Museum of Obsolete Media

At Leave A Legacy, we believe every photograph, reel, slide, and recording represents memories worth preserving. The Museum of Obsolete Media was created to celebrate the machines and media formats that once carried those memories.

Long before smartphones, cloud storage, and digital photography, families relied on physical film, slides, reels, and projection systems to capture life’s most meaningful moments. These devices documented weddings, vacations, graduations, military service, birthdays, and generations of family history.

The Museum of Obsolete Media preserves the technology behind those memories — from classic Kodak slide projectors and 8mm film projectors to rare media formats, editing tools, vintage cameras, and other forgotten audiovisual equipment.
Every piece in the collection tells a story not only about innovation, but also about the people who used these machines to preserve their lives and experiences.

Whether you are a collector, educator, filmmaker, historian, photographer, or simply curious about the evolution of media technology, we invite you to explore this growing archive of preservation history.

Leave A Legacy, Inc.’s collection all comes from donations by our clients.  We’ve got quite the collection over the years.  Many a client will come to store/museum and see an old piece of equipment that their parent’s had, grandparent’s had or even they themselves had.  It’s a regular trip down memory lane. 

Explore the Collection

The Museum of Obsolete Media features a wide assortment of vintage and historical equipment collected and preserved over decades. The archive continues to grow as additional equipment and media formats are donated and documented.
Featured items include:

• Film projectors
• Slide projectors
• Vintage cameras
• Undeveloped film stock
• Splicers and editing tools
• Projection lenses and accessories
• Historic media storage formats
• Reel-to-reel equipment
• Early audiovisual presentation systems
• Rare and discontinued consumer electronics
• Archival storage containers and cases
• Analog media conversion equipment

Many items in the collection include detailed catalog information, manufacturing details, serial numbers, operational notes, and historical references.
Several pieces also demonstrate the evolution of media preservation — showing how families and professionals stored, edited, projected, and shared memories throughout the 20th century.
The museum serves as both an educational archive and a preservation initiative dedicated to protecting the tools that once protected our memories.

Museum Collection Handout

Download the complete Museum of Obsolete handout to browse equipment listings, collection details, and curated images from the archive.
The downloadable guide was created to provide visitors, collectors, researchers, and preservation enthusiasts with a convenient reference to the museum collection.
The handout combines archival information, equipment documentation, and curated photographs into a single easy-to-view PDF.
The downloadable guide includes:

• Equipment inventory spreadsheet
• Historical item descriptions
• Reference photos
• Manufacturer and model details
• Archival notes and observations
• Collection highlights
• Preservation insights
• Format and media references
• Vintage equipment specifications

PDF includes compressed images for faster viewing and downloading.

Why This Collection Matters

Technology changes quickly, and many of the tools that once shaped photography, film, and communication are disappearing.
As newer digital systems replace older analog formats, countless devices are discarded, forgotten, or lost to time. 
The Museum of Obsolete exists to preserve these devices, document their history, and honor the generations who used them to capture family stories, events, and everyday life.
This collection also helps educate future generations about the evolution of media technology and the importance of preservation.
By preserving these artifacts, we preserve the story of how memories were created long before cloud storage, smartphones, and digital cameras became part of everyday life.
Every projector, reel, camera, and storage format in the museum represents a chapter in the history of storytelling and memory preservation.

A Living Archive of Media History

The Museum of Obsolete is more than a display of vintage equipment — it is a living archive documenting how people preserved memories across generations.
Many of the devices in the collection represent milestones in photography, filmmaking, education, broadcasting, and home entertainment.
Visitors can explore how media technology evolved over time and gain a deeper appreciation for the craftsmanship and engineering behind analog recording and projection systems.
The museum also supports preservation awareness by helping people understand the importance of digitizing aging film, slides, tapes, and photographs before they deteriorate.
For educators, collectors, researchers, and media enthusiasts, the collection provides valuable insight into the history of visual storytelling.

Have Vintage Media or Equipment to Preserve?

If you have old media equipment Leave A Legacy will likely accept your donation (I don’t need any more projector screens however J)  The reason we have this old media collection is for clients to get to see them when they come in with a project of old media that they want digitized so they can see it and now share it.  Leave A Legcy helps individuals, families and businesses digitize old media formats and preserve important memories for future generations.  Once your old media is in digital form it is easy to share, view and even edit.  Bring in or ship in all your old film reels (regular 8mm, super 8, 16mm and 9.5mm), slides, negatives, photographs, video tapes (of all types), old audio formats (cassettes, records, 8 track, wire,  reel to reel). We would love to help you preserve your history by converting it all into digital files.