From textile mills (the lifeforce of Greenville at the turn of the 20th century) to downtown in transition under city leaders like Mayor White + The Peace Family, our history writes our future, and we need your help telling it.

Introducing the #GVLYearbookChallenge. We want to play a game of show and tell to highlight what our city used to look like. They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words, and we’re giving $100 (plus a GVLtoday feature) to the winner of our readers’ favorite historic photo.

Are you a longtime local, or do your parents/grandparents have an amazing scrapbook laying around that's full of GVL gold? What do you remember about Greenville of late? Maybe you were there when the Liberty Bridge was first revealed, or you remember when the BMW North American HQ was announced.

In 2019 we want to publish more memories of our city’s history. Here’s how to get involved in our 2019 throwback articles here at GVLtoday + enter our first annual #GVLYearbookChallenge.

Dust off those old photo albums. What photos do you review and say, “wow, I can’t believe how much the city has changed”? We're looking for reader photos of our city from years past. Whether they’re from 50 or 10 years ago – we want to see them.

- Post your photo on social media using both #GVLYearbookChallenge and #GVLtoday.
- Or, send photos to hello@GVLtoday.com (or reply to this email) with the subject line “GVL Yearbook Challenge photos.”
- Include 1 - 6 sentences of what the photos are, and what the photo means to you.
- Let us know when + where the photo was taken.
- Include photo credit. Even if you took the photo, please include your name so we can properly attribute you.

By sending us photos, you have given us permission to publish across GVLtoday, including our newsletter, website + social media platforms.

After you send us photos (please send by Jan. 30), we’ll put together a collage of our favorites. Then, we’ll bring it to you, our readers, to vote. Once you decide on the winning photo, we’ll contact the winner + feature them here in GVLtoday.

Plus, throughout 2019, we’ll repost photos from the #GVLYearbookChallenge, so keep tagging us in your favorite throwback images of our city. We can’t wait to explore historic Greenville with you.

Albert Einstein with his son Hans, who lived in Greenville for 5 years, on Furman’s campus in the 1940s after finding a distant member of the Einstein family was a student there. // Photo via Furman Magazine