Who: Morris Walsh, 72, of Greenhills, a retired Air Force master sergeant and GE Aircraft Engines technical specialist/engineering assistant.

        On display: Forty-seven scrapbooks that hold his family photos and memorabilia from the 1800s to the present.

        Where: In an upstairs bedroom of the home he shares with Evelyn, his wife of 50 years.

        Family tradition: “It all started in the 1950s,” Mr. Walsh says. “One Christmas my sister decided to make photo albums for herself, my brother and I. She made copies of every photo the Walsh family ever took. Each of us ended up with three albums.”

        “After that,” he says, “I'm the one who kept it up.”

        Historical record: “The albums don't just contain pictures,” he adds. “I have obituary notices, Mass cards, newspaper articles and wedding announcements. Whatever pertains to the family.”

        “The first several albums are the old-fashioned rectangular type with black pages,” he says. “After that, I started to use a scrapbook type of arrangement. Now, I'm able to put the picture in the album and write in the date and the names of the people.”

        Dad's hobby: “My family thinks that I have an obsessive-compulsive disorder,” he chuckles. “When I have photos developed, I lay them out on the dining room table and record the number from the negative strip on the back of each photo. I also assign a number to the negative packages. So each photo is cross-referenced twice.”

        A little help from my friends: Mr. Walsh's collection is kept in a bookcase designed and built by his friend Al Heister.

        “It has 48 slots in it,” Mr. Walsh says. “Each is just the right size to store one complete album flat. He even traced the Gaelic letter W into the front. It's just beautiful.”

        For perpetuity: “This is a great hobby,” he says. “But I realize that it means something to me that it doesn't to other people. But, I have four daughters, four sons, eight grandchildren and one on the way. I think that it's important to hand this information down from generation to generation and perpetuate the Walsh family history.”

        The future: “I haven't started the 2001 album yet,” he admits. “I'll wait until 2002 and gather up what I've got and arrange it. I try to stay behind about a year, because invariably, someone will send me something and it will throw everything out of sequence.”

        “I hate when that happens,” he says with a grin.

        Share your prize possessions with Marsie Hall Newbold by mail: c/o The Cincinnati Enquirer, e-mail marsolete@aol.com.

Scribblers to roast Borgman
Women kick through TV's glass ceiling
Get to it
New theater season opens amid changing scenes
Theater schedule through December
Schedule of regional premieres
Companies brush up their Shakespeare
DEMALINE: Stellar lineup for strong fall season
Fill up on affordable theater
Writer takes comedy seriously
Artist thinks big
Cincinnati helps make Kit doll a hit
Retiree keeps 47 family scrapbooks
Unicyclist pedaled 2,400 miles
Introducing 'real' Mexican food
MARTIN: Wild mushroom stew satisfies craving for fall
Nothing like a good prime rib
Porter carries robust history
Requests pour in for cookbook
KENDRICK: Technology conference true landmark
New films rolling into Toronto festival