This post is presented with our deepest gratitude to our longtime customer Robert Beal, who was kind enough to share his photo library and story with us and in turn allow us to share it with you. We hope you will enjoy this as much as we have.
This library is my legacy. This whole project started in 2002. I lost my first wife to cancer in July of 2002. I wanted to put together a little memorial from all the cards and communications from family, friends, co-workers, and customers with a few pictures. I found one of your albums in a photos/crafts section at Marshall Fields. This was, of course, before Macy’s bought out Marshall Fields. The one Gallery Leather album turned into two.
After I put the two memorial albums together, I decided I had a little momentum and pulled out all the shoe boxes of photos off the shelf in the closet. Since I had the whole house to myself, our children were all grown and out of the house; I started separating photos by year, then winter from summer, and so on. I had plenty of old black-and-white photos from my parents, etc.
Once I bought my third album, I was hooked; the project was addictive and exciting. I couldn’t wait to come home from work so I could start working on this project. My photo library is now 240 albums dating back to the 1800s with pictures of grandparents, parents and friends.
I said this photo library is my legacy, but actually, it’s the Beal Family Legacy. My late wife and I had two children, and as a result, our 12th grandchild was born April 29, 2024. The albums are now filled with weddings, grandchildren being born, birthdays, first communion, graduations, sports events, and more, much more over the last 22 years since my wife passed.
We have so many memories to look back on, and our grandchildren can look back and see the grandmother they never met but will somehow know from photos and the stories that go with those photos. All photos are in chronological order (to the best of my ability), negative sequential sequence (back then), and now digital sequential order.
All of our friends are amazed when they see my photo library and my grandchildren are excited to move the pages of their history and our family. I’m so thankful I took down those shoe boxes from our closet shelves with all the treasured photos 22 years ago.
I absolutely treasure my library and my hope is to pass it down to my son and have him maintain and continue the growth of albums and pass it down to one of his eight children.
Once again, we thank Robert for sharing his photos and the story of his family. If you’re interested in creating a similar collection for your own family, you can find our Leather Gallery Photo Album on our website.