Sea shell collection

[cthawley]

This scenario has been discussed extensively on the forum in some previous threads. This is probably the most recent that I know and I don’t think it’s been linked yet:
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/can-i-use-photos-taken-by-my-grandparents-or-other-deceased-estate/59535

As noted above, observations are generally for the interaction between an observer and the organism.

@tiwane

With things like photos from a family collection, the issue is more about what iNaturalist is meant for. iNat is really a place to share one’s personal experiences with nature. It’s not a data repository, and it’s not a place to dump museum specimens. It’s about someone saying “here’s an organism (or track, or scat, etc) that I encountered.” So IMO iNat is not a great place for posting old family photos that you’re not directly involved with, as cool as they are. However, I admit it’s a gray area and if you curate the observations and there aren’t a ton of them, then it’s not a big deal.

Since it sounds like you weren’t present for the interaction in the wild, you could also upload these as a series of present day observations that are Not Wild.

I agree with others that there might be good non-iNat uses for these too!