We received the following posting from our friends at the Washington State Genealogical Society and thought we would share:
Subject: Photo Collection Indexed — 65,000 names primarily from Washington and Oregon
The Tri-City Genealogical Society and the CREHST museum (Columbia River Exhibition of History, Science and Technology) have completed an indexing project to provide access to photos taken by 3 local photography studios between 1950 and 2007. The collections include photos of people who listed their address in Washington State (56%, primarily Benton, Franklin, Walla Walla, Yakima and Grant Counties), Oregon (22%, primarily Umatilla and Morrow Counties) and 37 other states.
Each photo packet is identified by the name and address of the person paying the bill. Additional names were often written on the packets by the photographer, so he could address the individuals by name during the photo session. These additional names were collected and if a name represented a different family, that name was also indexed.
TCGS classified the photograph(s) in the packet so you have an idea of the type of photo(s) involved. The classification included individual, couple, wedding, family, family gathering, high school annual, high school dance, military, church, business, social organization and copies of existing photos or documents. The photo packets range from a single photo to large collections of photos associated with weddings or school dances.
Search these 3 photo indexes at the TCGS website, http://www.tricitygenealogicalsociety.org on the Search Records page. If the name (last name and first initial for people or business/organization name), date and type of photo might be of interest, contact CREHST for additional details (509-943-9000 or crehstmuseum@crehst.org). CREHST can immediately provide more information than appears in the index (those additional names, billing address, etc.) and can arrange for copies of the photos you request.