For this month’s spotlight, we’re excited to feature the Engh/Jensen/Johnson/Nelsen Archive, created by family historian Cliff Johnson. Cliff’s vision was to capture the rich stories of the four branches of his family tree, from the mid-1800s to the present day. By bringing these stories together in one archive, Cliff has created a beautiful tapestry of family history. The photos included in this blog post offer a glimpse into the treasures he has preserved. Cliff’s work is a great example of how you can display, honor, and share your family history using our platform.
Like many family historians, Cliff found himself with a large collection of photos inherited from his grandparents. It can be overwhelming to know where to start with such a precious collection. Typically, we advise people to gather, organize, and digitize their files before uploading them to Permanent. Cliff followed this advice, scanning his photos to make them digitally accessible. He then sought a way to share these memories with both known and unknown family members, which led him to Permanent.
Cliff shared “After trying out a number of different solutions, I found Permanent and loved [the] features, how easy it was to use and their commitment to the longevity of items in my archive.” He also appreciated our metadata options, which makes it “really easy to find photos in [his] archive.”
Sharing his archive has brought Cliff enthusiastic support from relatives, some of whom have offered items of their own to enrich the archive. Our public gallery makes it simple to share your archive, and our collaborative sharing features allow you to invite others to help you grow and manage it. Cliff hopes that people will learn from his archive that “every photo tells a story. From a casual snapshot to a posed studio portrait, these photos tell us who our ancestors were, where they lived, and who they loved. The photo you take today has the power to amaze and astound someone 100 years from now.”
No matter how ordinary your photos may seem today, they could become precious windows into the past for future generations, just as Cliff’s photos are for him.
Public archives on Permanent allow you to preserve and share the stories that came before you and the stories that you yourself create. By building an archive, you give your inherited photo collections a home where they can be displayed with context and joy. We want to thank Cliff for the care and dedication he put into preserving his family’s stories and for allowing us to share his archive with our community! Be sure to visit the Engh/Jensen/Johnson/Nelsen Archive to see how you can preserve and share your family stories for the enjoyment of both current and future generations.
