Why The Framekeeper Project Exists: A Call to Remember

“Some stories fade. Others are taken.”

Not all memory disappears through time. Some is erased, quietly—on purpose.

Recently, we’ve witnessed a troubling trend: the slow, deliberate deletion of public knowledge. Government web pages disappearing without notice. Civil rights history buried under bureaucratic redesigns. Indigenous records locked behind reclassification or removed entirely from public databases. DEI programs eliminated, and with them, the context that makes cultural memory whole.

In early 2025, entire sections of federal archives—once home to stories of Native resistance, Black liberation, LGBTQ+ activism, and environmental justice—were suddenly inaccessible. Some have since been restored. Many have not.

But memory doesn’t wait for policy to do the right thing.

That’s where The Framekeeper Project begins.

A Life in Images, a Legacy in Truth

For decades, I’ve lived in images.

As a professional photographer, photo researcher, and senior editor at a national publishing house, I’ve spent years documenting stories through stillness—chasing light, restoring lost faces, uncovering narratives hidden in negatives.

But my work didn’t start in a studio.

It began in the field—with anthropology and archaeology. I studied culture and time. I was taught how to ask: Who lived here? What did they leave behind? What was taken from them?

What I learned—then and now—is that history isn’t just found in books. It’s whispered in the grain of old photographs. It’s carried in the margins of government records. It lingers in the silent expressions of those who were never supposed to be remembered.

And lately, I’ve watched those echoes vanish.

One page at a time.

The Moment It All Shifted

There wasn’t one single event that birthed this project—but rather a culmination of quiet alarms.

I’d go to revisit a Library of Congress page I used for research only to find it removed or rerouted. I’d discover links to Native American boarding school records that suddenly went dead. I’d read reports of DEI-focused military history being stripped, of civil rights exhibits being “restructured” to exclude anything that might offend.

The deeper I looked, the more I realized:
📉 Public memory was shrinking.
🗑️ And it wasn’t by accident.

These weren’t just website errors. These were stories being written out of relevance.

And so I asked myself: If I have the skills to preserve what’s at risk—how could I not?

What The Framekeeper Project Does

The Framekeeper Project is a visual archive. A living digital library of public domain photographs, cultural documents, and forgotten narratives that were nearly lost—not by time, but by intention.

We do three core things:

1. Preserve What’s Vulnerable

We search public domain collections—like the Library of Congress (LOC), National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and other federal institutions—for materials related to:

• Indigenous communities and resistance movements

• The Civil Rights era

• LGBTQ+ history

• Women’s rights and reproductive freedom

• Environmental and anti-war activism

• Other underrepresented or censored movements

We download and store these materials safely, in multiple formats and backups.

2. Organize for Access

It’s not enough to “save” something if no one can find it.

We create structured, themed galleries that are free to access—with:

• Clear source documentation

• Historical context when possible

• A commitment to ethics, transparency, and accuracy

We do not alter or monetize the materials.
We are stewards, not owners.

3. Refuse the Erasure

Every item we post is an act of quiet resistance.

By giving visibility to what others try to obscure, we assert that memory matters. That censorship can be countered. That history does not belong to the powerful—it belongs to the people.

Why This Matters Now

History is a battleground. It always has been.

But in the digital age, that battle is quieter—more administrative, more subtle. A missing page here. A policy shift there. A downed link. A delayed FOIA request. And then suddenly, what once was common knowledge becomes obscured.

The average person won’t notice it’s gone—until they need it.

But we notice.

And so we remember.

This archive is not nostalgia. It is protection.
This project is not a side mission—it’s a shield.
And in a time when culture can be rebranded, rewritten, or deleted, preserving the original record becomes an act of defiance.

Who This Is For

The Framekeeper Project is for:

• Historians and educators seeking hard-to-find sources

• Descendants of those erased from mainstream history

• Photographers, artists, and storytellers searching for truth

• Communities whose stories have been told by everyone but themselves

• Anyone who believes memory should not depend on politics

It’s for those who say: This image matters. This truth belongs. This should not disappear.

But Isn’t This Work Already Being Done?

Yes. And we are grateful for every historian, archivist, librarian, activist, and nonprofit doing this vital work.

But here’s the reality:
Many public institutions are bound by federal policy.
They are underfunded, overworked, and politically vulnerable.
Their archives can be stripped or silenced.

We’re not here to replace them—we’re here to support the gaps, to duplicate what’s public before it’s made private, and to hold what others cannot.

This is the redundancy that protects the truth.

What Makes This Archive Different

• We focus on at-risk records, not just historic beauty

• We offer clean, organized access, not buried catalogs

• We maintain multiple backups (offline, online, and decentralized when possible)

• We invite public contribution, especially from marginalized voices

• We frame every photo in the belief that memory is sacred

The Philosophy Behind the Project

Some archives preserve the past for admiration.

We preserve it for resistance.

We believe:

• Photography is not neutral

• Memory is not passive

• Stories are not safe by default

To remember is to reclaim.
To document is to protect.
To archive is to refuse silence.

What You Can Do

You don’t need to be a historian to preserve history.

You can:

• Submit stories, collections, or photo leads

• Explore and share the archive

• Volunteer time for research or tagging

• Help fund future preservation efforts

• Simply remember—deliberately

The Framekeeper Project is built to grow.
This is our foundation—but you are the future stewards.

Final Words

This project is personal. But it is not just mine.

It belongs to everyone who has ever feared that their story would vanish. To every community whose memories were buried under policy. To every person who sees a photo and whispers, “They tried to erase you. But I see you.”

The Framekeeper Project exists because history is fragile.
Because silence is political.
Because truth deserves a witness.

If you’ve ever wondered what you could do to push back against cultural erasure—this is one way.

Preserve. Protect. Amplify.

🖤 Photography as resistance. Memory as truth.