My grandmother, Helen Webb, was a science educator who for several years ran the Jupiter Inlet Marine Science Center out of a former military barracks in Jupiter, Florida. She passed away before I was born, but in 2019 my aunt Christine shared with me this booklet she had saved.
In it, my grandmother had catalogued many of the most interesting species she and her students had found in the Loxahatchee River estuarine system in the summer of 1973.
Each of the species was then illustrated by Charles Lastella, an art teacher from Jupiter High School.
To restore the booklet, I scanned each page at high resolution, then use Photoshop to remove background noise and darken the faded colors on each page.
Once I’d made a PDF, I printed new booklets for family members, as well as one for the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum.
My aunt Christine also shared some old photos from the center. Pictured here is my grandmother wading into the water just outside the center.
I ran the photos through De-Oldify, a photo de-aging service that uses AI to restore old images into something that looks photo-realistic. I love the warm tones of the older images, but the restored pictures just looked so recent, and brought out the blue colors of the Loxahatchee.