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My parents were not one to keep things. Several moves during their lifetime lead to the shedding of many personal mementos. Yet somehow an ancient box of glass negatives stayed with them. Dozens of negatives carefully packed away in a crumbling Cadbury chocolate box, held together with an elastic band.
I asked my mother about it once and she said they belonged to my father.
He claimed to know nothing about them. Neither seemed too curious to find out what was on them.
After his death three years ago, I had the slides developed. A cousin with an interest in genealogy helped me identify some of the people in the pictures, and I learned more about my great-grandparents and their family on their farm in Halton county, west of Toronto. They were taken around 1910, the turn of the new century.
We assume it was my great-grandmother who took the photos. Whoever it was, she had a good eye and an obvious interest in capturing life.
At the turn of this century, it's my sister-in-law and niece who are the family photographers. As I look at their photos and compare them with my slides, I am struck by the similarity of their choice of subjects.
Both generations have taken the typical pictures of family. There are several shots of my ancestors and their friends sitting stiffly on the front porch in their Sunday finest – long dresses with high collars and tightly cinched waistbands; dark suits with white shirts, wide ties and five-button vests. The young girls all have ringlets and wear plaid. The young boys are in short pants. Everyone sits with their hands crossed neatly in their laps.
The more modern shots are much more likely to be casual. My relatives wear sweatshirts and jeans and sprawl on couches or on the carpeted floors. There is a huge range of expressions depending on whether-or-not the subjects wanted to co-operate with the photographer.
I obviously come from a long line of animal lovers. Many of the old pictures contain a collie-type dog, dark with a white muzzle and chest, and numerous cats of various shades. The dog is always sitting close to the children. The newer shots include a large white Kuvasz named Auggie. The cats are also present, along with a chameleon, a gecko and a pigeon.
There are many shots in both eras of field work. The fundamental work is the same – plant the crop, weed it, harvest it – but teams of horses have been replaced by tractors and there are far fewer forks and shovels. Be it 1910 or 2010, it seems that the harvest is a very photogenic time, whether it involves feeding the threshing machine in front of the old bank barn or operating a modern combine in a field.
Other work has changed. There are no modern shots of breaking up the ice in the frozen creek (so animals can drink, I assume), chopping wood or taking cans of milk to the dairy in a horse-drawn sleigh. Likewise, the older photos do not record anyone weighing feed, leading around a farm inspector or working at a computer.
There are very few pictures of so-called women's work in either collection. I suspect it's partially because the chief photographers were female and partially because, even now, the elements of keeping house and raising a family are still not seen as events worth noting.
Special events on the farm are also recorded. My great-grandmother photographed the mailbox – the words "E. R. Royal Mail. Canada" clearly printed on its side. This is about the time rural delivery started, so we assume she was recording that change in her life. There are also pictures of a new silo being built. My sister-in-law has captured the building of a new shed and a house. Prized cattle are evident in both sets of pictures. In the past, special horses and bulls were also recognized but neither are necessary on a modern farm.
A box of old pictures is a gift at any time, but to have these appear exactly a century later, and to have the current generation of pictures to compare is especially unique. I am struck by three things.
First, how universal the desire is to create a record of people who are special to us at times that are meaningful. To create a record of those we love when the harvest is coming in, the days are warm and life is good.
Second, the difference it makes to have a photographer who is interested in capturing not just people, but their day-to-day experiences. I am not a photographer. Nor were my parents. Their pictures are mainly of us as children, every Christmas tree they put up for 49 years, lots of calves and cats that I don't remember and four family dogs, which I do. Very few will be especially interesting in 2117.
Finally, how unique my family is to still be farming a century later. If you had family in Canada in 1910, my box of old pictures could be yours.
At that time most people lived on a farm. Now, that percentage is less than two. It saddens me that so few people can enjoy that deep connection with agriculture.
But I have hope. Today's farmers are sharing their stories. You can find them on social media with blogs, pictures and tweets. We can all appreciate them today. They will also be just as valued by the great-granddaughter who rediscovers them them in the 22nd century.
Deborah Stark lives near Elora, Ont.