Backgrounds in Old Photos
In mid-December, I asked readers to submit photos with interesting backgrounds. Thank you for images. I'm conducting an informal study of the different types of backgrounds in photos—it's a vastly understudied area of photo history. Here's an overview:In the 1840s and 1850s daguerreotypists really didn't use backgrounds. Their focus was...
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Photo Mystery Solved!
Two weeks ago I wrote about Russell Chowning's search for an identity to go with a photo (right) in his collection. I added up the fashion details and estimated the picture was taken about 1919. That's all it took for Russell to locate two snapshots of the...
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New Zealand Mystery Revisited
While I planned to write a second installment for the photo featured in last week's blog posting, I'll postpone it a week due to an email I received. It was a call for help. In October 2000 (that's seven and a half years ago), I wrote about this haunting photograph...
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20th-Century Men’s Clothing
I'm trying something different this week and my fingers are crossed that it's going to work. I've tagged this week's photo so that you can spot the details I'm talking about. If you want to do this to your digitized photographs, you can download a bit of free software from...
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Photo Cards Redux
What type of holiday greeting do you send to friends and relatives? Four years ago I wrote Season's Greetings, a column about photo cards and shared an antique example from my collection. It's a beautiful New Year's card from a woman to her friends. As you can see, sending...
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Backgrounds and Furniture in Photos
In the last month or so, I've met (via e-mail) a lot of people who collect specific types of pictures or who know a lot about a photographic detail. I even corresponded with someone who collects photographers' fingerprints on daguerreotypes. Now that's a identification database I'd like to have!&...
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Dress Details Reveal Photo Dates
This week’s mystery photo comes all the way from New Zealand. Don’t you just love the way the Internet brings us all closer together! Janet Drinnan wrote of the picture below “We think it may be our great-great-grandmother, who was born in Buchanan, Stirlingshire, Scotland, in 1810...
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Gift-Giving Tips
If you're looking for a gift for the genealogists on your list, here are a few photo-related suggestions:A digital camera. There's a member of my family who still uses film. While there's nothing wrong with that, the holiday season is a good time to jump into digital. Manufacturers often bundle...
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Mourning Photograph?
This week's picture comes from the Photo Detective Forum. This is used by folks who want their pictures analyzed for this column, but you can also post a photo-related question. Alissa Booth wrote that someone crossed out the original caption, C.C. Smock's wife and wrote Mother. A little girl...
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Ancestral Vacations
Two things drew me to this picture. First, the owner sent me wonderful background information to tell the story. Second, it’s proof this blog has an international following: Kathryn Larcher submitted this photo from her home in France. There's no mystery about the relative depicted. Kathryn knows the last woman...
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