Most everyone born before the age of the digital camera has 'that box' ... a container tucked away in a closet that contains the glossy photographic snippets of life's most memorable–and forgettable–moments.
Over time, burgeoning technology has antiquated processes and devices at a dizzying speed. Photographs in those boxes once printed and framed are now uploaded and scrolled passed. It seems the only constants in photography, irrespective of technological progress, are the humans standing in front of the lens.

Amateur photographer David Girson purchased a cache of turn-of-the-19th-century glass plate negatives at an estate sale in 1998. Decades of research revealed an unexpected and intriguing artist–another amateur photographer, Charles Spaak, an 1885 Swedish immigrant, draughtsman and engineer in Chicago. His random assortment of photographs, while taken nearly 130 years ago, capture the gamut of all of our experiences – work, nature, friends, family–featured in candid and jokingly serious tableaus and portraits easily recognizable in the selfie and Instagram culture of today. In one series of photos, Spaak even inadvertently captured a defining moment in American history.

David Girson has spent 20 years restoring, printing and framing dozens of Spaak's glass plate negatives, of which more than 40 are on display for the first time nationally at the Swedish American Museum.