Westerville, Ohio - What began in 2004 as a passion project for Gary Gardiner - a photo a day - has become an unexpected snapshot in time and historic record of city life in Westerville, Ohio.
Gardiner, a retired photojournalist for The Associated Press, will be gifting his My Final Photo collection of an estimated 2 million digital photographs taken in Westerville between 2004 to present to the Westerville History Museum. His gift will also include physical items like handwritten daily journals, Gardiner's first digital camera, and copies of The Westerville News articles he has written.
When asked to describe the size of the collection, Gardiner said, “It’s hard to quantify. File sizes are 10 times larger than they used to be. I’m shooting about the same number of photos as I did when I started, a couple hundred to a thousand a day, depending on what’s happening.”
On November 3, 2025, Gardiner met with Erin Francoeur, Executive Director of the Westerville Public Library and Jackie Barton, Manager of the Westerville History Museum (located inside the library) to sign a deed of gift transferring all rights and interests of the collection to the Westerville History Museum.
"The intent of My Final Photo was a challenge. It was a personal quest to make more, better, and different photos. Photos from a place where I’d lived, but spent little time photographing: Westerville,” says Gardiner.
Candids Preserved for Community Memory
Gardiner originally set a limit for himself, taking photos within 5 miles of his home near the border of Westerville and Blendon Township. While that has been stretched a few times over the years, this limit has remained at the heart of his work, which has led to a deep and detailed record of a small area over a long period of time. His focus on capturing spontaneous, everyday moments with an artistic eye is one of the many reasons this collection is unique. Rather than focusing on famous individuals and momentous occasions, he has captured everything in between.
While he didn’t set out to create a historical collection, he recognizes its value as such. Since Westerville’s only local newspaper, This Week Westerville News & Public Opinion, ceased publication in January 2023, Gardiner has also started writing news articles he publishes via Substack under the name The Westerville News, covering topics like restaurant openings, construction projects, and city council meetings.
As he sees it, this kind of hyper-local reporting is “so important for cities in news deserts.”
“No other town of our size in the country is lucky enough to have this time capsule,” shares Francoeur. “We are honored that Gary chose us to preserve the history of Westerville. This is the single largest collection to have been gifted to the library since the Anti-Saloon League collection that launched our museum.”
When asked what he hopes someone 100 years from now will gain from viewing his photos, Gardiner mused, “I would like to think it would provide an enlightenment, not about our times, but about their times. That it will help them understand themselves better. It’s not about us. It’s about them.”
Barton echoed a similar sentiment. "I always talk about things we do for us and things we do for future us. Future us will be so grateful for this generous gift." Whether it’s a photo of people dancing at a street festival, a sign announcing current gas prices, a family shopping at the farmers market, or a group of residents gathered at a protest, Gardiner’s work creates a social, political, cultural, and economic record of the city. Future generations of researchers, students, genealogists, journalists, city planners, writers, and residents are likely to gain knowledge and understanding from these records.
Many themes emerge in his work, including Americana, construction, food, the Yarnell and Braun Farms, Uptown Westerville, Highlands Wetlands, St Paul Catholic Church, and Red Bank Park near Hoover Dam (which he refers to as one of his “regular haunts”).
“The photos are incidental. They happen while I’m watching. The point is to go out and have an experience and the photo will capture that experience,” says Gardiner.
Beth Weinhardt, president of the Westerville Historical Society and retired manager of the Westerville History Museum, says, “When Gary Gardiner approached the library about donating his photo collection which contains photos taken every day in our community, I knew we were receiving a treasure that any community like ours would envy. He has been documenting events, construction projects, and life in Westerville for years. It is rare to have an individual with his talent documenting the history of a town on a daily basis. Future generations will have a visual record of this era in Westerville because of Gary’s work.”
While working on a piece about The New York Times obituary writers years ago, someone asked Gardiner, “Who’s going to write your obituary?” And he said, “I write it every day. My photographs speak to who I am and how I saw the world.
Challenges Ahead
The size and breadth of this collection and the fact that it was born digital creates a unique challenge for the Westerville History Museum. The museum will need to invest in a storage system that can ensure proper handling and preservation of these images. “We are still working through what that will look like,” says Barton.
Organizing and transcribing Gardiner's images, captions, handwritten journals, and artifacts will be labor intensive. Gardiner himself admits that the first 10 years of photos were “more disorganized”. He will be working closely with the museum to begin transferring files via hard drives and cloud storage while ensuring that he provides as much context as possible regarding dates, locations, and subjects captured. “I know when I’m gone, I have no control over it. I wanted people to see it while I’m still around so they can ask questions,” says Gardiner.
Learn more @ westervillelibrary.org/gary-gardiner.