Pictures of friends, new babies and food.
They’re common pictures to have in a home, and they’re images that can't be replaced. The ones lost in Wimberley's Memorial Day weekend floods are being protected and preserved in hopes they can return to their owners.
"They're families’ precious memories, and as archivists, we feel like we can just help get as many of these photos back to their original owners as possible using our tools to help do that," archivist Amy Bowman said.
Bowman is helping save pictures the floodwaters failed to destroy.
"As archivists, we don't do things like this, you know, reunite things, so it's just really powerful,” she said.
For the last month, Bowman has been volunteering at the Katherine Anne Porter School. That's where the pictures were dried, cleaned and displayed. The school is closing for the summer, and the project is now transitioning to a long-term solution.
"We're preserving them the best we can in order for the public to come in and access them without damaging them further,” Daniel Alonzo with the Archivists of Central Texas said.
The pictures, now stored in albums, are headed to Wimberley's library.
"Ideally I would love for them all to find their homes,” Alonzo said.
Now instead of scouring tables at the school, people will flip through books of lost memories.
"Everybody has these same kinds of photos and that's what makes them special,” Alonzo said.
The rescued photos will be available for people to peruse at the Wimberley Village Library.