No travel, no entrance fee, no standing in line for the bathroom!!
You can visit Lost Rolls America from the comfort of your home – or any other place you choose. All you need is a device that is connected to the Internet.
What is Lost Rolls America?
Lost Rolls America (LRA) is a national, public, online archive of photos and memories. A number of things make this archive special. For instance, every photo in the archive comes from a “once lost” roll of film. The photographer didn’t get the roll developed when they took the pictures; instead they find the roll of film years - sometimes decades - later. They send their film to the archive and it is developed and then they have glimpses from their own past – experiences that they haven’t seen in years and years! LRA asks each submitter to write their reactions and memories to seeing these once-lost moments. The memories that participants have shared are incredible: heartfelt, poignant, moving, funny, sad, insightful.
To learn more about the Lost Rolls America archive and about archives in general, check this out! It’s called a storymap, a mixed-media online space that brings images and history to life.
You and your child or loved one will now be going on a scavenger hunt!
In order to prepare, you’ll need to have a discussion with the following questions as guides:
What is a theme? (Hint: there are some answers in that storymap! And the definition is below!)
Where have you heard this term used?
Can you think of examples in literature, in music, in art, in movies, and in TV shows?
Lead your child or loved one to understand that a theme is an idea or unifying topic; often themes recur. Themes unite items or subjects, because they share similarities.
In the case of the Lost Rolls America Archive, which has seemingly disparate or random images, we can find connections among images through themes.
*After each step, talk through your findings together by using the LRA Scavenger Hunt Theme Worksheet
Step 1: Ask your child or loved one to find 4 images that share similar subjects. (Is the theme family? Children? Pets? Birds visible in the background? Something else? Be creative!)
Step 2: Ask your child or loved one to find 4 images that share similar color palettes. (Are the images all black and white? Vibrant color? Faded by time?)
Step 3: Ask your child or loved one to find 4 images that share similar composition. (Is the subject in the center of each photo? Is the subject out of focus in each photo? Does the layout of items in the frame produce another kind of echo across images?)
Step 4: Ask your child or loved one to devise another theme to hunt for in the archive and this time YOU (parent or guardian) have to do the searching! (I.e. hats, old fashioned cars, cityscapes, vacation locales, etc.)
This part of the activity requires family photos, whether loose, in an album, or scanned and kept online. If you have access to older photos, that’s wonderful. If not, no problem!
For each of the themes your child or loved one identified in Part 1 (steps 1-3), you will now do a scavenger hunt through your family photographs to find images that match that same theme. Parent/guardian, you’re part of this, too; you have to hunt for an image that corresponds to the theme identified in step 4!
Assemble the images you’ve found that match the themes in Part 1.
Talk about them, especially if your child or loved one is not overly familiar with the photos -- who is in this image? When it was taken? Where was it taken? Etc. Use this moment to fill your child or loved one in on details of family history.
Next, use the Archive in Your Home Worksheet
to answer more questions
If you want to be featured on our social media, use your phone to take a picture of your filled-in Archive in Your Home Worksheet. Email it to us at info@lostrollsamerica.com.
You can also post to your own social media accounts and use the hashtag #LostRollsAmerica
Be sure to follow us on Instagram at @lostrollsamerica and Twitter at @lostrollsameric, and find us on Facebook to see your work featured!
Note: Must be 18 or older to send in content to Lost Rolls America