Serendipitous discovery is a term we love in the library world. It describes those accidental and delightful things you find or learn merely because one thing was near another. In libraries, this usually refers to books placed proximally to one another on a shelf or, for an even more analog example, records in a card catalog.
Jewell Mazique at the Library of Congress
In the digital age and in the work-from-home age, opportunities for these sorts of occasional juxtapositions–whether it’s people or items or tastes–have shifted. More people do research from internet-connected devices than in person, and we talk more about wikiholes than random walks.
However, this shift in how we look for information also means there are changes in how we find information. At the Flickr Foundation we’re interested, specifically, in how people find photographs, and how these findings can help people learn things they may not have been expecting to learn from the specific to the very general. They can also find themselves in a position to share information that they might have about a photo with the exact right person to receive it.
A history preserved through collaboration
When we explore the social life of photographs we find that serendipity can be a large factor in people’s re-engagement with the context surrounding a photograph, a way to bring older photographs back to life. We see this regularly on Flickr Commons and even more so since the Commons Explorer’s Conversations view lets anyone see what people are saying about the photographs in Flickr Commons. Here are some of our favorite serendipitous discoveries, often made because a picture was near another, tagged with the same words, placed in the same album, or collocated within the same gallery. For example, starting off with the three photos below, which all received comments from family members who recognized the subjects and noted that added information to help enhance the story behind these historical photos.
Carpenter at work on Douglas Dam, Tennessee, 1942
The man photographed is my grandfather!
Group of men on a fishing trip
Deck of a Monitor. Enlisted men on deck, ca. 1860 – 1865
Internet sleuths unite!
Our Commons members often ask for help with identification and put their images into an album like the “Can you help us identify these photos?” album from the Halifax Municipal Archives or “Unidentified, Solve the Mystery” from San Francisco Public Library. People step up, such as this one commenter offering information about another useful archive where Halifax homes might be identified. The stories of these photographs get told over time, through social collaboration.
Unidentified Victorian house, possibly on Franklyn Street, 1978
Soldiers carry a wounded comrade through a swampy area, 1969.
A photograph from the Vietnam war posted in 2010 gets a comment from someone who spoke to one of the subjects fifteen years later and told us how he was doing.
Fire at Miller Motors Body Shop, Edmonton, Alberta, 1954
“Here’s where that fire happened!”
Dorothy’s Drive c. 1919
“Here’s what car that woman was likely driving.”
New York – Paris race drivers, 1908
That one is a personal favorite of mine because the Library of Congress updates the catalog records of their images when they receive new facts about them. They’ve done about 15,000 updates now, through the conversation and contribution of Flickr members.
Reinhardt_041 Reinhardt Collection Image SC.10274
“This plane is actually painted to look like another plane.”
Serendipitous discoveries abound
For every image with dozens of comments on the National Library of Ireland’s or the Library of Congress’ photos, there’s an image buried deep within the San Diego Air and Space Museum archives or the Royal Australian Historical Society archives that may only get one or two comments, but they’re the right one or two comments.
The Flickr Foundation’s commitment to keeping these images available and accessible allows this continued kismet to happen. Even as I was assembling this collection, I experienced some serendipitous discovery for my own… I do not know what the Magic Carpet gallery is about, but I am intrigued! With 57,483 commenters having posted 344,640 comments across 107,823 photos in Flickr Commons, what else will get found?
The Flickr Foundation, the steward of Flickr Commons, is turning three years old on May 12th, 2025, though revitalizing Flickr Commons has been in the works for much longer. Flickr Commons itself turned seventeen in January. Flickr Commons has grown to one hundred and fifteen member institutions—ten new members in the past five months—on five continents. The collection has 1.8 million digital images which have been viewed a staggering 4.52 billion times. Our staff has grown.
We’ve welcomed a host of wonderful Research Fellows and learned along with them as they worked on their projects. We’ve built and supported some toys and planned some new ones. If you are in an organization with a photographic collection and are curious about joining us for the long haul, please register your interest in joining the Flickr Commons today!