Scan them in so that you can keep the originals intact. You probably can send them to a service for the scanning. Keep these originals in archival storage boxes. Label them if they are not already labelled.

Then, with the images on the computer, edit the best ones of each of your ancestors, print them out the same size and make a photo wall. You can always rotate photos if there are too many to display. You can also put these images into a digital scrapbook for people to look through and also have them linked to your television set for viewing with interested relatives.

You might be able to lay them all out in the way you want them displayed, and take a photo. Just like you did above. Then have the photo made into wallpaper. Attach the wallpaper to the wall in your home.

Or you could buy a gazillion frames and make a huge gallery wall.

I love this idea, but yes, I would work with copies of the originals...

You can have them made into a mural...

https://www.etsy.com/listing/461912952/personalised-photography-wallpaper?gpla=1&gao=1&&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping_us_mothers_day_Home_and_Living&utm_custom1=691adecf-b6b2-4457-b991-126868566567&utm_content=go_1707961881_69268689529_331635230844_pla-303628061699_c__461912952&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2JmW6LTJ4QIVD1gNCh0V6wjtEAQYBCABEgJr-fD_BwE

Friday, we posted at the same time! Great minds...

Brea, my SIL has a beach house on property owned by her husbands family since the early 1900's. Many many photos of events there over several generations. She had a cabinet company make picture ledges in continuous runs on two walls in the family room. The photos are framed (assorted styles) - it was not an inexpensive project. Oh, and in case you hadn't considered, they need to be dusted occasionally too ;0)

Be careful about displaying them, many old photos don't fare well in sunny conditions. I know it seems a shame to not have them out but if you truly want them to last, copies may be your best bet for display.

With that many, I'd first scan and archive, then take advantage of the digital age and maybe get some digital frames with rotating images. Depends on space. Lots of good ideas here. But scan the most important ones and put them in archival boxes and put in fire safe.

You could always scan them yourself if you have a printer/scanner. Mine does approx. 6 at a time and then shows them individually, so it wouldn't take long to do.

Definitely scan them so they don't disintegrate. Take a more critical eye to your home. There is always space - think vertical - Since they are black and whites, they would make awesome artwork

Brea, you there?

GREAT responses, here...

My aunt made collages of all her favorite old family photos. She ended up with about four large framed collages in her den. Looks very nice.

If you can group them in any fashion, by country, date range, particular family members, etc., you could have bound photo books made from the scanned images. It would be great to have a description and a family history you could hold.

Take them all to a frame shop. You may need more than one or two collages, depending on where you will hang them.

Don’t line them up in a row. Sort them by who, what or where so it makes sense to the new viewer, then choose a frame (possibly a narrow matting..leave that up to the pro) to go compliment the sepia tones of the photos…not your decor.

This is quite timely for me as I also recently inherited many boxes of photos, we had two professional photographers in two different branches of the family back in the early 1900’s. So photos galore from them as well as other photos both earlier and later in time. Plan to archive the photos. Looking to find a way to display a number of the photos without them taking over my house and decor. Great suggestions here.

I also, wanted to share my experience on exactly how delicate these photos can be. I left a photo out of it’s box for less than a day, in that short time the sun and heat faded the photo significantly and it went from flat to curled edges. The photo was on a table in a sunny room, although not directly in the sun. Lesson learned, thankfully we have other similiar photos.

Those quilt looking collages are brilliant!

Wow that is much photos. If I were you, I'd scan them into digital version to prevent further damage while still keep the original photos. Then I would recommend you a digital photo frame to play multiple photos at the same time. I bought a @HDgenius 13 inch one. I don't know your home design style but mine is vintage style, and this wall-mounted photo frame adds more art feeling to my home.

One of my customer needed a clever way to hide tv and surround system components and a game closet - this is what we came up with:

Great ideas for saving/displaying them. Many of the people in the photos from missionary trips are unknown to you. Consider pulling the photos that have known relatives as subject matter and have them cropped and/or blown up, mounted on canvases and used as part of your decor. Here are several creative ways to display special photos in blown up formats.

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