Renaissance Books searching for owner of antique family photo album lost at Milwaukee's Mitchell International Airport

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Things get lost all the time at Milwaukee's Mitchell International Airport, from luggage to wallets to cellphones.

But recently, somebody misplaced an antique family photo album that's potentially hundreds of years old, and now the search is on for its original owner.

According to Alex John, the owner and manager of Renaissance Books inside of the airport, the book was brought to him by the lost and found on Monday.

"I love old books and it's such a treat that someone would bring this in," John told CBS 58's Ellie Nakamoto-White. "It's beautiful, it's so fragile. I first touched it without my gloves on, and it felt inappropriate right away."

The album appears to have a worn leather cover and gold gilded edges, with ferrotype photography and an ornate metal clasp.

"Printing on metal with some sort of chemical on it that, when it exposes to light, gives you the kind of contrast on it," John said. 

The photographer? J.S. Medlar of Woodstock, Illinois, who, according to an online obituary, died in 1898.

"It looks like his studio was in McHenry County, Illinois, which is just south of Lake Geneva, so really not that far," John said. "He had a long, honorable career as a photographer, making him known throughout the county in northern Illinois."

The album has 48 pages and is filled with photos of people from babies to adults.

"So, the first one here, we've got Grandpa Willie Allen," John said. "Then a Laura Washington Clintworth, maybe?"

For now, the album will be safe and protected inside the bookshop as John works to find anyone who may be related to the individuals photographed.

"You kind of never know when a fun story is gonna hit you like that, and this just kind of fell right into our lap," John said. "This is a cool piece of history, and it would be neat to just meet the person who it should belong to."

If you know who this belongs to, please email reporter Ellie Nakamoto-White at [email protected] to get reconnected.