- Type of Photograph
- How to Date Old Photographs by the Costume
- Dating and Identifying Your Old Family Photographs | The Photo Organizers
- Old Photo of Mourning Clothes
- Dating and Identifying Your Old Family Photographs
Check with your cousins, aunts, uncles…. You may not have much oral history in your family or a large extended family to ask. You can still have options for determining the date or age of a photograph. Characteristics of the photograph itself provide clues to its age.
- How to Date Old Photos.
- great dating site quotes;
- Know What You Already Know.
The type of photograph can place your photograph in a specific time period. If you know the time period a photograph was taken, you can narrow down possible candidates on your family tree. The photographic process makes the photographs appear to float. Like the daguerreotypes, ambrotypes are in small hinged cases. Tintypes were popular for more than 30 years. Instead of glass, the image was on an iron plate. Early tintypes were in small, hinged cases like the daguerreotypes and the ambrotypes.
Type of Photograph
However, the cases were soon replaced by paper sleeves. Carte des Visites CDV were introduced in The carte de visite gained popularity quickly during the Civil War as soldiers and family exchanged photographs. Cabinet cards and carte des visites CDV are often confused. Like the CDV, the cabinet card was also an albumen print on thin paper and mounted on thicker paper. The primary difference is the size.
The cabinet card reached its peak popularity in the s but was used into the early s. Have you ever remembered when a photograph was taken of you based on your hairstyle or on the clothes you wore? Narrowing the date range a photograph was taken will narrow down the potential candidates the people can be. The photograph below the cabinet card from above dates to the early s.
However Charlotte was born in date taken from Census information so conceivably inaccurate and the dates given would place her between 14 and 16 years of age whereas I would say the photograph is of a woman of at least 18 to 21 years of age I have no idea in those days when girls were allowed to "put their hair up" and become an adult which means I would have preferred dates of between and I have spent some time re-looking at the back of the photo, along with some of the sites you visited as part of your research for the front and have come across a match.
How to Date Old Photographs by the Costume
The front of the photo was of a vicar circa The photo back is a poor quality image so I've not included it here, but this highlights how you can use photo backs, print thickness, card thickness and decorative effects on cards for extra dating information. What is interesting is that my photograph was clearly taken at TC Turner's Cheapside Studio, which by if the dating of the vicar photo is accurate had closed - the address has been struck out. I knew after some searching you would possibly locate a similar card back and that old photos with rounded edges are after and is a good indication of post But as you can see it is a huge site to search through.
Roger's site has more information on the various card types and I'll leave that to his expert knowledge. The date you prefer is fine. When dating a photo it is usual to date within 5 years either way so you can add or subtract 5 years from my suggested late 's date.
Dating and Identifying Your Old Family Photographs | The Photo Organizers
I am afraid the picture just does not reveal enough information as she is sat. To my eye I think she could be anything from 14 to She has very little bust. So compare her to family females — are they busty or not, early or late in their personal maturation.
She also has a small waist even though it is covered by her arm. Hair would be up by 18, but may have been put up much earlier from 14 dependant on all sorts of reasons and the family wanting to keep their young daughter a girl for longer, or marry her off fast. I have just remembered about this site with some great hair pages from paintings and other illustrations. You can see the little differences and hair changes in many paintings here.
The jewellery is very interesting and it may be worth a trawl around antique jewellery sites for similar pieces for comparison. But of course mum could have loaned it!!! I've since also found an s photo on Roger's site showing a woman wearing similar heavy, but longer beads. Yes and of course we must bear this fact in mind that girls dressed to look older until the s and emulated their mothers.
The mature woman was the one to be seen to look like. So it is all ifs and buts. Fashions also have a five year time lag when fairly classic clothes. It is the cuffs and slimness or fatness of sleeves that dictates when a garment existed. Today I am at home and wearing a linen blouse and a pair of summer trousers I have had several years which I could easily have been wearing 5 or more years ago.
But my new blouses and sweaters bought in the past 12 months almost all have three quarter sleeves or lopping over the hand extra long sleeves, so you see my point. Yes standard wrist blouses are in the shops too, but we tend to buy the latest little fashion touches especially on classic garments when that's all there is to differentiate them. I wonder if Charlotte in this old photograph could have envisaged that she would be studied with such interest so far ahead in time. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could find out if she was as interested in the trends of her day as we are in ours.
Lindsay later told me that this photograph of a woman sitting, is of his relative Charlotte Emma Pitman, who was born in and, sadly, died young aged 34 in , having had three children. Her husband, who adored her, did not marry again, dying in and their eldest son died of his wounds in the last few days of the Great War.
Here is a picture of Charlotte's daughter Margaret and I hope to examine the styling of her clothes at a later date when I look at the changing leg of mutton sleeves of the s. To persons reading this - from a genealogical point of view I am able to put you in contact with the owner of this picture if necessary. And thank you Lindsay for allowing me to use such lovely examples as these beautiful old photographs on my fashion-era web site. All these individuals work hard to help others understand the nuances between costume.
The photograph shown here is an example of a crowd scene at the turn of the 20th century.
Old Photo of Mourning Clothes
It's a wonderful picture and I am showing it here to enable you readers to see how to analyse your own picture. My technique of using the costume as the main point of reference, may help you to date your own picture to within 5 years. In this example I believe that I have dated this photograph to within one year. To do this can be something of a tall order, because a photograph such as this might take several days of thinking time. Then after I have mulled over it, several hours of actual close study of the detail.
This picture of old Hebburn was kindly sent to me by Norman Dunn who has a website of old photographs he has been collecting for many years. All pictures enlarge on this page and this picture is superb when enlarged. I've been studying this photograph now for some hours, because it really does interest me in getting the date right. Even at first glance, it is clear that this picture is a superb representation of Edwardian middle class folk, with some working class folk; the key point is that all the people are dressed in the fashions of the day. The scene suggests they are either waiting for someone special to visit, such as the King or Queen, alternatively, that they are awaiting with serious intent for bad news of some accident, such as a mining or factory disaster.
Another possibility is that they are awaiting transport to take them on a trip for the day. If the year was slightly later I might think they were seeing men off to war.
Dating and Identifying Your Old Family Photographs
Another point to be aware of is that at least some of the crowd may old fashioned, and behind the times in their dress. I'd say the photograph was taken in Spring as they all wear coats, but also fashionable Spring-like hats, which could be Easter Bonnets for Mothering Sunday. When dating a costume picture by dress, I always seek out the most fashionable details, which are generally found on the younger women. These details refer not only to the garments themselves, but also the hairstyle, particularly hair partings and whether the hair fringes or sweeps up.
Another source of clues are the hats, examine their width, height and snugness of fit. This photograph has no hairstyles to concentrate on, but it does have wonderful hats by the dozen. The fashion hats are the main clue here, as no heads are visible in the adult women. These hats are wide enough to be circa , but could be as early as bearing in mind some of the clothes. Even with magnification I cannot find one single woman without a hat or head covering.
This picture is living proof that the era was still dominated by formality, even the ordinary people obey the rules of etiquette as you can see in the photography. That formality was swept away by the First World War when rigid rules of dress codes were broken down. And this point helps us to date a photograph as the early part of the twentieth century.
I've circled a copy of the original photograph as the detail is crisper and some circles will be used here to identify certain aspects of costume history details. Several factors amongst the images suggest that we should date the photograph after , up to the later dates of I don't feel this photograph is later than , even in an unfashionable town. The boys with bicycles in the left hand side background are wearing Eton style school-uniform jackets, and collars often featured in books circa The puffed heads on garment sleeves are very subdued so that dates the picture later than Other than where specified, I am in all cases referring to female adult fashionable dress.
I can eliminate as a possible date as there simply is not enough fullness in the sleeves of any of these adult garments, moreover, the children's dress supports this view. I believe it is after and the factor that suggests this most is the rounded domes of the hats. You can see what I mean by looking at the many instances of hats, as in circles 6, 8 and Click thumbnail for a full enlargement. These detailed circled sections are beside the explanatory text.
Let's look at the picture starting with circle 1. Elements of the coat could suggest it to be circa The sleeves with soft fullness at the head and the fitted silhouette suggest late Victorian styling. But the hat is too big for that date. Hats tight and neater, with less width, were dominant in the late s.
Reference circle 1 left, is probably one of the best sections to use for generally dating the picture. The picture below for reference 1 enlarges fully. The coat is typically Edwardian, and because a waist is in evidence, I think it is before After that date waistlines were much higher following Directoire styles, and under-the-bust empire lines, but of course when women buy a coat they even now expect 2 or 3 years wear from it.
This is study of a father and his two adult daughter a year after the death of his wife. The sitters all wear mourning dress. Changes in technology, leisure, work, cultural and moral values, homelife and politics have all contributed to lifestyle trends which influence the clothes we wear. These are the changes that make any era of society special in relation to the study of the costume of a period.