Facebook History Groups and the Problem of Not Including Appropriate Photo Credits in Posts
I have been on Facebook for nearly twenty years, but 2025 started off with me being kicked out of a group for the very first time. Interestingly, I was kicked out of a group focused on . . . history. It’s a very small concern in the grand scheme of where the world is at this moment in time, but I felt like it was worth a few paragraphs to explain what happened.
As the name implies, “St. Louis Pictures of the Past” is just one of many groups dedicated to sharing old photos about the city’s history. I believe there is something around 144,000 people who follow the page. I was kicked out because I asked a habitual poster to provide photo credits in his posts as a courtesy so that others could find, access, and download the photos he shared for their own purposes. I left only one comment on the post. I did not engage in a back and forth or personally attack anyone, but I did complain that the lack of photo credits was a frequent problem with posts in the group, and I suppose that was what did me in. After no longer being able to access the group through my own account, I saw through a different account that an admin deleted my comment and left her own comment saying I was kicked out because I was being negative and “trying to tell the admins how to do their job.”
I guess I am guilty as charged!
Photo credits matter when sharing historical photos for two reasons. One is to promote access. Where did this photo come from? Is there a copyright on it, or is it public domain? Is it housed by a public institution or does it come from a private collection? Does the person have permission to share this photo? Some people who posted in the group had a habit of sharing low resolution photos that appeared to be cell phone screen shots. If I want to find the original at a higher resolution, where can I go to find it? How do I know the information being shared in a post is accurate? How can we help others conduct online research that interests them? A simple photo credit can help others on their learning journey.
The second is acknowledgment, courtesy, and credit. Somebody took the original photo. Somebody else undertook the effort of preserving the photo and in some cases undertaking conservation work to maintain the photo’s integrity. Somebody else digitized the photo. Somebody else manages a digital infrastructure where the photos are housed and made available to the public. It took many hands to get one photo from the photographer’s camera 50 to 180 years ago to your computer today. When we acknowledge that a photo came from the Missouri Historical Society or the Library of Congress, we acknowledge this preservation work and provide an avenue for further inquiry by others. When someone shares a bunch of photos and stories without attribution, it comes off to me as uncharitable, gatekeeping, and as if the original poster is trying to get attention, clicks, and reactions for themselves.
So . . . even though we see daily instances on Facebook where content is stolen from creators without attribution and without punishment to the person doing the stealing, when it comes to historical photos we should just take that extra second to offer a photo credit to promote transparency, access, and acknowledgement.
Cheers
(Please don’t kick me off WordPress for this post, and read this post from 2018 if you’d like some other commentary from me about Facebook history groups and their tendency to focus on nostalgia rather than accurate history).
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