Short answer: write on the back of the photo, lightly and near the edge, with a soft graphite pencil, and keep it to the essentials: who, where and when. Never use tape, sticky notes, paper clips or rubber bands; for anything longer, write on the sleeve or envelope, or keep the story with a scan of the photo.
Last updated: 3 November 2026. The advice on this page follows the guidance of the Library of Congress and the US National Archives, checked on that day; the sources are at the bottom.
The name is the first thing to disappear from an old photo. The people who knew who stood at the back of the wedding photo grow old, and the box ends up with someone who has never met them. A label takes a minute. Done the wrong way, it can damage the print. Done the right way, it saves the photo from becoming a picture of strangers.
What to write on the back
- Names, from left to right. Add rows if needed: "back row, left to right". Write full names, not only "Aunt Mia": in two generations nobody knows which aunt.
- The place. The town, the street, the farm, the school.
- The date. An exact date if you know it, otherwise an estimate: "about 1965" or "summer, before Jan was born".
- Who wrote the label, and when. Your initials and the year. Later readers will want to know how sure the label is.
How to write it
- Work on a clean, hard, flat surface, with clean dry hands.
- Use a soft graphite pencil. Hold it lightly and write small, near the edge of the back, not in the middle.
- Do not press. Pressure leaves a dent that shows on the front.
- Keep it short. Anything longer goes on the sleeve, in the envelope or with a scan.
What not to use
The Library of Congress advises against adhesives on photographs, including self-adhesive tape and sticky notes, and against paper clips, rubber bands and other fasteners. Ballpoint, felt tip and marker are best avoided: ink can bleed, smudge onto the next photo in the pile, or show through. And do not try to peel a photo out of an old self-adhesive album just to write on it: label the album page instead.
Ways to label, compared
| Method | Good for | Risk to the photo | Not the best choice when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Soft pencil on the back, near the edge | Names, place and date on loose prints | Low, with light pressure | The back is coated and pencil does not take, or the story is long |
| Label on the sleeve or envelope | Longer notes, fragile or coated prints | None; the photo is not marked | Photos are likely to be taken out and mixed up |
| A number on the photo, details on a list | A big box you want to label fast | Low | The list is likely to get separated from the box |
| Caption and file name on a scan | Sharing with family, searching later | None | The print itself will be passed on without the scan |
| A recording of someone naming who is who | Capturing what an older relative knows, in their own words | None | Nobody will write the names down afterwards |
| The Memory Palace | Keeping the scan, the names, the story and the voice together, shared with family | None | You only want to label the prints and keep them in a box |
Do it with someone who remembers
The best labels come from a conversation. Sit down with a parent, an aunt or an old friend of the family with a small stack of photos. Ask who is in each one, and record the conversation on your phone. You will hear things nobody would write on the back of a photo: why the uncle is not in the picture, whose car that was. Write the names on the back afterwards, and keep the recording.
Labels for scans
For digital copies, the Library of Congress recommends descriptive file names and tagging the people and subjects in each photo. A file name such as "1965_Hasselt_wedding_Jan-and-Mia.jpg" says more than "scan0042.jpg", and it travels with the file. If you do not know the year, the free photo date finder helps you estimate it from clothes, cars and the print itself.
The Memory Palace, honestly
The Memory Palace is your own 3D memory palace: you hang photos, voice recordings, videos and written stories in rooms you walk through. For labelled photos, that means the scan hangs with its names and story, and next to it a recording of your mother explaining who is who. It is private by default. You invite family and friends into a room or a wing, and choose per person whether they can view only or also add, so a cousin can fill in a name you were missing.
- The label never gets lost. The names and the story sit with the photo, not on a list in another drawer.
- Others can help. With a collect link for a room, relatives can add a memory or a voice note from the browser without an account.
- You can leave with everything. A full ZIP export on every plan, including the free plan with 1 GB.
What it lacks: it does not label your prints; the originals still need a pencil and a sleeve. It does not scan photos for you. It is encrypted in transit and at rest, but not end-to-end. And it is made by a small team in Leuven, Belgium.
A simple way to start
Take ten photos, not the whole box. Label them with someone who remembers, in pencil, near the edge. Then scan them, give each file a name, and keep the recording of the conversation. Ten labelled photos are worth more than a thousand unlabelled ones.
If you want the scans, the names and the voices in one place, you can start a palace and invite your family to help.
Read on: how to date an old photo and identify the people, when was this photo taken, how to organise decades of old family photos, and all guides on old photos.
Sources
- Library of Congress, care, handling and storage of photographs (limit markings; write on the back near the edge with a soft graphite pencil; no adhesives, sticky notes, paper clips or rubber bands; cool, dry, stable storage): loc.gov/preservation/care/photo.html
- US National Archives, storing family papers and photographs: archives.gov/preservation/family-archives/storing.html
- Library of Congress, Personal Digital Archiving, digital photos (at least two copies in different places; check them once a year; descriptive file names; tag people and subjects): digitalpreservation.gov/personalarchiving/photos.html