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1937 photo album found in West Michigan dumpster

Posted at 4:51 PM, Nov 10, 2016
and last updated 2016-11-10 17:01:48-05

ALLEGAN, Mich. -- It's not everyday you find a treasure while taking the trash out, but that's exactly what happened to Margie Carvin just two weeks ago.

She was placing her trash in a dumpster when she noticed something that looked out of place -- a photo album, dated from 1937. "Yeah, it was in a bag that somebody must have dropped it in," says Carvin.

Some of the photos looked familiar to her. She thinks one of them was taken at the South Haven Pier, and other photos have heavy snow in them -- an indication that the album is of local origin. "This one right here, I thought might look like the old Allegan General Hospital," she said while flipping through the decades old album that is in good condition for its age.

Carvin told us, "The internet has a lot of ways of finding out things now."  So we decided to give that a try.

At least two photos appear to be taken at the 1939 World Fair in New York. Another could be from Radcliffe College -- an all women's college that is now part of Harvard University.

Right now, Carvin is just hoping to find the owner. "I would be disappointed, because I've lost a few things that were, you know, a keepsake... Family pictures that I would have liked to have seen come back to me."