streets show a blank lot, where the street view shows the previous structure. I'm fond of trying to identify buildings in old photos. I also look at old streets and how they've changed, along with the land and structures.  The 1920's - 40's is my favorite time period. I've heard the the Julia Ideson library has shoe boxes full of old photos, just waiting for researchers.

[Subdude]

Now see, this is what I love about my fellow HAIFers. Never heard of the HHA, thanks to txn4art, I've now been introduced. Muchas Gracias, txn4art!

Here's the link to the site:

http://www.houstonhistoryassociation.org/

 

Thank you for the link - great site.  Plus they have a link to HAIF!

 

I have saved a few old images.  Occasionally I get in the mood and check out old pictures online. 

[torimask]

I've heard the the Julia Ideson library has shoe boxes full of old photos, just waiting for researchers.

 

That's not entirely true. They apparently do have a lot of photographs not available to the public, but are struggling to categorize and index many of them.

 

Photographs are not available to go through until they've been cataloged, and the majority of those are in negative form, which you will only be able to view if you figure out which search terms will hit upon the stuff you're looking for. The Ideson reference librarians will have to use your search terms in their databases that aren't available to the public and see what they can find. You can also ask them to pull out the AIA negatives by area for you to view through the magnifying glass over a light box. If you find something you want a print of, it's around $12.00 per digital copy. 

[IronTiger]

I'm in the same camp. Heck, I recently came across a photo on HAIF showing Montrose as it was in the 1930s (all houses, you'd think it was a suburb or something...  ) but now I can't find it! 

[txn4art]

Now see, this is what I love about my fellow HAIFers. Never heard of the HHA, thanks to txn4art, I've now been introduced. Muchas Gracias, txn4art!

Here's the link to the site:

http://www.houstonhistoryassociation.org/

 

De nada, PurpleDevil!

 

I'm a native Houstonian "of a certain age" and have witnessed many changes here. Only recently, I've become aware that there are other people who are actually interested in preserving some of our city's history instead of throwing it into the nearest dumpster or stuffing it into an unmarked file cabinet.

 

[nm5k]

Been collecting them for years here, but not limited to Houston..

Have a few thousand of them on my drives. I have many of Houston, including a boat load of the old Main street houses,

several panarams, etc.. I've got a lot off of the Library of Congress, and a few other sites.

One place I check quite often is "Shorpy's" site.. Lots of good pictures there, and I like it because most are large images,

and most have been tweaked up and sharpened. So they look good.  Quite a few new ones pop up every few days.

It's amazing how high quality many of the old large glass plate images and such were back in the day.

An example jusr recently posted there.. 110 years ago. And sharp as a tack.  I also like the old gas station images and

such. There are many of those there.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/18666?size=_original#caption

[devonhart]

Ditto on Shorpy's, I also collect New Orleans which they have a lot of good one. Also some good Kodachromes slides from the 40s and 50s.