Library seeks owner of 1930s photos left in book

TRUMBULL — Trumbull library director Stefan LyhneNielsen knows the appeal of a good mystery. Now he’s looking to help solve one himself.

He and others affiliated with the library are looking to find the owner of a stack of old photos found in a book that had been donated to the library. LyhneNielsen said the photos were found during the Sept. 18 Friends of the Trumbull Library book sale, and they appear to date back to 1939.

“Unfortunately, none of the pictures have a name, place or other identifiable information,” Lyhne-Nielsen said. “We are only left with a date. We do try to look through each donation that we receive, but sometimes they slip by. In this case we figured that these are irreplaceable as they are quite old and so we wanted to give the person who donated the books a shot at retrieving their personal belongings.”

The library notified the public about the photos in a post on its Facebook page.

“We would like to reunite these photos with the patron that generously donated books and unknowingly donated family photos,” the post stated.

The post also included three of the photos, all of them in black and white and seemingly of adults. Lyhne-Nielsen said there are also multiple photos of children in the collection.

The library periodically hosts book sales sponsored by the Friends of the Trumbull Library, a group that, among other things, raises money for library materials and programs. The book sale items are typically donated by members of the public, and both Lyhne-Nielsen and Friends volunteer Steve France said it’s not unusual to find personal items left behind in the books.

“A lot of people use these types of things as bookmarks and then forget to take them out when they donate,” France said.

Lyhne-Nielsen echoed those thoughts, and said other items left behind in books have included hand-written notes, postcards or receipts. However, he said, “a whole collection of photos is new for us. Hopefully someone will recognize a face and help us return these photos to their owner.”

Those with information about the photos are asked to call 203452-5129.

Contributed/Trumbull Library System These photos were found in a book donated to the Trumbull Library System, and library staff members are seeking to reunite them with their owner.