More than 2000 unclaimed photos and negatives were found that covered the ‘40s through the early ‘60s. They provide a personal, ground-level view of Texas life - pre-disco, pre-cellphones, pre-cable TV.

Imagine an old family photo album you’ve never seen before. What would you learn? Who would you even recognize? Now imagine an entire town discovering an old family album.

Thousands of personal photos and negatives were discovered in 2019 in Corsicana. The photos had been shot, developed — and never claimed. They sat in boxes, unopened for more than half a century.

Chuck Miller manages the CTWP Copy Center, an office supply store in downtown Corsicana. Four years ago, Miller’s company bought the two-story brick building, and he went up to the second floor to clear it out.

The building opened in 1914, and the second floor is essentially an old, dark, wood-beamed, wood-floored warehouse — with shiplap walls and no elevator. Aside from all the stuff crammed into it, it had not changed much since World War I.

“It was basically filled to the rafters,” Miller said. “The two previous owners didn’t throw anything away. It was all old inventory. Old paper, old pens.”

Amid this disorganized stockpile, Miller uncovered two boxes with some 400 envelopes full of prints and negatives. These were old-school photos: You’d snap the pictures and then, to have them developed, you’d drop off the negatives at a drugstore. Or an office supply store.

“And as I’m flipping through this,” Miller said, “I’m going, ‘These are people’s lives. These are people’s memories. These are important.’”

The photos span 1948 to 1966. The first miracle is that they’d never been picked up and they’d never been thrown out. Miller said standard practice for film processing holds that after three weeks, unclaimed photos get tossed.

You can read more in an article published in the dallasnews web site at: https://tinyurl.com/4j4stdce.