Have you ever wondered what life was like in your grandparents’ time?  You might pick up an old photo album and wonder ‘who were the people in the pictures, who took the photo, where were they, and what was going on in their lives’. 

These are some of the questions the staff and volunteers at the Picton Heritage and Whaling Museum ask when they see some of the pictures in their archives or when someone comes in with an album they’ve inherited, looking for some information. 

Recently, we realised that some of the more recent images in our collection are nearing 50 years old.  We started wondering what images we would have in the archives in 50 years’ time, when people came in asking about life in Waitohi Picton in 2023. 

How we could collect those pictures when everything is digital these days and photo albums hardly exist anymore.  Who’s going to be donating their digital memories? Will the images be thrown away along with a dead phone or memory stick?

So the team came up with the idea of asking the people of Picton and surrounding areas to come together and create a record of people working and living their lives over the period of a week. 

Ideally we’d like one image from each person or family living in the area, taken between 15 and 21 May, showing one or more people going about their daily lives.  Once we’ve compiled all the pictures, we’ll mount a display in the museum in July, showing as many of them as possible, so our community can come together and get a snapshot of their lives as they see it.  And we’ll have a record in the archives for future generations to refer to.