Four Times the Mystery
There is so much to love in this photo collage--the smiling face, the cute baby, and the timeless shot of a mother and child. The problem is that Michael Thompson has no idea who she is. Each image is tiny, only about an inch in size. They were all glued...
View DetailsA Hand-Colored Photo Gem
The other night my husband asked, "How do you find something to write about every week?" There's an easy answer: Every photo collection is unique, and every photo tells a story. You've been sharing photographs with me for more than a decade and no two images are exactly...
View DetailsDecoration Day, 1868
History intersects at ironic moments that make the past very interesting. Decoration Day, now known as Memorial Day, is one of those moments. All over the United States on this day, towns hold parades and locals decorate veterans' graves. This stereo image from the Library of Congress depicts the first...
View DetailsGenealogy Clues in Civil War-Era Photographs Premium
Do you want to learn more about a Civil War-era photograph? Fortunately, the clues are right there, revealed in the subtle details. Here's how to find them!
View DetailsPhoto Detective: Props in Family Photos Premium
Our Photo Detective points out how props can provide clues in family photos.
View DetailsThe World War I Era in Color
May is the month of gardens and Memorial Day, so I thought I'd take a peek into gardens of the past. On the Library of Congress website, I discovered this gorgeous color image that depicts an important moment in the history of 20th-century gardening. While commercially successful color photography was...
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Part 2 of an Italian Photo Mystery
Last week I introduced Eileen Poulin's mysterious photos on tin and showed you one of the two images of her Italian relatives. Poulin's mother left her the pair with a note regarding the identity of the individuals in the photos—but the details are confusing: On the paper with the above...
View DetailsA Two-Part Italian Photo Mystery
How many of us have found a note in a box of family photos? I suspect that it's pretty common. Unfortunately, the person who left the note probably didn't realize that it could cause confusion about who's who. Eileen Poulin has a double mystery based on a set of notes...
View DetailsFurther Clues in the Connecticut Photo Mystery
Last week I introduced a photo mystery from the Derby (CT) Public Library with links to archaeological excavations. The big question is: "Who's in this photo?"Let's look at some of the evidence in the picture. The shed is of unknown use. A higher-resolution image might reveal what's inside the...
View DetailsA Piece of Connecticut History
Photo courtesy of Derby (CT) Public Library Could this woman be Nancy Freeman, widow of Roswell Freeman, who was one of Connecticut's "Black Governors"? That's the big question, and this query has a lot of pieces. Janet Woodruff, an archaeologist with the Archaeology Laboratory for African & African...
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