Encouraged by the world-wide success of my early works, I have decided to commence my magnum opus - the digitisation and distribution of the motley collection of photographs which have accumulated in our house over the years. It is unlikely be completed, I suspect my enthusiasm will wane when I get to the era of cheap cameras, film and processing, but here's a start.
Volume 1 - History
The materiel for this volume starts with the oldest photographs, a few survivors from the last years of the 19th Century, and gradually advances in time towards 1945, the year of my parents' marriage. The identification and dating of most of the photos was done by my parents in the 1980s, and is sometimes approximate.
In an attempt to give some structure to the collection, the photos are for the most part arranged by family. Some photos of necessity belong with more than one family and may be repeated, while some individuals may appear outwith their nuclear family context. Other photos have a commonality which outweighs family connections and have been placed accordingly.
I have added other photos from my earlier works which are complementary to the current subjects.
| Reynolds | My grandparents, Dick and Peg with their children in the Shotts and at Westthorn and London Road. |
| Dunne | Peg's family, friends and neighbours in Co.Tipperary. |
| Army | Willie's time in the army 1939-1946. |
| McGee (1) | James and Sarah Dunigan and family in Lightburn. |
| McGee (2) | Thomas and Margaret Hyslop and family in Manchester. |
| McGee (3) | James and Marie Shanks and family in Manchester. |
| Colvin (1) | Daniel and Margaret McGee and family in Lightburn and Shettleston. |
| Rogan (1) | William and Sarah Colvin and family in Tollcross. |
| Friends | Friends of Willie and/or Queenie. |
| St Joseph's | Groups associated with St Joseph's Church, Tollcross. |
Since there was space on the CD, I have also included some of the extended family information which I have accumulated over the past few years. Note that this reflects the present state of my knowledge, anything not supported by a specific reference is hearsay, and it will probably all change tomorrow.
It's a bit of a warren, enter at your own risk.
Reynolds McGee
The CR-ROM has been set up to AutoRun (on Windows systems suitably enabled) an HTML wrapper (ie this file) which, I hope, simplifies the navigation of the images. Each on-screen image has a link to a larger version of the same picture.
The images are numbered —
ALDxxx are images previously published in the Lena Dunne Collection; BFSxxx are from the series of brown folders holding photos not included in the "selected" albums, plus loose photos scattered around the house; GHSxxx are images previously published in the George and Hilda Shaw Collection; WRRxxx are from the "selected" albums, which are mostly post 1945. The photos and postcards were scanned at 300dpi in 24-bit colour on an Epson Perfection 1640SU Photo using Epson Twain 5.5. (In some cases, the reverse of photos were scanned at 200dpi.) The resulting images were saved in JPEG format at 1% compression in "large" folders. The image was also cropped (where appropriate), reduced to a reasonable size for on-screen viewing and saved at 15% compression in the same format in "small" folders. An HTML wrapper has been provided to facilitate on-screen viewing.
In most cases, I have accepted the auto-exposure settings in the scanner and have made only minor adjustments to "improve" the images for on-screen use. There are a few shots where the dilapidated condition of the original has justified rather more manipulation.
If you know some HTML then —
< spin> The HTML wrapper has been kept very simple to afford maximum compatibility with an unknown target of browser types and versions. < /spin>
< fact> I don't know much HTML and have cobbled this together as best I can. I hope it works. < /fact>The layout is calculated for a 1024x768 screen. If you are viewing at 800x600, sorry, but it will sharpen up your horizontal scrolling skills.
Yes, I know some of the pages are of unreasonable length but it's all local, there are no phone bills involved, and the organisation was complicated enough without worrying about page size. (And I wrote that before I ran the disc on a Pentium 133 with an 8x CD drive!)
The CD was written using Nero 5.5 in a single session and finalised. Protocols were ISO Level 1 for file/directory names, ISO 9660 for character set and Joliet (Unicode SVD etc).
The covers were printed on an HPDJ960 (inkjet), they are not water-resistant and will fade with time. How quickly I do not know, but it will be faster if exposed to strong light.
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