AS a 17-year-old, Jo Persons was helping a friend clean out her aunt’s house in Nyah West and came across something unusual tucked away in a corner.
As she wiped out a cupboard above an old stove, she found a little box containing glass plate negatives.
That was over 45 years ago and the mystery surrounding the origins of the images remains unexplained.
For almost a quarter of a century they remained secure in their box as Ms Persons went on with life, raising a family and working not giving the historic find much of a thought.
Now in the possession of the State Library of Victoria the 15 images have been dated to between the early 1900s and the 1920s.
Ms Persons said that a number of years ago she decided to have these fragile historical artefacts printed before deciding to donate them to the State Library.
They could be priceless glimpses into the past.
“It was really hard to find someone that could actually make prints from glass negatives.
“Eventually I found someone in Melbourne that could do it and that is when I started to try and find out more information about them.
“I decided to give them to the State Library in the hope that they would put them up and someone might see them and recognise them.
“So far there hasn’t been any feedback from the library so I have also posted the images on a few Facebook pages and I have been surprised at how much attention they have drawn.
“People are picking up little details that I hadn’t noticed in the photos before,” Ms Persons said.
Since the images were posted on Facebook, viewers have drawn possible links to families in Nyah.
But there are many questions still surrounding the find.
Were they the property of the person who took them? Where are they taken?
The biggest mystery of all is: who is in them?
To look at the images, visit the Swan Hill and District Community Noticeboard Facebook page.
