Somewhere in a closet near you is a shoebox of slides and a projector nobody has turned on since 1987. Those little 2" x 2" squares are some of the most fun pieces of photo history to collect, and they often tell you when they were made, if you know where to look.
Our lot of 12 vintage slides has museum souvenir slides and Kodachrome travel slides side by side, so you can see the differences below for yourself. $20.
See the slides →
Step 1: Home snapshot or souvenir slide?
There are two main kinds of vintage slides. Home slides are photos someone took with their own camera and sent off to be developed. They came back from the lab in mounts printed with the film or lab name, like "Kodachrome" or "Processed by Kodak." Souvenir slides were made commercially and sold at museums, landmarks and tourist shops, so travelers could add a perfect picture of the famous painting or the cathedral ceiling they weren't allowed to photograph. Souvenir mounts are usually printed with the place and the subject, such as a museum name, an artist and a painting title, and sometimes a publisher's mark and catalog number.
Step 2: Read the mount
- Red border cardboard mounts: Kodak's early Kodachrome Ready-Mounts, introduced in 1939, were tan cardboard with a red border and simply said "Kodachrome." Red border slides mostly date to the 1940s and 1950s, and collectors love them.
- White or gray cardboard mounts: by the 1960s through the 1980s, most lab mounts were plain white or light gray card with printed lettering. Rounded corners are generally later than square ones.
- Logos: logo styles change with the decades. The boxy red and yellow Kodak "K" logo, for example, belongs to the 1970s and 1980s.
- Plastic mounts: snap-together plastic mounts became common later and were also sold for people who mounted their own film. Glass-sandwich mounts were favored by serious hobbyists who wanted to protect the film.
See it in person: vintage slides in the shop
Museum souvenir slides and Kodachrome home slides in one lot. When it's gone, it's gone.
Step 3: Look for a date stamp
From around 1960 on, many lab-processed slides carry a month and year on the mount. Sometimes it's printed in ink, and sometimes it's pressed into the cardboard with no ink at all, so tilt the slide under a lamp to catch it. Keep in mind that this is the date the film was developed, not the day the picture was taken. Your July 4th photos might say August.
Step 4: Let the colors talk
Fading is a clue too. Kodachrome is famous for holding its color for decades when it's stored in the dark, which is why so many old Kodachrome travel slides still show bright blue skies. Many other slide films of the 1950s through the 1970s, and many commercially copied souvenir slides, lose their yellow and cyan dyes first. What's left is a strong pink or magenta cast. If a whole slide has gone rosy, it's very likely not Kodachrome, and it has some age on it.
Step 5: Read the picture itself
Cars, buses, store signs, clothing and hairstyles all help narrow the date of a home slide, just as they do with any old photograph. A street scene full of 1970s cars can't be from the 1950s, no matter what the mount says. For souvenir slides of artwork, the mount and the color are usually your best clues, since a Goya painting looks the same in every decade.
What collectors look for
- Interesting subjects: street scenes, storefronts, cars, fashion, fairs and events are wanted more than scenery that could be anywhere.
- Red border Kodachromes and sets that stayed together from one trip.
- Labels and notes: handwritten places and dates make slides far more interesting.
- Creative uses: faded and color-shifted slides are popular for light boxes, junk journals, lamp shades, suncatchers and backlit art.
Care
Hold slides by the mount, never the film. Store them cool, dry and dark, in archival slide pages or boxes, and keep them away from attics and basements where heat and damp invite mold. Don't wipe the film surface. A soft blower brush is all you need for dust.
Shop vintage slides
- Lot of 12: Museo del Prado souvenir slides of Goya, Velázquez and El Greco, plus 5 Kodachrome Madrid travel slides
- McGraw-Hill La Casa Spanish filmstrip, 35mm
Older photos in the family box too? Our guide to dating antique photographs picks up where slides leave off.
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Keep reading: How to Date Antique Photographs · Vintage vs. Antique vs. Retro · All of Our Vintage Guides
Did your family have a slide show night? Tell us what was always in the carousel, and who fell asleep first.