Family Collections

Family Collection

Everybody has a shoebox, and you don’t have to be a well-known family to curate an archive from it. Family archives are some of the most accessed and valuable archives to have. Your great-grandfather’s diaries, your grandmother’s photograph collection, your recipes, and your children’s artwork are more than heirlooms—they are living history. Here are some commonly archived items:

Critical Documents

  • Birth and marriage certificates
  • Passports and/or immigration documents
  • Mortgage and other home-related documents
  • Investment and/or retirement information
  • Insurance policies
  • Medical information
  • Wills and other legal documents
  • Bills and financial documents
  • Military records

Paper Items

  • Correspondence
  • Diaries and journals
  • News clippings and newspapers
  • Business cards and work papers
  • Magazines
  • Books
  • Other paper-based collectibles
  • Pamphlets and advertisements
  • Paper and cardboard signs
  • Posters and artwork
  • Religious papers
  • Stamps
  • General ephemera

Mementos

  • Jewellery
  • Glassware and pottery
  • Silver and other metalware
  • Clothing
  • Musical instruments
  • Artwork
  • Sports-related items
  • Awards
  • Furniture
  • Toys
  • Wood items
  • Collectibles
  • Ornaments

Photographs

  • Photographic prints (regular printed snapshots)
  • Negatives
  • Slides
  • Polaroids
  • Glass-plate negatives
  • Antique photographs (daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, etc.)
  • Digital photographs
  • Photographs in scrapbooks or albums

Audiovisual and Digital Materials

  • 8mm film
  • Super-8mm film
  • 16mm film
  • 35mm film
  • Other sizes (mm) of film
  • Videotapes (VHS, Betacam)
  • Commercially made and collectible movies
  • Cassette recordings
  • Reel-to-reel audio recordings
  • Minicassettes and other home audio recordings
  • Antique sound recordings (phonograph recordings, player piano reels, etc.)
  • Commercially made and collectible 8-track tapes, cassettes, CDs, and vinyl records
  • Digital files, including documents and records stored on old computers, disks, CDs, memory cards, hard drives, and other storage dev

Don’t see your cherished items listed here? Don’t worry, this is not a comprehensive list. For more information, contact Monocurate directly.

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