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Old Photographs - Dating
We all have photographs that are undated,
and it is often possible to establish
the date by carefully comparing with other photographs of known date.
You will see in detail how a photograph can be dated with a
considerable degree of precision. This photograph was actually taken:
around
1890.
Even though the
date is known, you may want to work your way through the pointers which confirm
the date. No photographs can be described as “typical” and this
example is no exception. The father provides few clues but the mother
and children have several distinctive pointers.
We have not described
every thing that may be used as a pointer. For example, the background
is clearly a painted canvas indicating a studio shot. Although painted
backdrops were common for decades, the drapes and woodwork of the
stairs may contain clues. The dress worn by the young lady standing in
the middle and the outfits of the younger children could also be
compared. No single clue is likely to provide a date but considering
all the evidence we can see that this photograph had to be taken in
1890 — plus or minus a couple of years.
family tree -
geneology - genealogy - geneaology - family history - heraldry
family tree -
geneology - genealogy - geneaology - family history - heraldry
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Common Myths
A common myth is
that fashions in rural areas lagged those in the cities by some
years. Anyone who has looked at the advertisements in 19th-century
newspapers will have noticed the number of merchants claiming they
have “the latest fashions from New York and London”.
Having your
photograph taken was an event and involved much more than the
command “Smile!” Women, especially, would not be caught dead being
photographed in an out-of-date outfit. Men too would dress up a
bit but there are plenty of examples where we can see they could
not be bothered.
There is also the
myth about long exposure times. It is true that the very first
photographs — in the late 1830s in Europe and 1840 in North
America — did require several minutes of exposure. However, this
problem was overcome in the early months of 1840. Exposure times
were far slower than those of today but they were measured in
seconds, not minutes. Anyone needing proof of this can see that
children, far too young to understand the necessity to keep still,
were common subjects even in the 1850s. |
Even though most
photographs can be dated by comparing these to known examples, some
can be very difficult, even impossible. Head-and-shoulders pictures of
men sometimes contain no clues. Photographs showing the subjects
wearing traditional costumes are very difficult to date and brides and
bridesmaids often wear dresses that bear little relationship to
current fashions.
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