It houses an extensive archive of people's photography from the last 100 years. The collection includes black and white and colour photographs, slides, negatives, Polaroids, photobooth, home movies and other photographic ephemera.

Just last week I discovered a little envelope full of snaps and immediately noticed something unusual. As I looked closer at the boys in the wheelchairs I realised some of them appear to have distorted legs. I'm no expert but I assumed this must be the result of polio.

This is a fairly rare find. It isn't a social documentary project by a photojournalist, this is a collection of snapshots belonging to someone who was disabled.

The setting appears to be some sort of rehabilitation home, or 'special school' as they were always called when I was young. Thankfully, it looks to be a happy place.

I'd date these pictures to somewhere around the 1940s. It seems tragic that it would only be a few years before the first polio vaccine was developed in 1952. Following the widespread use of poliovirus vaccine in the mid-1950s, the incidence of poliomyelitis declined dramatically in many industrialised countries.

These pictures have some resonance to me, having just been through the fairly brutal immunisation process with my two little boys. However, these pictures made me feel glad that I actually had a choice.

Despite the obvious tragedy of their lot, these little chaps seem to be having lots of fun. They sit out in the sunshine in what looks to be a gorgeous garden. Bare chested and all smiles, they drink milk from a bottle with a straw. They play cricket with the nurses with some of the boys sitting on the ground but still joining in. They have an alfresco picnic and even take an outdoor nap en masse on camp beds. This was the era when the great outdoors was revered for its healing qualities.

There is a sense of compassion about the images making me wonder who took the pictures; probably one of the nurses or a parent. Whoever it was, the boys are familiar and comfortable with them. There are lots of smiles and they seem to be having fun together.

The pictures exude nostalgia and a pastoral Englishness. You can almost hear the birds and smell the grass. And that lovely little uniform with shorts, long socks and hand-knitted tank tops – not a thread of polyester in sight.

It does make you wonder what became of these lives, it can't have been an easy journey that's for sure. Thankfully the photos exist as evidence that there were some happy moments.

I am really keen to see more local snapshot collections, please contact me if you have anything to share with The Museum or if you think your Snapshots would make a good feature for this newspaper.

n The Snapshot Museum's miniature gallery and showcase is now open in the former ticket booth in the foyer of The Winter Gardens, Morecambe. Check for summer opening times.

The Snapshot Museum always needs more photographs to add to the collection.

If you, or anyone you know, have photographs they no longer want, contact Sonja on 07789 593121 or e-mail mail@sonjacampbell.com