The Catalog: 
Digital copies available from rare original photos

    Judith Allison Walters first developed an interest in photography while at Barnard College in 1947. It led to her first job in both film developing and as a photography assistant and modeling subject herself. She went on to spend more than 60 years in and around photography, collecting and sorting old photographs and being deeply involved with the Seattle Photographic Society. Her interests included genealogy and the authorship of family diaries, selected area histories and the publication of Civil War letters. By my count she has authored 24 such books. As a photographer, her own works were primarily nature studies and have earned her many awards and ribbons and have graced many offices and private homes around the Pacific Northwest.
        In regards to this small portion of her collection, only photographs with some identification were considered for addition. The collection totals over 12,000 at least partially identified photographs of people. Many of the originals were sent or loaned to her over the years by individuals who saw her advertisments in genealogical magazines or read of her endeavors in magazine or news articles. Dates noted and the ages of subjects in many cases were estimated, occasionally the original owner provided personal details on the reverse or in source albums.
       Written information that was found on the originals was often subject to spelling interpretation, and be aware that the spelling of names and surnames was very often inconsistent over time.  In looking for your relatives, remember there are no photos prior to 1839 when photography began in the US.
       The quality and resolution of photo files here varies depending on the size and condition of the originals. In some cases the originals were severely damaged, especially glass negatives. Each photo file here has undergone at least a 10 step process to arrive in digital form.  The photo files available here have been limited in size and resolution to speed page loading.     
The image files that will be emailed to purchasers are of higher resolution than those displayed here and were maximized for clarity within the limits of the originals and those of our equipment.
     
        All of the photos are black and white, no color photos existed until later, invented in 1907 but not in regular retail use until 1935.
      The original photographs that remain in the collection, (approximately 8,000) are not for sale.
      The photo selections here are in the approximate order that they were found and added to her collection, so since pictures were sometimes found in groups, pictures near each other by number have a higher likelihood of being related to each other. Kinship information was rarely included with her finds.
      Hopefully, someday an application or computer program will be developed to determine kinship probability through facial recognition technology.
      Represented here on this page are the photos cataloged in less than two of the 32 catalog notebook indexes of the collection, each has more than 400 entries. There are many more last names yet waiting to be added here as time allows.
      Once purchased, your computerized digital photo files (without watermarks) will be emailed to you and may be stored on your computer, phone or may be printed out by you or any professional service of your choice.