As the creator, editor, and host of the original "samsscrapbook.com" website (registered 12/04/2012), I was in full agreement with local historian Sam Sherman when he initiated his online scrapbook project.

Sam had initially started his online project as "samsscrapbook.net". It was based on the literal albums (scrapbooks) he had put together over the years. That website had a lot of content and contained a bunch of photos, all scanned from various contributor's own scrapbooks.....but, none were edited for clarity or uniformity for a web page. Many photos were nearly unrecognizable as to their content due to age and neglect.

I offered to build, free of charge, a better looking website with edited images that would be detailed and clear.....Sam accepted and "samsscrapbook.com" was born.

Sam only had a small flatbed scanner so, with larger photos, like High School class trips to Washington photos, he cut them in half and scanned each half separately. Each half, while close, was not scanned the same way positionally. To fit them together required hours of work shrinking/expanding one half or the other to make them fit together seamlessly. An interesting process.

Over a several year period, I spent (literally) thousands of hours editing photos.

As Sam advanced into his 80's, he got a little cranky.....I'm noticing a bit of that myself. Anyway, he emailed me and said he needed a large project done immediately. I said I was tied up on another project and would get to it in a few days.

He fired me, (I was an unpaid volunteer) on October 21, 2017, and requested that I transfer ownership of the website to him.....I did......started the process that day.

He then hired a professional website builder to build a new website. The new website itself was professionally done. (I doubt if it was done for free.)

Further, any and all new photos that were put on that site were un-retouched or un-edited. They were of similar quality as on his original (samsscrapbook.net) website.....kind of spoiled an otherwise nice looking website.

Sam died in December, 2020. His website was abruptly removed from the internet.....although a Sams Scrapbook page was found in an abbreviated form on Facebook.

I believe in Sam's project, to share the history of Orleans and surrounding towns, and I am going to try to continue it in a slightly different format. Wish me luck!