Welcome to the 10th and final in our series of blogs about how to understand and interpret your old family photos. In this series, Jayne Shrimpton, internationally recognised dress historian, portrait specialist, photo detective and regular contributor to Family Tree, Your Family History and Family History Monthly magazines, dates and analyses different types of photographs and helps you to add context to your old family pictures.

Family photographs may seem relatively commonplace items because they exist within a domestic setting and often in large numbers, but they need to be looked after carefully. Inherited studio portraits or amateur snapshots may have survived so far in remarkably good condition, or they may already be damaged.

Photographs can be surprisingly complex objects and may consist of several layers, each containing different substances that react to outside influences in various ways. Unfortunately this means that certain types of photograph deterioration are untreatable, so the best policy is to try to prevent commonly-occurring problems from happening in the first place.

There are many potential causes of damage and deterioration to photographs:

• High temperatures, which accelerate fading and tarnishing
• Exposure to light, especially sunlight, which causes fading of the image
• Damp conditions, which can produce mould, ‘foxing’ (dark spots) or discolouration
• Very dry conditions, which can cause brittleness, cracking and flaking
• Poor quality or inappropriate storage, framing and mounting methods, which may emit pollutants, leading to fading, discolouration and tarnishing. This can also cause tears and creases and staining from sticky adhesive tapes and album pages
• Some photographs are at risk from insect attack such as silverfish, woodworm, booklice and carpet beetle
• Handling causes further deterioration as dirt can scratch vulnerable surfaces, while fingers may leave prints and damaging moisture from the skin

 

Family photos tend to be passed around frequently because we enjoy looking at them and they are easily portable, but we shouldn’t underestimate their value as fragile historical artefacts. It is important to consider how they are stored, displayed and handled if they are to last in good condition for another hundred years, or more.

Storage

It is important to store and file photographs using boxes, envelopes or albums of suitable archival quality – see later section below. Once in an appropriate storage system, they should be kept in a cool location at home where surrounding conditions are neither very damp nor very dry - a stable environment ideally with a relative humidity within the range 30-40%. Old photographs, therefore, should not be stashed in damp basements or garages, or in stuffy, un-insulated lofts, but perhaps in a dark cupboard or spacious drawer, in a room where there are no significant fluctuations in temperature or humidity.

Daguerreotype and ambrotype frames and cases (see blog one) and old albums (see blog nine) should be regarded as integral to the photographic images they contain and in these instances it’s important to keep the whole artefact intact. If any elements have a problem - for example, if a hinged case is broken - this should be dealt with by a professional conservator who will use processes geared towards maintaining the integrity of the photograph in its original context (fig.1).

Display

It is tempting to exhibit old family photographs where they can be seen; however, try to avoid displaying them at high light levels, or for long periods of time. Ultraviolet (UV) filtering glass helps to protect photographs during periods of light exposure. Any framing materials should also be of high quality. Ideally, make a copy print for display purposes, so that the original photograph isn’t exposed to the light.

Handling

Try to keep handling of precious original photographs to a minimum, but if it is necessary, make sure that hands are clean and dry. Ideally, wear lint-free cotton researchers’ gloves: there is currently some debate about the advisability of using gloves when handling fragile papers, but most professionals agree that they are important for working with photographs (fig.2).

In addition, hold photographs by their edges and use a supporting base, such as stiff paper or card to move particularly fragile photographs. Scanning photographs (see below) then storing them suitably, working instead from printed copies or from digital image files on the computer, saves regular handling of the fragile originals.

Conservation

For more detailed expert advice about looking after photographs, visit the website of the Institute of Conservation. The downloadable Icon leaflet, Care and Conservation of Photographic Materials, offers further information (fig.3).

If, as the family custodian of photographic heirlooms, you are in any doubt at all about the care and repair of old photographs in any format, professional advice from a trained conservator is always recommended. The aim of photograph conservation is both to reverse damage, if this is possible, and to ensure that future deterioration is reduced to a minimum. The Icon website also offers a useful Conservation Register of qualified, professional conservators.

Conservation quality archival storage materials

Public museums, art galleries, archives and record offices generally preserve their important photographs (and other historical items, such as pictures on paper, documents and old books) in specially designed conservation quality storage systems. Essentially these provide fragile and potentially vulnerable objects with physical support and protection against permanent damage and decay in a safe, acid-free environment.

The kinds of products that public institutions use are also commercially available to the wider public for use at home, so there is no excuse not to take good care of precious family pictures and other important keepsakes. This applies not only to old photographs but also to more recent photos and other family papers and ephemera that need to be preserved. The archival products available offer many different storage and display possibilities, including acid-free boxes of varying shapes and sizes, ring binder systems, photo album pages, folders, envelopes, pockets, tabbed dividers, sleeves and even CD cases (fig.4).

Particularly useful for convenient handling and viewing of family photographs of different sizes are transparent inert polyester or polypropylene pockets which (unlike PVC) contain no harmful chemicals and are safe for long-term storage. Other accessories include researchers’ lint-free cotton gloves, pH neutral pens for marking and mounting products, such as acid-free paper and card, archival mount strips, tape and adhesive (fig.5). These and other items are available from specialist conservation suppliers and from some general genealogical suppliers. Reputable companies can offer advice and answer queries about the best products for preserving and archiving photographs.

Creating digital images

Family picture researchers with computer skills will already be familiar with making digital copies of photographs and storing these as compressed image files on the computer or other electronic media. It’s always a good idea to create digital versions of old photographs as these can be used for research purposes, to save handling the fragile originals. Digital images are also easy to share with others via email and can be uploaded onto family history or image-sharing websites.

Photographic prints, negatives and slides can all be scanned. Card-mounted photos are the simplest to scan at home, but even framed or cased daguerreotypes and ambrotypes, which are three-dimensional objects, can usually be scanned successfully using a flatbed scanner.

When scanning photographs, it is advisable to scan each one individually rather than several at a time, as they may need to be separated later anyway for research purposes and, additionally, the details will be clearer if scanned separately. Scanning black and white photographs as colour pictures, rather than greyscale, gives the best picture quality and scanning at normal size, at a resolution of 300 dpi (dots per inch) is a good choice for most photographic images. The resolution doesn’t generally need to be any higher, unless the original photograph is very small – for example a tiny snapshot or small tintype, which are best scanned at 600 dpi.

Picture files of 300 dpi and higher resolutions naturally take up more computer or disc space than those scanned at a lower resolution but these high-quality pictures will be suitable for most purposes, including reproduction in many kinds of printed publications, should the need ever arise. Scanned images can be saved in various digital formats: both JPEG (jpg) and GIF are currently in widespread use, jpg being perhaps the more popular and considered by some users the most convenient format.

For picture researchers uncertain about scanning or without necessary equipment, there are many commercial photo-scanning companies that will carry out this work for a fee. Some high street outlets provide this service although, depending on the number of pictures to be copied, it may be worth searching the internet for the most cost-effective option.

Some of the popular genealogy websites offer a scanning service as part of the package and there are also specialist photo companies experienced in scanning old family photos. If having pictures scanned commercially involves sending original material through the post, be sure to use the most secure postal service available, such as registered post, or a reputable courier company offering parcel tracking facilities.

Finally, if storing digital images and indeed any important data on discs and other electronic media, remember to protect them also from environmental damage and accidents. Clean computer drives routinely to prevent damage to the media and only handle CDs by the very edges, storing them well away from liquids, dust, extreme heat and direct sunlight. Rigid purpose-designed storage containers are ideal, special conservation quality CD cases affording the best protection.

Old family photographs are unique and precious mementoes - irreplaceable if lost or badly damaged. Let’s do our best to ensure that they are well-preserved for future generations to enjoy and learn from.

Welcome to the ninth in our series of blogs about how to understand and interpret your old family photos. In this series, Jayne Shrimpton, internationally recognised dress historian, portrait specialist, photo detective and regular contributor to Family Tree, Your Family History and Family History Monthly magazines, dates and analyses different types of photographs and helps you to add context to your old family pictures.

Some family historians are fortunate enough to possess not only old photographs, but the original 19th and 20th century photograph albums in which they were stored and displayed. This blog focuses on these special family heirlooms, explaining their origins, describing their changing styles and suggesting how best to investigate inherited albums and their contents.

Early photograph albums

Before the introduction of cartes de visite – the first mass-produced, printed photographs (see blog one) – early photographic prints had sometimes been pasted into general scrapbooks. It was the new craze for collecting standard visiting-card sized card-mounted cartes, however, that inspired the production of the purpose-designed photograph albums that were the precursors of today’s family albums.

The first albums were produced in France in 1857/8, by which time the carte de visite (patented there in 1854) was becoming fashionable. Entrepreneurs across the English Channel were quick to seize this new business opportunity and photograph albums were being advertised in the British trade press by 1861. This was the year that witnessed an explosion in carte de visite sales, the phenomenon known as ‘cartomania’. The active promotion of and growing interest in the novel albums in turn encouraged the taking and collecting of more photographs. During the early 1860s, cartes were known as ‘album portraits’, demonstrating the close connection between these new photographs and the fashion for displaying them in albums.

The public enjoyed collecting ‘celebrity’ cartes – images of famous and influential figures of the day, including royalty, aristocrats, politician, statesmen, singers and actors and writers. Souvenir cartes depicting picturesque views from around the country were also popular, for example, the much-publicised photographs of the Wigan broo wenches and pitgirls wearing their distinctive outfits. The main interest, however, was in personal family photographs – studio portraits of members of the household and other relatives, which were given, exchanged and collected on an unprecedented scale.

The first photograph albums were made with heavy leather bindings and sturdy metal clasps, looking externally much like the traditional family bible or hymn book - see fig.1. Inside it was usual to include a ‘page one’ carte de visite – a frontispiece with a message or (often humorous) verses addressed to the family members and friends who were about to view the album (fig.2). The main album pages featured pre-cut carte-sized apertures for the convenient arrangement and display of photographs, larger albums offering space for four cartes de visite per page and those of the smallest dimensions just one carte per page.

A respectable and fashionable ornament

Substantial and handsomely-presented albums were recognised as ideal gifts at Christmas and for birthdays, especially coming of age, particularly for ladies, who were generally the keepers of the family records. Many surviving examples, like fig.1, are helpfully inscribed with the date, occasion and name of the recipient. Because of their clever design, albums commanded a sense of almost religious respect and before long it was suggested that they might replace the existing practice of noting family births, marriages and deaths inside the family bible.

The repository of much that the family held dear, photograph albums also became desirable material possessions – attractive ornaments for the home. By the end of 1861, elegantly-bound albums were said to have become ‘one of the indispensable ornaments of every lady’s table.’ As with any novelty, the more prosperous classes were the first to acquire the new photograph albums, but over time, as portrait photography became more widespread and prices came down, even some ordinary working families could boast a treasured family album.

Late 19th century albums

Later albums produced from the 1880s onwards often contained pages with two sizes of apertures for the display of both cartes de visite and cabinet prints – a feature that helps with identifying late-Victorian albums. The larger cabinet card had been introduced in 1866 but take-up was slow and the format only became popular in the 1880s, going on to rival the carte during the 1890s and at the turn of the century.

The styles of album bindings also changed over the years, as seen by comparing fig.1 with fig.4: sometimes velvet or plush (cotton velvet) – both fashionable materials in the late 19th century - was used for the covers, while the pages inside grew ever more elaborate as fashionable taste veered increasingly towards the ornate. In many late-Victorian albums, the frontispiece and sometimes additional pages were embellished with coloured illustrations (fig.5) and the photographs themselves might be decoratively framed with a painted border of flowers or other themed motifs (fig.6).

As the fashion grew for keeping and displaying family photographs in albums, special albums were developed for particular types of photograph. Some commercial photographers, for example, astutely produced ‘Baby’s Album,’ encouraging doting parents to commission annual photographs of their offspring throughout their childhood and adolescence, to record and proudly demonstrate their growth and development. Some albums were designed to hold portraits of the dead – macabre images known as post mortem photographs. Wedding albums were said to be much in vogue in 1889 and a number survive from around this time onwards. Purchased by the bride and filled with photographs of members of the bridal party, the autograph of each person might be written beneath their respective portrait.

Studying Victorian photo albums

Album collections were generally started by one ancestor then passed down the family, later generations sometimes adding new photographs to those already within. Surviving Victorian albums may, then, contain an assortment of photographs potentially spanning four or more decades, although surviving evidence suggests that often the majority of photographs inside were taken within a decade or so of the year of the album’s acquisition. If the date was recorded inside the cover, this gives a useful starting point for dating and identifying the photos inside.

An inherited photograph album, heavy and fragile, can seem a mixed blessing: where on earth do you start with investigating the contents? The positioning of photographs within the album may at first appear random, but there was usually a purpose to their initial arrangement on the pages. Portraits of husbands and wives, in particular, were typically displayed alongside each other, and on the same or adjacent pages were often inserted pictures of any children, while photographs of other family members branched out further throughout the album. There was no fixed method, however, and family relationships and connections expressed in the different photographs may take some time to unravel, but since their organisation can often offer important historical evidence, it is important to respect and preserve the original order within the album.

Usually the cartes de visite or cabinet prints inside an album are tightly fitted into their apertures, so any printed details at the foot or on the reverse of the mounts is concealed. As we saw in blogs two and three, investigating the photographer and studying the design of the mount can help with dating and identifying unlabelled photographs, while the studio location gives a useful clue as to where the subject(s) probably lived. Sometimes albums span different continents, especially in cases where family members emigrated and sent photographs back to those remaining at home, so it is important to know exactly where each photograph within an album was taken to locate their geographical origins and understand more about their purpose.

Sometimes the owners of old Victorian albums were worried about taking photographs out of their apertures in case they tear the delicate paper. This is a difficult issue: a conservator would probably advise not to remove them, yet in the interests of accurate research, photographs need to be studied properly, front and back, to collect all their nuggets of information. If the aperture edges and album pages in general are already damaged, it is unlikely that you can do a great deal more harm. If you do decide to take the plunge, remove each photograph carefully one at a time, using a pair of tweezers, scan the photograph front and back so that the original doesn’t have to be handled again, then replace it in its original position within the album.

Family snapshot albums

As we saw in blog eight, by the early 20th century amateur photography was becoming popular, with many families acquiring a ‘modern’ roll-film camera, and this gave rise to a new type of snapshot album. Generally these albums were plainer and slimmer than the solid and ornate Victorian bible-like volumes and sometimes the front cover bore the name of the manufacturer, such as Kodak or Ogden’s (fig.s 7-9). Naturally many more of these snapshot albums survive in today’s family collections.

Albums dating from the 1900s to the 1920s may be relatively small, their pages typically formed of thick card with pre-cut apertures designed to take the neat contact prints of the era. By the 1930s and 1940s, albums of larger dimensions were becoming more usual, the pages often thinner and left plain so that printed snapshots of various sizes could be arranged inside.

As in the Victorian period, snapshot albums were frequently given as Christmas or birthday presents, so there may be a helpful inscription and date inside the front cover. Many of the photographs inside are likely to date from soon after the year that the album was acquired, although there was more of a tendency to add extra snaps for some years afterwards. It was also quite common for the photographer or the relative compiling the album to write details of the date, occasion and names of the people in the scene on the back of the print, or directly onto the album page (fig.8).

Recommended reading

Little has been published about old photograph albums but there is some information in these books:

The Victorians: Photographic Portraits, Audrey Linkman (Tauris Parke, 1993)

How to get the most from Family Pictures, Jayne Shrimpton (Society of Genealogists, 2011)

Welcome to the eighth in our series of blogs about how to understand and interpret your old family photos. In this series, Jayne Shrimpton, internationally recognised dress historian, portrait specialist, photo detective and regular contributor to Family Tree, Your Family History and Family History Monthly magazines, dates and analyses different types of photographs and helps you to add context to your old family pictures.

In our photo blog series so far, we have been looking mainly at professional studio photographs (with the exception of some outdoor wedding scenes - see previous blog). This time we turn to family ‘snapshots’ – informal photographs set in real surroundings, taken by amateur photographers.

History of amateur photography

Amateur photography - as distinct from professional, commercial photography - was practised from the earliest times. For many years, however, it remained essentially a genteel pastime for the privileged classes – those with the means to buy expensive, elaborate apparatus and leisure time to devote to experimenting with the medium.

Unmotivated by business interests, early amateur photographers tended to be more interested in the aesthetic aspects of their craft and often shared knowledge and ideas through photographic societies. Family picture collections today very occasionally include early amateur photographs from the 1840s to the 1870s, but such examples are rare.

During the 1880s, various innovations gave a significant boost to amateur photography. Dry photographic plates became widely available - more sensitive and more convenient than the old wet plate method – and ‘modern’ developing out papers for producing prints also came into general use. Price reductions in photographic equipment and supplies also made photography more affordable for middle-class hobbyists, but perhaps the greatest change of all came with improved camera design.

In the United States, George Eastman was trialling gelatine-coated paper-backed film for use in roll form in a specially-designed camera. In 1888 he launched the Kodak No.1 camera – a relatively simple box camera loaded with a 100-exposure roll of film: this was sent back to the Eastman factory for processing, the camera also being re-loaded there and returned to the customer. To demonstrate the ease of the new method, Kodak devised the famous slogan: “You push the button, we’ll do the rest.”

The traditional glass plate method was still used by professionals and serious amateurs, who usually processed their own pictures, but taking photographs no longer necessitated advanced technical skills, artistic ability or complex equipment.

For enthusiasts with little expertise, the practise of photography was becoming much easier. It was at this time that the term ‘snapshot’ (first coined in 1860) began to be popularly used to describe the spontaneous photographs being taken by the new wave of amateur photographers or ‘snapshooters’. Amateur photography was still a specialist interest in the 1880s and 1890s and owning a camera was not yet an option for the masses, but a few of today’s private photograph collections do include late-Victorian family snapshots (see Fig.s 1 & 2).

By the early 20th century, amateur photography was gathering momentum and was soon to become a leisure activity enjoyed throughout society. In 1900 the user-friendly Box Brownie camera was launched - again ready-loaded with film - and this inexpensive, popular model encouraged many ordinary working people to try out photography for themselves.

By the 1910s new, more convenient models of camera were also coming onto the market, such as the Kodak Vest Pocket Camera, introduced in 1912. During the First World War reputedly many soldiers took one of these folding cameras away with them and a massive increase in sales was recorded during 1915. Evidently the 1910s were definitely a turning point, for significantly more family snapshots survive for this period than for the previous decades (see Fig.s 3-5). By the interwar era the camera was a familiar gadget in many homes, snapshot photography was becoming increasingly popular and professional studio photographs were no longer in such high demand.

Family snapshots

Photographs were taken by the family photographer to record both special events and everyday scenes and all private photograph collections are likely to include amateur snapshots. A few family historians may be fortunate in possessing late-Victorian or Edwardian examples; however, the majority of surviving snapshots date from at least the 1910s. Most of those taken during the early-mid 20th century are set outdoors where there was a natural source of light, for illuminating interiors was difficult in the period before flashbulbs came into general use.

Colour photographs may very occasionally crop up by the 1930s or 1940s, but colour photography was still in its infancy, and most family snapshots taken before the mid-1960s will be black and white images.

Unlike formal studio photographs carefully composed in contrived, artificial settings, casual family snapshots portray earlier generations posing more spontaneously in genuine surroundings, so they provide more realistic and accurate portraits. They may include elderly ancestors who had lived most of their lives in the 19th century, or, conversely, much younger relatives who are still alive today.

From the garden of the family home to a weekend picnic spot or a favourite holiday destination, they show the places that family members frequented and where they spent their leisure time. Some scenes are full of interesting historical detail, including images of the friends, neighbours, colleagues, household pets, vehicles, buildings, objects and material possessions that were familiar to the family in earlier times. Family snapshots are therefore of tremendous documentary value to today’s researchers, offering fascinating visual records of domestic, working and social lives and glimpses of special and everyday human experiences.

Surveying the evidence

Sometimes the subjects and/or settings of old snapshots are instantly recognisable, or perhaps a reliable verbal explanation has been passed down through the family. In some cases the back of the paper print or an album page may be annotated with helpful handwritten details such as names, the year and the geographical location.

Other snapshots from the past may initially be unidentifiable and, frustratingly, also unlabelled – baffling images of unfamiliar people or places. But before giving up, consider whether a snapshot may perhaps be recognisable by someone else within the family: it may well be worth consulting older relatives for ideas or information.

It’s also possible that another family member has a copy of the same, or a very similar scene that has been annotated on the back by the photographer or one of the people in the picture. Finally, remember to look closely at other snapshots in the wider collection, as one image may be able to shed light on another, as transpired with Fig.1 below.

Some family snapshots remain elusive and appear to give little away: perhaps they are proving hard to positively identify or the setting seems to be a complete mystery, as is often true of open landscapes. Even if this is the case, remember that there is factual information to be gleaned from every surviving image and further analysis and research may eventually lead to clarification of the scene.

Dating family snapshots

As with all types of old photograph, it is important to try to determine an accurate date range for undated family snapshots as this will automatically narrow down the possibilities regarding identification of the subjects and setting. Unlike professional photographs, with snapshots there is no studio setting, card mount style or photographer data to help with dating, although it may be possible to loosely date the size of the print (see Recommended Reading for books offering further tips).

Otherwise, any date estimate has to be based on the visual image itself. Much has been written in family photograph books about spotting different kinds of visual clues that can potentially help with dating a snapshot: for example, buildings or street scenes may suggest a particular time frame. Various different elements in a picture could, theoretically, be relevant, but in my experience the most useful features are the fashions worn by the subjects and any vehicles occurring in the scene.

Fashion clues

Through experience of studying clothing styles, or with useful visual sources or dress-dating guides to hand, it is always possible to gain a reliable time frame for a photograph from the dress worn by its subjects. With casual snapshots taken at home or out and about, people aren’t always wearing their most fashionable ‘Sunday best’ outfits, but even so ordinary day clothes, comfortable holiday and beach garments and sports wear can always be dated to within about 10 years – if not a closer time frame.

In blog No.5 we looked at dating family photographs from their fashion clues and this gave a basic timeline of the main developments in dress up until the mid-20th century. In addition, several of the books in the Recommended Reading will provide more detailed guidance and many good images with which to compare your own snapshots.

Vehicles

Some 20th century snapshots will include a family car or motorbike, or a charabanc, bus or commercial van or lorry in the picture – vehicles that offer dateable evidence. Motor vehicles can usually be dated approximately from their make and model and perhaps very closely from their number plate, if this is visible. In addition letters on the plates may show the district of registration, thereby offering further clues as to geographical location.

Three of the photos in the snapshot sequence below were analysed and dated by car experts from the Surrey Vintage Vehicle Society – Fig.s 5, 8 & 10. The wonderful website of the SVVS (www.svvs.org.uk) displays thousands of historic images of all kinds of motor vehicles, providing helpful visual comparisons for family snapshots, while their ‘Help’ page offers free assistance with identifying/dating vehicles in family photographs.

In addition, Old Classic Car – www.oldclassiccar.co.uk – includes a helpful Car Registration Numbers Index. Also some of the major car manufacturers have a ‘heritage’ division within their organisation and sometimes an archivist who may be able to explain more about early cars owned by the family.

Some wheeled vehicles that crop up in photographs are of the non-motorised variety: – bicycles, tricycles, tandems and other contraptions that moved by pedal-power (Fig.s 11 & 12). In the 1930s when health, outdoor exercise and physical fitness were high on the agenda, and before there were many cars on the road, cycling became very popular, with membership of cycling clubs soaring and major cycle races being organised.

For help with identifying and dating these kinds of vehicles in photographs, visit bicycle history websites or search online for an independent expert who can help you – they do exist!

Further research

Even when a snapshot is dated, or its subject(s) and location have been identified, it can be very rewarding to carry out further investigations, to try to discover more about the scene and gain a clearer understanding of how it fits into the family’s history.

There has never been a better time to research old family photographs, especially if you have access to the internet, as so many collections of historical material are now available online and you never know exactly what you will find once you begin digging around.

Try scouring some of the online image collections that exist, for example county archive photo collections or community or local history websites, as these may display dated photographs from the past that have a bearing on your own snapshots. Or take the central subject/theme of the picture as a starting point and try to discover more about what it represents, or its history.

Consulting official records and delving into other random sources helped with confirming and fleshing out the details of several of the photographs in the sequence below. For example the estimated date and location of the early snapshots seen in Fig.s 1 & 2 were supported by checking census returns and ships’ passenger lists; general internet research and obtaining a naval service record helped to explain the setting and context of Fig.9; Fig.11 was firmly located by deciphering the image clues and researching holiday camp history online, while a new perspective on Fig.14 was gained by learning about early surfboards and surfing traditions with help from www.museumofbritishsurfing.org.uk.

Old pictures can be enjoyed on many levels and sometimes it takes patience and ingenuity to unravel all their layers of interest and meaning. Casual family photographs may seem to be very ordinary images, but every one is fascinating and valuable, offering a vivid snapshot of family life in the past.

Recommended reading

The Snapshot Photograph: The Rise of Popular Photography, 1888-1939, by Brian Coe & Paul Gates (Ash & Grant, 1977)
Dating 20th Century Photographs by Robert Pols (The Alden Press, 2005)
Family Photographs and How to Date Them, Jayne Shrimpton (Countryside Books, 2008)
How to Get the Most from Family Pictures, Jayne Shrimpton (Society of Genealogists, 2011)
Everyday Fashions of the 20th Century, Avril Lansdell (Shire Publications, 1999)

Family wedding photographs

Welcome to the seventh in our series of blogs about how to understand and interpret your old family photos. In this series, Jayne Shrimpton, internationally recognised dress historian, portrait specialist, photo detective and regular contributor to Family Tree, Your Family History and Family History Monthly magazines, dates and analyses different types of photographs and helps you to add context to your old family pictures.

Marriage has been a popular pictorial theme for many centuries and every family archive will surely include photographs of past weddings, either scattered throughout the collection or perhaps preserved in special albums. Wedding photographs portray ancestors and relatives from all walks of life, often span several generations and show different geographical locations, so as a photographic genre they are extraordinarily varied and full of interesting detail.

Larger wedding group scenes demonstrate how earlier weddings, as today, brought diverse relatives together for the occasion and helpfully they often portray many faces from the past all in the one picture. This can sometimes aid identification of unknown family members who appear in other photographs and may also help with making important connections between individuals. In some cases wedding photographs provide the only known depictions of elusive forebears who otherwise managed to evade the camera.

Wedding photographs are highly emotive images which often inspire profound personal attachments and sentiments. A powerful sense of occasion surrounds marriage celebrations and, whatever our personal views on marriage or religious convictions, many of us regard family wedding photographs as very special mementoes.

Identifying mystery wedding photographs
Because inherited wedding photographs tend to enjoy an elevated status within many families, they are often well-documented and firmly identified. It may seem surprising that any picture as important as a wedding photograph could possibly have gone unrecorded but in fact some examples have been passed down unlabelled and are now unfamiliar to today’s generation. There may, for example, be confusion over whose marriage they represent, especially if an ancestor or relative married more than once, or if several weddings within a family occurred in a short space of time.

When trying to identify ‘mystery’ wedding photographs, the first step - as always – is to establish as accurate a date range as possible for the scene. Once a firm time frame has been determined, it should in many cases be possible to link the image to a recorded family marriage. However if it is proving difficult to make a connection, it may be that the photograph depicts more distant relatives, suggesting that the net might be cast wider. If ultimately no match can be found, it could be that a wedding photograph kept by forebears may not represent a family marriage at all, but is a souvenir of a friend’s, a neighbour’s or a work colleague’s wedding that they attended as guests.

Recognising early wedding photographs
Most of today’s collections feature a number of wedding photographs but family historians may have inherited even more of these pictures than they realise, for it is easy to overlook Victorian or Edwardian marriage pictures. This can even apply in cases where the names of the photograph’s subjects are known, because early wedding images don’t often conform to our current perception of what they should look like. Nowadays we usually expect to see an elaborate setting, perhaps a white bridal gown, flowers, bridesmaids and other special accoutrements, yet many 19th and early 20th century wedding photographs display few, or none, of these identifying elements and simply appear as ordinary studio portraits of smartly-dressed ancestors.

The introduction of the carte de visite photograph brought the possibility of photographic portraits to a wide population and by the mid-1860s the social elite were being joined by the middle classes and even ordinary working people in their desire for special photographs celebrating marriage. Since only wealthy Victorian families could afford to employ a professional photographer to attend the actual wedding (see below), it became usual for bridal couples of middling and more humble status to visit a local photographer soon after the church ceremony.

Generally no special setting was used for a studio wedding photograph - simply a conventional studio backdrop and furniture. Usually the couple posed together side by side, both of them standing or, more usually, one standing, the other seated. Typically the bride’s wedding ring was prominently displayed, so this can offer a helpful clue as to a wedding occasion, although a tiny band is not always clear in faded or imperfect photographs, so apparent lack of a ring should not be a reason for discounting a possible wedding photograph.

A simple, one-off photograph was all that many ordinary Victorian couples could afford, and few brides – or their families - could meet the expense of special white bridal attire that could not be worn again. Most brides wore a new or good coloured day dress, while the groom wore his ‘Sunday best’ lounge suit or, sometimes, a more formal morning or frock coat.

Understanding that an early photograph of a fashionably-dressed couple in a standard studio setting could well be a wedding picture can lead to many more such discoveries in family collections.

Wedding photographs and bridal fashions, 1860s-1940s
Although white (ivory or off-white) dresses had been worn by some affluent brides since the 18th century, the full complement of frothy white gown with veil, a floral bouquet and well-dressed bridesmaids became every bride’s dream in the mid-19th century, following the trend set by Queen Victoria when she married Prince Albert in 1840. Victoria departed from royal tradition by wearing an exquisite creamy-white silk satin gown trimmed with lace, a circlet of orange blossom on her head and a lace veil. The couple’s children followed suit with romantic ‘white’ weddings – occasions well-publicised in photographs in the late 1850s and early 1860s.

The earliest known photographic image of a bride wearing a special white wedding dress is a Boston daguerreotype of 1854, while the first known photograph to include bridesmaids is that depicting the marriage of Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter, Princess Vicky, to Crown Prince Frederick in 1858. Therefore family historians are highly unlikely to discover photographs displaying these features until after those dates.

The following sections look at wedding photographs and bridal wear over the decades, to demonstrate how these important events were represented at different times and how bridal fashions evolved: hopefully this and the image sequence below should help researchers to date, identify and understand more about their own family wedding pictures. There is also a useful bibliography at the end.

1860s & 1870s
Most ordinary mid-Victorian ancestors, if they had a wedding photograph taken at all, visited the photographer’s studio as a couple following the church service, as described earlier. The resulting wedding photographs generally depict only the bride and groom, the bride dressed in a coloured daytime outfit made of silk, or the best fabric that she could afford (Fig.s 1 & 3). The style of her dress followed the current modes, as did her hairstyle, so these photographs are dateable from fashion clues, just like any other family photographs (see earlier blog 5: What are they wearing?)

Photographs of more prosperous ‘white weddings’ survive in a few family collections from the later 1860s onwards – impressive open-air scenes depicting elaborately-dressed bridal party and guests gathered in the spacious grounds of the bride’s substantial family home (Fig.2). Early wedding group photographs such as these were taken outside using the more portable apparatus of the wet collodion process, but even so, the outdoor photographer of the 1860s and 1870s had to bring a complete darkroom with him to the venue; the photographic prints, providing different views of the occasion, were produced later, back at his studio.

Affluent brides followed the elite trend for creamy-white silk gowns swathed in tulle, worn with a veil attached to an orange blossom wreath. The shape of their dresses followed the prevailing fashionable line, so again such photographs should be dateable from dress clues, if the year is unknown. In the 1860s bridesmaids also generally wore white gowns and veils and carried round posies like the bride’s neat bouquet, so it can be hard to spot who is actually getting married! (fig.2). By the 1870s bridesmaids tended to wear pale coloured dresses and fashionable hats, rather than veils, making it easier to distinguish between the bride and her attendants.

1880s
Most family wedding photos surviving from the 1880s will, as before, portray a respectably-dressed couple in the photographer’s studio: large group photographs taken outdoors were still largely the preserve of more prosperous ancestors, although technological advances were beginning to encourage outdoor photography, so occasionally a wedding of lower social status may have been photographed in the open air. Brides’ coloured day dresses and special white bridal outfits continued to follow fashionable lines, so the stylistic change from the narrow, sheath-like silhouette of early decade to the skirt shaped by a bustle projection at the back, beginning c.1884 (fig.4), should help with close dating.

Significantly, photographs of this decade show that some brides, including working women, were beginning to adopt special accessories suited to the occasion – removable articles that left the basic fashionable outfit unaltered so that it could be re-worn. Sometimes a bridal veil was teamed with a best coloured dress, or a white hat might be worn with white ribbon trimmings in the form of a sash or girdle (fig.4). By the later 1880s, there was also growing interest in flowers, especially amongst the middle classes - a formal bridal bouquet and/or a corsage for the bodice. Where these features occur, obviously they help with recognising wedding photographs of this era.

1890s
The 1890s witnessed a sharp rise in the number of larger group wedding scenes – not only those representing upper-class weddings, but also those of the expanding middle classes. Modest studio portraits of bride and groom continued to record humble marriages, but some indoor studio photographs were beginning to picture substantial wedding parties comprising several people. By mid-decade many more wedding group photographs were also being taken outdoors (fig.5), this trend reflecting a general growth in professional outdoor photography and establishing a pattern for wedding pictures of the future. Such scenes inevitably offer family historians a more realistic and accurate impression of ancestors’ weddings and often convey a greater sense of occasion.

A varied array of bridal wear occurs in such photographs, ranging from a fashionable, boldly-coloured or a creamy-white day dress, worn with a stylish hat (fig.5), to the complete bridal toilette with veil – an ensemble still mainly associated with the moneyed classes at this date. Meanwhile bridal bouquets and other floral accessories, and bridesmaids, were gradually becoming more popular lower down the social scale.

Edwardian era
Some ordinary weddings of the new century were recorded in a modest studio photograph, and although bridal flowers were quite common by now, when absent the occasion may be hard to identify (Fig.7). However the main trend was for the larger outdoor wedding group photograph, so a significant number of surviving Edwardian wedding photographs are posed outdoors (Fig.6). Open-air settings offered more scope for the photographer to take various shots of the bridal party and guests, so several different views from the one wedding are more likely to survive from around this time onwards.

It is generally understood that elaborate ‘white’ weddings became more popular in the early 20th century, eventually extending throughout society. Certainly the trend towards special bridal wear, bouquets and floral accessories, attendants and other trappings associated with the ‘white’ wedding advanced during the early 1900s, although naturally the scale and luxury of the occasion depended on the family’s finances.

Photographic evidence reveals that while elaborate, formal white weddings were still largely restricted to better-off families during this decade, some ordinary working class brides chose to wear a special white bridal gown and veil. Another familiar combination was the fashionable, pale-coloured dress, worn either with a bridal veil (fig.6) or with an ornate hat. In fact many prosperous brides chose a white dress and fashionable hat, instead of a veil, perhaps because the vast sweeping hats of the era gave a suitably grand and decorative appearance. Adult bridesmaids, present at many weddings by this time, were either dressed alike, or in different coloured dresses, while small flower girls were popular – often young relatives of the bride or groom.

1910s
Wedding photographs of the 1910s may be located in outdoor settings as diverse as fields (fig.8), domestic gardens, narrow yards of terraced houses or the sprawling grounds of a country pub or hotel, hired for the occasion. Families who could afford to do so employed a professional photographer to attend the reception after the service, although during the 1910s more people were acquiring their own camera (see forthcoming blog) so some photographs from this decade may be amateur snapshots.

The First World War dominated the mid-late 1910s, however, so many wartime weddings were simple affairs, perhaps organised at short notice to fit around the groom’s departure for war, a brief period of leave, or immediately following his return home. This signalled a return to the studio for some couples - a quick, one-off photograph to capture a special but fleeting occasion.

Whatever the nature of the photograph, many brides of this decade wore white outfits, regardless of social status. The full bridal ensemble with veil was becoming common across the social spectrum (fig.8) although for wartime weddings a more practical plain tailored suit or an afternoon dress might be worn instead. The fashionable silhouette was slender in the early 1910s, while fuller, shorter skirts ending around mid-calf length came into vogue in 1915 – shifting styles that can help with dating unidentified photographs. Bridal bouquets were almost universal, except in the case of very poor families who couldn’t afford even those accessories.

1920s
The occasional studio photograph occurs amongst 1920s wedding pictures (fig.9), but many more are outdoor scenes. By the end of the decade some photographers were extending their coverage of the occasion by photographing the bridal couple leaving the church - a new development that would characterise wedding photography of later decades.

Two significant royal weddings were widely reported to the public in the early 1920s – the marriage of King George V and Queen Mary’s daughter, Princess Mary, to Viscount Lascelles in 1922, and that of their second son, Prince Albert, Duke of York, to Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923. These lavish events and the fairytale royal bridal gowns of ivory and silver inspired a new generation of brides and revived the sense of romance that had been missing from wartime weddings.

Many 1920s brides chose cream or ivory dresses and wore a headdress placed low over the forehead, with a net veil attached (fig.9). Trimmings ranged from lace or swansdown to pearls and beads. Some brides, however, preferred a smart everyday outfit and wore a fashionable wide-brimmed hat, or later in the decade a close-fitting cloche hat. Most 1920s brides’ dresses were afternoon length, rather than floor-length, so dress hemlines fluctuated throughout the decade, following fashion: until 1925 hemlines usually ended at mid-low calf length, but in 1926 they rose dramatically to just below the knee, remaining there until c.1930. Bridesmaids followed suit, adult bridesmaids sometimes wearing bandeau-like headdresses in the later 1920s, while a significant fashion for young flower girls was distinctive wired headdresses (fig.9).

1930s
A sprinkling of studio photographs characterise the 1930s, although outdoor photographs are more usual, whether taken outside the church or afterwards at home or at a reception. Significant changes in bridal styles occurred during this decade as dresses acquired an air of glamour under the influence of Hollywood films. Graceful gowns of plain silk, satin or artificial silk (rayon) were bias-cut to achieve the alluring, clinging effect. Day length hemlines were calf-length in the early-mid 1930s, while evening length bridal dresses swept the floor (fig.10). Sophisticated white Madonna and arum lilies became popular for bouquets - elegant blooms that suited fashionable bridal wear.

An alternative bridal vogue also existed for summery ‘garden party’ dresses in flower-print georgette, chiffon or rayon fabrics, which often had a matching jacket or ‘coatee’. These were teamed with wide-brimmed hats rather than veils and, being versatile outfits, could be easily re-worn. By the late-1930s long trained gowns in a cold white satin, sometimes woven in a damask-like flower pattern (‘bridal satin’) had largely replaced the soft ivories and creams of earlier decades: these wedding dresses were ‘special’ garments, not intended to be worn again for any other occasion.

1930s Bridesmaids generally wore pastel-coloured plain or floral-sprigged dresses extending to the floor, or made slightly shorter to afternoon length. Accessories were very important at this time, so bridesmaids’ headwear, gloves and so on, as well as their garment styling, can offer helpful dating clues for wedding photographs of the 1930s (fig.10).

1940s
Weddings of this decade were dominated by the 2nd World War and its aftermath, although church wedding ceremonies went on more or less as usual and it was during the 1940s that many more wedding photographs came to be taken in the church doorway, and even occasionally inside the church.

In the early 1940s white weddings seem to have still been fairly common: despite – or perhaps because of - the war and the growing uniformity of civilian dress, brides wanted their wedding day to be special, a festive occasion to treasure in times of escalating hardship (fig.11). Often bridal dresses from the late-1930s were loaned to wartime brides by friends or relatives, or, after clothes rationing was introduced in 1941, families might pool their coupons to buy a new white dress or the material to make one, a few dresses being expertly fashioned from parachute silk.

Wartime and post-war bridal gowns and bridesmaids’ dresses had their own distinctive style, generally featuring fashionable padded shoulders and either puffed or tight-fitting sleeves, subtle details such as rounded collars or ruched bodices adding extra interest (fig.11). Cloth shortages dictated that new wedding gowns were made with narrow or slightly flared skirts and without trains. Veils, however, were still usual, and there was a brief fashion for bridesmaids to wear short veils.

As more men joined the armed services, military uniform became the accepted mode of wedding attire for bridegrooms (fig.s 11 & 12), as it had been during the First World War: as more women entered the services, bride and groom might even both marry in uniform. Civilian brides and their families did not always have the resources for a white wedding during the war, or the time to organise one: as a result many wartime brides were married in a smart utility-style suit or dress, a floral spray, glamorous hairstyle and a stylish hat being the only concessions to the occasion (fig.12).

Victoria & Albert Museum wedding database and forthcoming exhibition
Finally, a mention of the Victoria & Albert Museum database of wedding photographs is a must. This resource can be found at www.vam.ac.uk/things-to-do/wedding-fashion/home. Covering firmly-dated wedding photographs from all cultures, dating from the mid-19th century up until the present day, this visual sequence aims to help researchers date any unidentified wedding pictures. Visitors to the site are also invited to upload their own dated family wedding photographs – so the online collection is constantly growing. This project precedes a forthcoming exhibition of Wedding Dresses at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, scheduled for 2013.

Photos and captions - click to enlarge

Fig.1, c.1864-6 This is typical of many ordinary Victorian wedding photographs, showing the newly-weds in a standard studio setting, with no clue as to the occasion. They wear smart daywear, the bride’s fashionable silk gown dateable to the mid-1860s (Jon Easter)

Fig.2 Only wealthy mid-Victorian families could afford special bridal wear and all the trappings of a formal ‘white’ wedding. This bride was the daughter of a successful civil engineer but is hard to spot in this scene as her bridesmaids also wear veils and carry posy bouquets (Private Collection)

Fig.3 This modest photograph, which could easily go unrecognised as a wedding picture, portrays a butcher and a cotton weaver just after their marriage in Clitheroe. The bride’s fashionable dress of chocolate brown silk has been kept by the family (Susan Hargreaves)

Fig.4 These Ontario-born farmers both came from Irish immigrant families. Theirs was a modest wedding but the bride’s outfit shows the embryonic bustle behind her skirt and she follows the evolving trend towards white bridal accessories (John Jackson)

Fig.5 Outdoor group photographs became more common from the 1890s and show real settings, this location probably the bride’s home. A carpenter’s daughter, she wears a fashionable white dress with a stylish hat and carries a bouquet. Note too the floral corsages and buttonholes (Heather Nicol)

Fig.6 Large Edwardian wedding scenes often have an air of grandeur, even if the bride and groom were ordinary working people. This bride was a cook in Bath and the groom a coachman. She wears the popular early-1900s combination of bridal veil with a fashionable coloured dress (Anne Smith)

Fig.7  This is a very modest wedding photograph for its date, a picture conveying no sense of the occasion. The groom, a dockworker at Southampton docks, wears his best lounge suit and the bride a formal coloured blouse and skirt, without any festive touches (Patrick Davison)

Fig.8  This scene, set in a Kent field, depicts the wedding of descendants of Irish agricultural labourers who worked the land. The bride’s white gown, veil, bouquet and several bridesmaids demonstrates the growing popularity of ‘white’ weddings throughout society during the 1910s (Sue Balneaves and Brenda Hodson)

Fig.9  Although outdoor photos were usual by the 1920s, some wedding parties posed in the studio. The bride, a builder and decorator’s daughter, wears a fashionable lace-edged dress, still calf-length in 1925, her veiled headdress worn typically low over her forehead. The flower girls wear distinctive wired caps (Private Collection)

Fig.10  This photograph, set in a small back garden, records the marriage of a nail-maker and his bride, a worker in a transformer factory. Her long dress reflects the 1930s vogue for bridal gowns based on evening wear, and her bouquet includes lilies, the favourite bloom of the decade (Ivan Brettle)

Fig.11  This bride worked for the Ministry of Food, Agricultural Division during WW2 and was fortunate to have a white wedding. Her dress and those of her bridesmaids feature fashionable padded shoulders, puffed sleeves and rounded collars. The groom, a radar mechanic with the Royal Air Force, wears his service uniform (Karen Wilson)

Fig.12  This wedding was organised hurriedly, the couple having only been acquainted for five months before the groom, a Canadian airman, was ordered back home. The bride wears a fashionable civilian outfit - a pale blue utility-style crepe de chine dress, a beaver fur coat (a gift, for the Canadian winter) and a jaunty hat (Jayne Shrimpton)

Recommended reading Marriage A la Mode: Three Centuries of Wedding Dress, Shelley Tobin et al (The National Trust, 2003)
Wedding Fashions, 1860-1940, Avril Lansdell (Shire Publications, 1983)
How to Get the Most from Family Pictures, Jayne Shrimpton (Society of Genealogists, 2011) [Contains a chapter on wedding photographs and bridal wear]

Welcome to the sixth in our series of blogs about how to understand and interpret your old family photos. In this series, Jayne Shrimpton, internationally recognised dress historian, portrait specialist, photo detective and regular contributor to Family Tree, Your Family History and Family History Monthly magazines, dates and analyses different types of photographs and helps you to add context to your old family pictures.

Once family photographs have been assigned a useful timeframe using the dating techniques covered in previous blogs, it’s good to try to interpret and make sense of them. Consider why each photo may have been taken and how it reflected the person’s or family’s life. When photography became a new portrait medium in the 1840s, professional photographers embraced the same themes that had long been captured in original artworks, also extending their repertoire over time.

Photographic opportunities were, of course, limited to the natural range of human experience. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, however, many rites of passage, personal successes and family occasions inspired our forebears to visit the photographer for a commemorative portrait - christenings, birthdays, breechings, coming of age, career achievements, engagements, weddings, anniversaries, retirements and even death.

It was not necessary – or usual – for a photographer to be present at the actual event; rather, subjects visited their local studio on the day, or soon after the occasion, dressed in their best or most appropriate clothing. The resulting images may have been removed from reality, but they had an important function for they symbolised the significance of the occasion within the family.

Besides triggering memories for many years to come, special pictures shown to relatives and friends enhanced the family’s reputation, demonstrating visibly their good fortune, respectability and status, also testifying to their correct observance of social ritual. The surviving photographs that represent the traditions and celebrations marked by earlier generations offer today’s researchers a rich pictorial record of ancestors’ and more recent relatives’ journey through life.

Identifying occasions in photographs

Recognising that the formal studio portraits of previous eras were often inspired by important events certainly adds another dimension to today’s family photographic archives. Their original purpose can initially be hard to discern from the standard images of forebears posing in a conventional studio setting, but there may be identifying visual clues that can help. Some traditions, for example, entailed the wearing of special clothing or materials, such as mourning dress - unfamiliar to us today, but the details of which are generally identifiable in photographs.

During the later 19th and early 20th centuries, men might wear a white tie or bow tie for a photograph marking a significant occasion, while decorative floral devices were often used when subjects were celebrating a special event, such as coming of age, birthday, engagement - or even a wedding, in the days before special bridal wear was customary. Some photographs offer no obvious evidence of their circumstances, but if the family member’s identity is already known or suspected and his or her dates recorded, accurate dating of the portrait may suggest a special birthday or anniversary around that time. Conversely, recognising the likely occasion behind a photograph can often help with closer dating, or even identification of an unnamed face.

By the 20th century, especially after WWI, personal and family events were increasingly recorded in amateur snapshots – a topic to be covered in a later blog. A professional photograph, however, was still considered superior and was often preferred for important commemorative portraits. Below is a brief introduction to the various social customs and family occasions that were observed and documented in formal studio photographs and suggestions as to how they may be recognised. For a more detailed explanation and further visual examples, please refer to the books listed at the end.

Christening

One of the most important events experienced by families is the birth of a new baby and in the past this was a regular occurrence in many households, babies usually being christened or baptised when only a few weeks or months old. Given the frequency of family christenings and baptisms among earlier generations, fewer Victorian and Edwardian photographs recording these events survive than might be expected. This is possibly because tiny babies were notoriously difficult to photograph and probably also because many ordinary families simply could not afford a professional photograph every time a new baby arrived.

Christening photographs are distinguishable from other pictures of babies by the very young appearance of the baby and, especially, by his or her clothing. Special christening gowns were usually white by the Victorian period, symbolising purity and innocence and these garments continued into the 20th century. Christening gowns were very long, covering the baby’s feet by several inches, even feet, and were often ornamented with flounces, lace or broderie anglaise (fig.1) An alternative form of christening wear by the later 19th century was the porte-bébé, a sac or pocket-like arrangement comprising a coverlet attached to a pillow on three sides, inside which the baby could rest comfortably (fig.2)

Birthday

Some photographers encouraged the photographing of children as this was potentially a lucrative line of work. Affluent parents might visit the studio every year around the time of a son or daughter’s birthday, to record their growth and development (fig.3).

For ordinary working families, commemorating a child’s birthday in a photograph might be a rare event, or sometimes the birthday portrait was deferred altogether until the more auspicious birthday 21st birthday when a son or daughter officially became an adult (fig.4). Many formal studio photographs must represent 21st birthday celebrations, although the occasion is not always immediately obvious to us today. A young adult may simply be wearing elaborate or fashionable clothing, although a young man may sport a buttonhole, while a young woman might wear a floral corsage on her bodice or hold a posy or basket of flowers. He or she might also be wearing an item of jewellery such as a brooch or tie pin that was a special 21st birthday gift: these heirlooms have sometimes survived within the family (fig.4).

Older ancestors and relatives also celebrated birthdays in the past, as now, and it was quite common for the elderly to commemorate landmark birthdays with a professional photograph demonstrating their good health and longevity. Sometimes the occasion of such portraits has been recorded, or remembered within the family (fig.5), but otherwise we have to judge whether a well-dressed mature ancestor or relative in a single portrait may have been celebrating a special birthday.

Breeching

After christening and early birthdays, the next important event in a little boy’s life was his ‘breeching’ – a rite of passage no longer recognised in western society. Breeching is a family and social ritual that historically marked a son’s transition from infancy into boyhood. Small children of both sexes wore baby dresses in the 19th and early 20th centuries but at some point between the age of three and six - usually at four or five - boys left behind their androgynous baby robes and were ceremoniously dressed in their first pair of short trousers, the occasion often being recorded in a photograph.

Surviving breeching portraits are often annotated on the back with the date and name and age of the boy, as in fig.6. Even if not, however, they may usually be identified from the subject’s appearance: a young boy of relevant age, posing usually alone or sometimes with a sibling celebrating a birthday at around the same time.

Breeching photographs typically show the young son proudly wearing his new set of ‘grown up’ clothes – a jacket and knickerbockers made in the style fashionable for young boys at the time. In the 1860s, for example, a boy might wear the new zouave ensemble (see previous blog) for his breeching portrait, whereas by the later 1870s and 1880s a more conventional miniature lounge suit was popular (fig.6)

School, college and work

Some families are lucky in possessing old school photographs of relatives or ancestors, either taken at their local elementary (primary) school or secondary school, or perhaps at a private educational establishment. Apart from the early photographs set in elite schools, such as Harrow, in the mid-19th century, most school photographs in today’s family collections date from the 1880s onwards. The main trend for school photographs followed the 1870 Elementary Education Act, which led to larger numbers of children from ordinary backgrounds attending school, and also technical advances in photography that greatly facilitated work away from the studio.

From the 19th century until WWII, school children were usually photographed in their class groups, or sometimes two classes grouped together, the children positioned so that each small face was visible. Typically in early school photographs the children are lined up outside, in the playground, the group flanked on one side by the head teacher, and on the other by their class teacher (fig.7). Views taken inside the schoolroom became increasingly popular during the 20th century.

Some studio photographs of youthful ancestors and relatives may celebrate academic attendance and achievement, for example, a portrait of a ‘teenager’ proudly holding an educational award or a school leaving certificate. Young people might otherwise have been photographed to mark further stages of education, such as entry into university, attendance at technical college or embarkation on a special training course (fig.8). Commencement of a new career, promotion, or a notable success at work might also prompt a visit to the studio. Where special occupational dress or uniform was required, this was modelled in the photograph.

Female coming of age

For girls, there was no equivalent of young boys’ breeching, but as they grew older their dress altered: hemlines steadily lengthened from knee, to calf, to ankle and clothing became progressively more ‘grown up’ in its style and construction.

Finally somewhere between the age of 15 and 18 - usually at 16 or 17 – a girl came ‘of age.’ This important rite of passage was symbolised by the adoption of full adult dress – a firmly fitted corset, floor length skirts and the putting up of long hair into a neat bun or chignon. In many families the occasion was marked by a special photograph, as seen in fig.9.

Engagement and betrothal

Becoming engaged or betrothed was an important episode in young people’s lives, the length of the engagement depending upon family circumstances and other factors, such as the age of the participants. In many families, the engagement period seems to have been brief and was swiftly followed by marriage, although more formal or leisurely engagements typically lasted between about six months and two years.

A couple might sometimes be photographed together in the studio to mark their betrothal, although in many cases it was apparently the young lady who was most keen to demonstrate her new status in a portrait, a copy of which was often given as a token to her fiancé. A formal engagement usually entailed the presentation of a ring from the prospective bridegroom to his intended. The ring was highly symbolic, a clear sign of the engaged or betrothed state, and accordingly in female engagement photographs the lady is generally carefully positioned so as to prominently display her ring on the third finger of her left hand (fig.10).

Marriage

Marriages are always very special family occasions and visual images depicting or symbolising weddings have existed since the earliest days of portraiture. All family historians possess wedding photographs among their collections. Some may be of 19th century date, although those relating to ordinary Victorian ancestors often go unidentified because the visual clues that we tend to associate with weddings – special white bridal wear, flowers and bridesmaids – are generally absent (fig.11). By the 20th century, many more weddings were elaborate ‘white weddings’, their visual details more recognisable to the modern eye. Because marriages are such significant events and wedding photographs are so numerous and varied, the next blog will look closely at this aspect of family photographs.

Wedding anniversary

The celebration of wedding anniversaries is traceable at least as far back as the Middle Ages and for centuries milestone 25th (silver) and 50th (golden) wedding anniversaries remained important events. Later, during the 19th century, the ritual and celebration surrounding the ‘anniversary wedding’ were redefined and popularised and it was probably the Victorian predilection for classifying and categorising that inspired the ‘traditional’ listing of prescribed gifts for specific anniversaries. In 1875, for example, the first known reference to a 5th wedding anniversary appeared, which was symbolised by wood. Published and online sources suggest that by the early 20th century, around nine principal wedding anniversaries were officially recognised: 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th, 50th, 60th and 75th. Photographic evidence supports a growing trend for the celebration of ever more anniversaries, which may in some families have included all five and 10-year anniversaries.

Many family photograph collections include wedding anniversary photographs. Some images show the couple depicted on their own, or even in separate, paired photographs, while in others they are surrounded by their family. By the late 19th century, when larger group photographs had become common, parents, children (and grandchildren where relevant) often gathered in the studio to celebrate a landmark anniversary, the anniversary couple prominently positioned in the group (fig.12).

Mourning

Families in the past were generally much bigger and the average life expectancy was lower than today, therefore most of our ancestors mourned the passing of loved ones of all ages on many occasions during their lifetimes. Extravagant mourning customs date back centuries in Europe but, like many social rituals, public mourning became more pronounced and widespread throughout society during the 19th century.

The observance of lengthy mourning following the death of a relative or a major public figure was at its height from around mid-century until the 1890s, declining slightly by the century’s close. Formal mourning continued to be observed in some families well into the Edwardian era and throughout WWI, although by then the strictest ‘rules’ governing mourning had relaxed considerably. For 50 or more years, however, the importance of visibly mourning the deceased was entrenched in the lives of many of our forebears.

The relationship of the mourner to the deceased determined the nature and length of mourning, the recommendations published in etiquette manuals, handbooks and magazines becoming more numerous and complex and the mourning periods longer over time. Special mourning dress – garments and accessories - was an important element of public mourning, as was a formal photograph representing the bereaved decked out in suitable attire.

Many researchers will discover mourning photographs in their collections, whether single or double portraits or larger family groups, since mourning affected men, women and children alike. Female portraits are most common, however, as women carried the heaviest burden, especially widows who were officially supposed to mourn their husbands for two and a half years. For more information about widows’ dress and mourning dress in general, see Lou Taylor’s book, listed below.

Mourning dress basically followed current fashions, so mourning photographs can be dated from the style of garments and hairstyles in much the same way as other family photographs (see previous blog). Pinpointing the occasion relies upon recognising the subtler clothing details that signified mourning – sartorial features only associated with death and bereavement that may be quite apparent in some photographs, more difficult to identify in others.

Mourning garments were essentially black and since, theoretically, materials were not supposed to shine or gleam, silks were mostly put aside and dull, matt black textiles were adopted (fig.13). The most obvious mourning fabric is black crape – identifiable from its distinctive textured quality: crape could cover whole garments, although in practise it was often used as dress panels and trimmings.

Mourning specifications also covered ornaments, so heavy black beads, lockets and earrings of jet or cheaper glass may be seen in mourning photographs instead of the usual gold or gemstone jewellery. Further indications of female mourning, besides black garments, may include a special headdress, perhaps a black hat and veil, a modest black bonnet tied under the chin or a cap featuring crape or dull black fabric ‘falls’ – the trailing streamers sometimes worn by widows (fig.14)

Male mourning was less complex and by the Victorian era was usually expressed by a black suit worn with a black tie (fig.13). Sometimes, however, the watch chain might be fashioned from a dull black metal instead of gold, or a black armband may be present. Children were also put into mourning dress if, for example, they had lost a parent or sibling. Where a child wears black in a photograph this may well indicate mourning as usually children were not dressed in this colour, while infants might wear white garments with black trimmings (fig.13).

Recommended reading

Fashion in Photographs, 1860-1880, Miles Lambert (Batsford, 1991)
Fashion in Photographs, 1880-1900, Sarah Levitt (Batsford, 1991)
Fashion in Photographs, 1900-1920, Katrina Rolley (Batsford, 1992)
Victorian and Edwardian Fashion: A Photographic Survey, Alison Gernsheim (Dover Publications, 1963)
The Victorians: Photographic Portraits, Audrey Linkman (Tauris Parke, 1993)
Mourning Dress, Lou Taylor (George Allan & Unwin, 1983)
Family Photographs and How to Date Them, Jayne Shrimpton (Countryside Books, 2008)
How to Get the Most from Family Photographs, Jayne Shrimpton (Society of Genealogists, 2011)

Welcome to the fifth in our series of blogs about how to understand and interpret your old family photos. In this series, Jayne Shrimpton, internationally recognised dress historian, portrait specialist, photo detective and regular contributor to Family Tree, Your Family History and Family History Monthly magazines, dates and analyses different types of photographs and helps you to add context to your old family pictures.

Having learned in the previous blog how photograph compositions and studio settings changed over the years, we now look closely at what our forebears are wearing in old photographs. In any kind of portrait it is often the subject’s clothing that engages us most: fashion history is a fascinating topic and recognising the modes of different eras is an invaluable tool when trying to date unlabelled photographs. Dress is a vast and complex subject, but here are some pointers to help with understanding, identifying and dating the clothing styles of those family members from the past who stood before the camera in their ‘Sunday best’.

Fashion in photographs

It was understood that clients visiting the photographer’s studio (or, less commonly, those inviting a photographer to their home) would be dressed in their best quality, most fashionable clothing. Wealthy subjects had many fashionable ensembles to choose from, whereas ordinary working-class ancestors usually donned their best outfit, kept for church on Sundays and special occasions.

Everyone wished to create a good impression in the treasured photographs that would later be shown to family and friends and might be displayed in an album, or hung on the wall. Family historians often wonder whether their poorer forebears would have been able to dress very fashionably. This is a good question but photographic evidence suggests that in many cases even humbler working ancestors followed the latest styles.

By the time photography reached a mass market in the 1860s, the concept of fashion was already well-established and was widely understood across the social spectrum. Information about new trends was plentiful and old garments were often re-styled to bring them up to date. A wide array of materials of varying textures and prices was available to suit different pockets and needs. It was, therefore, the quality of fabric and extravagance of trimmings that distinguished the dress of the affluent from that of the poorer classes – not in general its basic cut or shape. A domestic servant, for example, could appear superficially similar to her more affluent mistress.

Of course, there were exceptions to this general principle. Like today, some of our forebears were more interested in their personal appearance than others, spending proportionately more of their income on new clothes and accessories. Age was especially significant when it came to dress. Many young adults followed fashion closely, while the more mature might wear a modest, toned-down version of the most extreme styles and the elderly generally dressed much more conservatively than the youth of their day.

Occasionally certain regional differences are apparent in 19th century photographs, for example, in the case of Welsh, Scottish and Irish ancestors. There may also have been a time lag of a few years between new fashions first being worn in urban areas and their adoption in remoter country districts. Ideally we should consider all these criteria when considering the clothing of family members as seen in old photographs. For dating purposes, however, we can broadly assume that (unless they are wearing an occupational uniform or other specialised forms of dress) their ‘Sunday best’ garments largely followed, to a recognisable extent, the prevailing style of the era.

Photographs were ultimately designed to show off good taste and a pleasing appearance. Sadly, those unwaged or destitute family members who were so impoverished as to own only old-fashioned, ill-fitting or ragged clothing were unlikely to have had their photograph taken very often, if at all.

Dating dress

Dress historians and others with a keen eye for detail can accurately pinpoint 19th and early 20th century women’s dress to within five or 10 years, by recognising the different components of a particular ‘look’ - garments, jewellery, accessories and hairstyles – and knowing when it was in vogue.

The succession of distinctive, dateable styles that characterised female dress centred on a changing silhouette formed by the corsets, crinolines, bustles and other under structures worn beneath clothing, along with the complimentary sleeve shapes, dress trimmings and hairstyles of each period.

Men’s attire, on the other hand, is often only dateable to about a decade or thereabouts, as male modes reflected more subtle shifts in tailoring and slow-changing features such as styles of neckwear and fashions in facial hair, as well as the occasional appearance of new garments.

Children’s dress, which echoed adult clothing to a degree, but also followed its own conventions, may also be harder to pinpoint very precisely. That said, it should always be possible to gain a reasonable date range for a photograph, based on the appearance of its subject’s clothing, especially when this technique is combined with the other photo dating methods already covered in previous blogs. Essentially here we are aiming to use fashion clues cautiously but positively – to establish a realistic time frame for an undated and/or unidentified image that will help to rule in, or out, certain branches and individual members of the family.

In the following sections are some basic, practical tips for recognising the main stylistic changes in female, male and children’s dress, with illustrated examples. For more detailed advice and to see further dated images for comparison, it is worth checking back over some of the photographs used to illustrate previous blogs in this series and also consulting some of the books listed in further reading.

Women’s dress

1840s-1890s

Between the 1840s and late 1860s, essentially the fashionable female silhouette comprised a fitted bodice attached to a bell-shaped skirt, which became even wider in circumference after the introduction of the domed crinoline frame in 1856 (fig.3).

Throughout the later 1860s, the front of the skirt became progressively flatter, with the emphasis growing increasingly on the back. By 1869/70 the material behind was being draped up over a projecting bustle – a pad worn under the clothes behind the waist – and garments were often layered and flounced to accentuate the full, bouncy effect (fig.6).

The distinctive bustle silhouette prevailed until around 1875, when it began to become outmoded. The new, elongated cuirass bodice effectively forced the bustle downwards and in the late 1870s the excess drapery fell into a long train behind (fig.7).

In around 1880, the train was abandoned for day wear and outfits of the early 1880s were narrow and sheath-like: long, tight-fitting bodices formed an unbroken line over the hips, while shoe-length skirts were wrapped closely around the legs (fig.8).

In around 1884 the bustle returned, this time a more severe and extreme version that often projected sharply like a shelf behind the waist, remaining in vogue until around 1889/90 (fig.9).

By the 1890s, naturally-shaped skirts were fitting closely over the hips, the main dating feature of this decade being the bodice or blouse sleeve. In 1890/91 a vertical puff appeared at the sleeve head (fig.10) and this gradually expanded in the upper arm to form the distinctive ‘leg-o’-mutton’ or gigot sleeve. At its widest in 1895 and 1896, the puff gradually withdrew back up the arm during the later 1890s (fig.11), resulting in a tight puffball shape or shoulder frill by the end of the decade.

1900s-1930s

Female fashion of the early 1900s favoured an hourglass silhouette – a small waist and skirt that fitted the hips smoothly, flaring out towards a sweeping hemline. Blouses and bodices for formal wear could be very feminine: often decorated with tucks, ruches and lace panels, they were made full in front to emphasise the bust (fig.12).

Plainer, shirt-like blouses were becoming usual for everyday wear, the ‘tailor made’ suit comprising fitted jacket and matching skirt providing a practical outfit for the modern woman of the new century. During the 1910s – the decade now regarded as heralding the start of modern fashion – a more natural line evolved. Slender one-piece or tunic-style layered dresses were worn for ‘best’ but for ordinary day wear a calf-length skirt and blouse were usual: after 1910 the high choker-like Edwardian neckline began to lower and by around 1914 an open blouse neckline with a collar was common (fig.13).

Briefly, between around 1918 and 1920, a slightly high-waisted barrel-shape defined fashionable dress and during the early 1920s styles were typically rather straight and shapeless, dress and skirt hemlines still worn around mid-calf level (fig.14).

In 1926 a dramatic change occurred and fashionable skirts rose to just below or on the knee, these shorter hemlines remaining in vogue until at least 1930 and offering a firm dating guide. In the early 1930s hems lengthened to the calf again, becoming fuller and more feminine, fluid, draped fabrics creating the soft, clinging styles that were fashionable for much of this decade.

By around 1936/7, daytime hemlines were starting to rise again, shoulders were becoming padded and a neat, sharp style was emerging - the forerunner of the military-inspired utility look associated with the Second World War.

Men’s dress

1840s-1890s

In early photographs of the 1840s and 1850s, men are usually portrayed wearing the dark, knee-length frock coat of the mid-19th century, teamed with a close-fitting, deep V-fronted waistcoat and narrow trousers (fig.1). During the 1860s, several new male garments were introduced, most notably the comfortable lounging jacket that was shorter than the stately frock coat and often worn with loose, contrasting trousers (fig.2).

Over time this combination evolved into the lounge suit – an outfit that became acceptable for all but the most formal occasions and was soon the ‘Sunday best’ dress of working class men. By the 1870s, usually all three pieces of the lounge suit matched and early in the decade the lapels of the lounge jacket were usually made quite wide (fig.5).

During the later 1870s and 1880s the male suit was tailored more narrowly, the jacket developing high, neat lapels and a handkerchief often worn in the breast pocket. The conservative, dignified frock coat was still favoured by the upper classes, but the stylish morning coat, with its distinctive sloping front edges, was popular with the business classes and for semi-formal wear, often worn with narrow pin-striped trousers (fig.10).

1900s-1930s

By the turn of the century, a greater variety of male garments may possibly appear in photographs, including some items of sportswear and the casual blazer, popular for weekends and leisure activities.

The most common outfit seen in studio photographs, however, is still the familiar three-piece lounge suit, which remained the regular respectable outfit for ordinary working men and did not change significantly for the first 20 years or so of the 20th century.

The typical lounge suit of the Edwardian era was slender or easy in cut, the lounge jacket made to around hip length and usually featuring neat lapels (fig.12). During the 1910s and 1920s, the jacket lapels were often longer, while trousers sometimes show a centre front crease and may have turn-ups (fig.13).

During this decade and for most of the 1920s, trousers often appear very short and decidedly narrow around the ankle, exposing either old-fashioned laced boots or the more modern, lower cut shoes. Men’s styles of the 1930s are generally very easy to spot as the suit was cut much wider, the boxy lounge jacket - either single- or double-breasted - having broad padded shoulders and trousers being worn longer and looser in the leg.

Girls’ dress

1840s-1880s

Between the 1840s and 1860s, young girls’ frocks followed the shape of their mothers’ outfits, having a fitted bodice and a full skirt. Their hemlines were much shorter, however, beginning at knee-length and steadily lowering as the child grew older, until she was ready to dress like a woman at some point between the ages of 15 and 18.

The arrangement of the bodice fabric followed prevailing female fashions and sleeves were usually short and puffed, perhaps trimmed with ribbons or frills (fig.4). During the early 1870s, young girls did not wear the fashionable bustle but skirts were often layered and flounced, polonaise-style, echoing the appearance of adult modes. In around 1880 female children began to wear narrower dresses, again mirroring wider fashion trends, their clothing ornamented with high frilled necklines and fashionable ruches and pleats and the sleeves invariably long.

Another helpful dating feature of the 1880s was the brief vogue for bobbed hair, worn with a short fringe – a style that drifted over into the early 1890s, before long hair became fashionable again (fig.10).

1890s-1930s

During the 1890s the popular smock dress was introduced, the fullness of the fabric falling freely from a fitted chest panel or yoke (fig.11). This loose dress style with wide puffed sleeves, sometimes worn with a protective pinafore on top, continued throughout the Edwardian era and into the 1910s, but the growing trend was for greater simplicity in girls’ dress, following the lead of women’s wear.

By around the WWI era, many girls were wearing plainer dresses that ended above the knee (often showing long knickers underneath!), were fitted at the waist and had three-quarter length sleeves. By the 1920s very short, shift-like dresses were all the rage for young girls, these simple styles continuing into the early 1930s, although embroidered or smocked blouses and skirts were also becoming popular.

A new trend was also developing for more elaborate party-style dresses with puffed sleeves, influenced by child film star Shirley Temple and the royal princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret.

Boys’ dress

1840s-1890s

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, male infants were dressed in petticoats and frocks like tiny girls, so it is usually difficult to tell them apart in photographs. At around the age of four, boys were ‘breeched’ and donned their first bifurcated garments – a pair of trousers or ‘shorts’. In early photographs of the 1840s and 1850s, they usually wear a long tunic top or full-skirted dress, over wide ankle-length or shorter trousers.

By the 1860s the picturesque ‘zouave’ ensemble was popular – a compact little suit comprising a short bolero-style jacket with rounded edges, waistcoat beneath and either gathered knickerbockers or open shorts ending below the knee (fig.4). Variations on the knickerbockers suit continued throughout the later 19th century, some rather masculine versions made just like a miniature man’s three-piece lounge suit.

Fanciful costumes also developed for small boys, such as the ‘historical’ velvet suit with lace or frilled collar and the more functional sailor’s suit, which remained very popular between the 1880s and 1910s. By the 1890s, the ‘Norfolk’ suit was also a fashionable choice, its distinctive jacket characterised by a cloth belt and stitched down vertical pleats. This style and plain jacket and knickerbockers suits with starched white ‘Eton’ collars were common for school and formal wear (fig.11).

1900s-1930s

By the end of the 1890s early signs of a more ‘uniform’ look for older schoolboys were emerging, complete with round peaked cap in the school’s colours (fig.11), and during the early 1900s and 1910s a regulation uniform gradually became established for many high schools. This led to the archetypal schoolboy look of the interwar period and beyond, many boys wearing their blazers and grey flannel shorts out of school too.

Early 20th century developments otherwise centred upon growing informality and practicality in boys’ dress. Tiny boys often wore loose blouse-like tops or tunics and open shorts, around the turn of the century (fig.11) and by the 1910s there was a pronounced interest in stretchy knitted fabric for comfortable play clothes for boys.

By the 1920s, the plain knitted jersey with a collar - and sometimes a long knitted tie attached - was widely worn by younger boys. Later, in the 1930s and 1940s, hand-knitted Fair Isle and other patterned knitwear was popular for jerseys and sleeveless vests.

Further reading

Fashion in Photographs, 1860-1880, Miles Lambert (1991)
Fashion in Photographs, 1880-1900, Sarah Levitt (1991)
Fashion in Photographs, 1900-1920, Katrina Rolley (1992)
Fashion in Photographs, 1920-1940, Elizabeth Owen (1993)
Victorian and Edwardian Fashion: A Photographic Survey, Alison Gernsheim (Dover Publications, 1963)
Everyday Fashions of the 20th Century, Avril Lansdell (Shire Publications, 1999)
Family Photographs and How to Date Them, Jayne Shrimpton (Countryside Books, 2008)
How to Get the Most from Family Photographs, Jayne Shrimpton (Society of Genealogists, 2011)

Welcome to the fourth in our series of blogs about how to understand and interpret your old family photos. In this series, Jayne Shrimpton, internationally recognised dress historian, portrait specialist, photo detective and regular contributor to Family Tree, Your Family History and Family History Monthly magazines, dates and analyses different types of photographs and helps you to add context to your old family pictures.

Moving on from looking at photographic formats, photographers and mount styles, we now begin to focus on the visual image which is, after all, the most interesting aspect of any family photograph. Dating and analysing a photographic image means recognising certain pictorial features and placing them within an accurate historical context. Most Victorian and Edwardian photographs, and later professional portraits, were taken in a commercial studio and in this blog we look at how their compositions and studio settings can offer helpful dating clues.

The photographer’s studio

Professional photographs of 19th and early 20th century family members usually portray their subjects not in a real-life environment but in a studio setting carefully contrived by the photographer. Rather like a theatrical stage, these sometimes involved a painted backdrop and contained various ‘props’ which aimed to create a three-dimensional effect and enhance the scene. Drapes, furniture, painted architectural forms and moveable indoor accessories suggested a drawing room interior, while artificial rustic features conveyed the impression of an outdoor location. Additional accessories kept by the studio reinforced the genteel and attractive effect: quality toys such as dolls, spinning tops, drums and tambourines were kept for small children to clutch, while adults often held a book, implying literacy when not everyone could read.

Personal items could certainly be brought along from home for photograph sittings but were usually only included if they carried positive associations and improved the appearance of the picture. The photographer took full control of the client, advising on facial expression and arranging head, body and limbs into a pleasing pose. The photographic conventions that prevailed at any given time - ideas about subject composition and shifting tastes in backdrops, styles of furniture and other props - are the pictorial features that can help with dating the visual image.

Compositions and settings: 1840s-1860s

In 1840s and 1850s photographs - daguerreotypes and ambrotypes - subjects are typically depicted close-up, in long half-length or three-quarter length, often seated at a cloth-covered table (fig.1). Photographs survive in far greater numbers for the 1860s, the decade that saw the rise of the carte de visite, and for most early cdvs a completely different composition and more extensive room setting was used. Single figures are usually posed, doll-like, full-length in a mock drawing-room interior, showing floor, decorative wainscot and generally with a draped curtain to one side: younger people often stand, with elbow or hand resting on a strategically-placed piece of furniture such as a chair or table (fig.2), while elderly sitters, still full-length, are generally seated.

Groups of two or more people always appear full-length (or almost full-length) in such photographs, as the camera had to move back to include everyone in the frame (fig.3). Solid architectural devices - plinths and pedestals, classical columns, urns and staircases - also crop up in studio sets of the 1860s and early 1870s, while a painted backdrop may also be present, commonly a painted window, doorway or arch offering a glimpse of an ‘outdoor’ landscape beyond (fig.3).

Compositions and settings: 1870s and 1880s

The convention for whole-length single figures in a spacious room setting drifted over into the early 1870s and recurred periodically throughout the decade, particularly, it seems, in the case of female subjects, who perhaps wished to show off their complete outfit to best advantage! The main trend during the 1870s and 1880s, however, was for the camera to move in toward the subject again, taking closer half- or three-quarter length views in which the client’s feet and lower legs are absent from the picture. They may be posed either standing or sitting, perhaps at a table; either way, often a chair is present and there is a pronounced tendency for the subject to lean in a relaxed-looking manner with elbow across the chair back (fig.s 4 and 5). Sometimes he or she holds a book or letter (fig.5) or another personal accessory, such as a fashionable fan, to add interest to the image.

Since little of the room is seen in the frame of these close-up photographs, the furniture close to the subject is more prominent and can also help to some extent with dating. Velvet padded chairs with a rolled back, or other substantial seats upholstered in fabric or leather, often ornamented with tassels, fringing or pom poms, for example, were fashionable in the 1870s (fig.4), while by the 1880s use was sometimes made of throws and draped materials (fig.5). In general, 1880s photographs present a more varied array of scenes than previously, studio sets being more evident in group photographs in which smaller figures pose in spacious surroundings. In particular a new vogue for more naturalistic ‘outdoor’ settings developed for which backdrops were painted to emulate rural or wooded locations, while subject(s) posed against rustic fences, gates and pergolas, amongst artificial grass and foliage (fig.6).

Seaside photographers often created marine-inspired studio sets, such as imitation rocks or a boat positioned on the beach, or an entire ‘deck’ of a ship, complete with ropes, mastheads and rigging, in front of a painted seascape. Interior settings also remained fashionable during this decade: painted backdrops often depict rather grandiose, elaborate furniture, in keeping with ornate late-Victorian taste, while specific props first introduced in the early 1880s include the shaggy rug (fig.7) - to be used often from then on (fig.10).

Compositions and settings: 1890s and early 1900s

The indoor and outdoor themes and features of the 1880s continued throughout the 1890s and into the early 1900s, when single subjects were posed either in a three-quarter length or full-length composition. Potted plants often crop up in interior room sets of this period, reflecting new trends in home décor: in fact few indoor scenes of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras are without a genuine fern, palm, aspidistra or floral arrangement in a pot on a plant stand, or in a bowl on the table - props seen especially in female and mixed portraits (fig.9).

Other contemporary features include ornate wicker or cane furniture in the new art nouveau style, perhaps posed incongruously against the familiar baronial painted backdrop (fig.9), or the ‘outdoor’ setting, often displaying weathered-looking masonry. A different, yet very popular composition - first used significantly in the late 1880s, but associated mainly with the 1890s - was the head and shoulders oval vignette (fig.8). There is no mistaking these close-up images in which the central portrait fades away around the edges into a blank background; they occur in many photo collections spanning the late 1880s to early 1900s. Conversely, extended family group photographs also became increasingly popular during the 1890s and early 1900s - scenes that may show many ancestors and several generations crammed together in the studio (fig.10).

Compositions and settings: 1910s - 1940s

As the 1900s advanced and during the early 1910s, painted studio backgrounds were often cloudy and indistinct, vaguely suggesting shrubbery and leafy glades, while in the foreground clients might pose by realistic-looking stone plinths, pedestals and balustrades (fig.11). Studio room sets of the 1910s usually appear plainer than during the Victorian and Edwardian eras, reflecting more modern tastes: typically photographs of this decade show blank-walled or wood-panelled rooms, often featuring painted bookshelves and/or curtained, small-paned windows and simpler furniture including long bench seats and wooden chairs of modern or traditional design (fig.12).

Hazy backdrops continue into the 1920s, with substantial groups of people still being photographed in full length. Remember that by now, amateur photography was becoming increasingly popular and fewer people were visiting the commercial photography studio, although the professional portrait was still considered a superior product. Accordingly, the distinguishing trend with studio photographs of small groups and with single portraits, from the post-WWI period onwards, is for clear head and shoulders shots focusing on the head and upper body, with close attention paid to camera angle and lighting. This vogue continued throughout the 1920s (fig.13), 1930s (fig.14) and 1940s, providing intimate, high quality visual records of our more recent ancestors and relatives.

Further reading

Audrey Linkman, The Victorians: Photographic Portraits (Tauris Parke, 1993)

Jayne Shrimpton, How to get the most from Family Pictures (Society of Genealogists, 2011)

Tom Phillips, We Are the People: Postcards from the Collection of Tom Phillips (National Portrait Gallery, 2004)

Look out for the fifth blog in this series, coming soon. View Jayne’s website here

Welcome to the third in our series of blogs about how to understand and interpret your old family photos. In this series, Jayne Shrimpton, internationally recognised dress historian, portrait specialist, photo detective and regular contributor to Family Tree, Your Family History and Family History Monthly magazines, dates and analyses different types of photographs and helps you to add context to your old family pictures.

The previous two blogs have focused on how to identify photographic formats and how to discover the photographer’s operational dates. These techniques both offer the potential for broadly or, sometimes, fairly closely dating a family photograph. Another effective method of determining the circa date of an unidentified card mounted studio photograph is recognising the style of the mount.

The main card formats of the Victorian and Edwardian eras - the carte de visite and larger cabinet print - were in use for several decades, but their physical characteristics, especially their shape, colour and reverse design, changed significantly over time, providing helpful clues as to approximately when they were produced. Some photographers may occasionally have used slightly old-fashioned mounts but usually they updated their stocks regularly, so the style of a card mount generally offers an accurate dating guide. Looking closely at the mount can be especially helpful if the photographer in question was in business for a long time, as he or she would have used a succession of different mounts over the years.

Card thickness and corner shapes

The earliest cartes de visite always have square corners and the card is usually quite thin and flexible, bending easily, like a playing card. The square-cornered shape prevailed from the beginning of the 1860s until the late 1870s. Around this time rounded corners began to be used, although they were uncommon before the early 1880s. Cartes de visite and larger cabinet prints dating from the 1880s until the early 1900s usually have rounded corners, although square corners did appear periodically, so a square-cornered photograph could occasionally date from these years.

The card used by the late 19th century was generally much thicker and sturdier than that used for earlier mounts, a development that facilitated bevelled edges that were often finished in silver or gold. In the 1880s and 1890s, some cartes and cabinet prints were also protected by a flyleaf - a covering of fine protective tissue pasted along the top edge of the reverse and folded over the front of the photograph. Usually the tissue has not survived (often it was removed when the photograph was placed in an album) but signs of its earlier presence may remain on the back of the mount.

Colours

The colour of photographic mounts is a more obvious, recognisable feature than card quality. 1860s mounts are usually very pale in colour - off-white, ivory, light cream and slightly pinkish tones (fig.s 1-3). These neutral shades continued into the 1870s, although during this decade there emerged a vogue for coloured card, especially turquoise, gold-yellow and sugar pink (fig.s 4-6), the latter being used for both male and female subjects. Of these colours, pink was most popular, remaining in use throughout the 1880s and even into the very early 1890s.

Otherwise, soft colours gave way c.1884/5 to deep, strong shades such as blood-red, bottle-green, black and chocolate brown (fig.s 8 and 9). The red was only popular for around 10 years, until the mid-1890s, but the other dark colours remained fashionable until the early 1900s, especially green. In addition, strong creams, beiges and apricots were common between the 1880s and early 1900s (fig.s 7 and 10-12), while different shades of grey, from pale to dark, were very popular around the turn of the century (fig.s 13 and 14).

Reverse designs

Occasionally cartes and cabinet photographs were left blank on the back, but more often the reverse was, as we saw in my second blog, printed with the photographer’s details. The style of the lettering and any accompanying designs changed dramatically throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, broadly becoming more and more elaborate over time. Some mount designs dovetailed with others, or spanned more than one decade, and a number of different styles were popular at any given time, yet it is still possible to discern and date the main design trends.

The earliest cartes, dating from the early-mid 1860s, were printed or stamped neatly in small letters with the photographer’s name and address (and a crown or royal coat of arms, if the studio boasted royal patronage), the details usually placed in the centre of the mount, or occasionally at the top or bottom (fig.1). After the mid-1860s, the text expanded outwards from the centre, often incorporating flowing font styles, while business information concerning additional copies and or/prices was sometimes added at the bottom of the mount (fig.2).

By the late 1860s, further design features were also beginning to appear, especially representations of photography exhibition medals awarded to the studio: being dated, these provide a helpful post quem date for the mount (fig.3). By the turn of the 1860s/1870s, delicate filigree scrollwork and ribbon-like banners may also occur on mounts (fig.4), these motifs and medals all being used throughout the 1870s. Also popular during the 1870s were crests, coats of arms and shields - emblems which may be combined with the other decorative forms - while three or four different font styles were often used together, producing an increasingly eclectic and busy effect (fig.5).

By the later Victorian era, typically photographic mounts were highly elaborate, with complex lettering and expansive decoration usually filling the whole of the back of the mount. During the 1880s and 1890s, designs were very diverse, with many variations occurring. One popular style shows the studio or photographer’s name sprawled diagonally across the mount: between the 1880s and early 1890s the slanting name may be bordered by ornate filigree work and embellished with a decorated capital letter S or P (fig.6).

Another characteristic design of the 1880s/1890s is the card decorated with an elaborate outer border, the text and any other motifs contained within (fig.s 7 and 12). By this time it was also common for photographers to promote their artistic skills through use of the appellation ‘Artist’, ‘Art photographer’ or similar, expressing concern to emphasise their superior, professional status in the face of perceived competition from a new wave of amateur photographers (fig.s 7, 9 and 14).

Reinforcing the artistic theme, many mounts incorporated artists’ palettes or easels (fig.s 12 and13), while other pictures also began to appear. During the 1880s and early 1890s scenes depicting swimming or flying water birds among reeds or bamboo were popular, often accompanied by fans or parasols in the corners, expressing the contemporary vogue for Japanese imagery (fig.10). Alternatively, classically-draped female figures, cherubs and fairies may occur on some mounts of the mid-1880s through to the late-1890s (fig.s 8 and 13).

Meanwhile a printed detail noticed on some late-1880s and, especially, 1890s and early-1900s mounts is the promotion of ‘electric studios’ or ‘electric lighting’, a helpful dating feature which reflects the new, modern method of illuminating photographic studios (fig.11). By the late 1890s, mounts were losing their most exuberant decoration and those dating from the turn of century or early 1900s often appear more ‘modern’: font styles are usually plainer, typically demonstrating shaded effects, and bunches of flowers or other botanical motifs are common (fig.14).

For more information and/or further pictorial examples of mount styles see:

Books

Audrey Linkman, The Expert Guide to Dating Victorian Family Photographs (Greater Manchester County Record Office, 2000)

Jayne Shrimpton, How to get the most from Family Pictures (Society of Genealogists, 2011)

Websites/blogs

Roger Vaughan Picture Library

Watch the Birdie

Glasgow’s Victorian Photographers

Look out for the fourth blog in this series, coming soon. View Jayne’s website here

Welcome to the second in our series of blogs about how to understand and interpret your old family photos. In this series, Jayne Shrimpton, internationally recognised dress historian, portrait specialist, photo detective and regular contributor to Family Tree, Your Family History and Family History Monthly magazines, dates and analyses different types of photographs and helps you to add context to your old family pictures.

Many old family photographs taken in a professional studio bear the name and address of the photographer. This provides valuable historical information of two kinds: a helpful geographical location for the family member(s) depicted and the potential for determining a timeframe from the operational dates of the studio.

Photographer information

Early daguerreotype and ambrotype photos may have the studio name and address embossed on the case lid (see fig. 1), or on a printed label stuck to the back of the case or frame, although sadly such details are often absent from these metal and glass plates. This is also the case with tintypes - see my previous blog for more about formats.

Fortunately, however, most surviving 19th and early 20th century studio photographs are printed pictures on card mounts – cartes de visite, cabinet prints and the occasional non-standard sized photograph. These mounts provided commercial photographers with a perfect medium for identifying their work and advertising their business. Sometimes the studio name and address were printed beneath the image and, most commonly, on the reverse, which offered more space for publicising the details of one or more studios, and elaborating on the photographic services offered, for example, copies and enlargements (see fig.s 2-5).

Relatively few cdv and cabinet card mounted photographs (around 5-10%) were left blank on the reverse. These types of photographs continued into the very early 1900s; however, the new 20th century formats that were gaining popularity tended to be less explicit. In particular, portrait postcards sometimes omitted photographer information altogether, although occasionally a studio name and perhaps an address may be printed on the back (see fig. 6). Photographer details are also less prominent on other 20th century mounted photographs - often a single line printed in neat lettering at the bottom of the mount (see fig. 7).

Geographical location

When photographers identified their photographs, naturally they specified the town or city in which they operated. This important detail suggests a likely place of residence for the ancestor(s) represented in the photograph. Customers desiring a photograph usually visited a studio in their home town, or in their nearest urban centre if they lived in a rural area without a resident photographer. There may be exceptions to this general rule: for example, family members who travelled around with their job or attended a distant college or university may have visited a photographer’s studio while working or studying away from home.

Alternatively, family members may have had a souvenir photograph taken while enjoying a day trip or holiday to a popular resort. Picture researchers can’t expect to know of every journey ever taken by ancestors or relatives but have probably established where they were usually based and may have formed some idea of their usual travelling habits. Remember that, ultimately, the geographical location of a studio photograph positively confirms that the ancestor or relative depicted was, on that occasion, physically present in that geographical area. This should help to narrow down potential candidates when trying to identify ‘mystery’ photographs.

Operational dates

Photographer details may be very helpful when attempting to date an unmarked photograph because discovering the main operational dates of the named photographer at the stated address suggests the likely time period of the photograph. If a photographer is only known to have run a particular studio for one, or a few years (see fig.s 1 & 3), then logically this suggests a close date range for the image. If he or she is recorded as operating the same studio for many years (see fig. 2), however, then this can only offer a broad circa date for photographs taken at that address and a narrower timeframe will still need to be ascertained using other dating methods. These are covered in my first and forthcoming blogs.

Photographers who expanded their business and acquired additional studios generally reprinted their card mounts fairly swiftly to include details of the new branches. When two or more studio addresses are specified on a photograph, determining when any or all of those studios existed can help to narrow down a photograph’s date range (see fig. 5).

Researching photographers and studios

Researching the photographer or studio named on an old photograph may take time, or can be straightforward, depending upon whether accurate data is readily available. A substantial amount of information has been compiled about some past photographers and their operations. Institutions such as the National Portrait Gallery, London focus on the work of eminent society photographers and well-known studios.

Acclaimed portrait photographers, patronised by royalty and the middle/upper classes, may have photographed affluent and well-connected ancestors and if so, researchers will find much information in books, gallery and exhibition catalogues and photography blogs and websites. Most family historians, however, will be concerned with investigating names from the thousands of commercial photographers who operated popular high street studios up and down the country during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Some were short-lived or moved around regularly and left few traces of their activities but many established photographers were recorded on the census returns and may have advertised their businesses in local trade directories and newspapers, making it possible to track their operations over a period of time.

Sometimes it is necessary to consult original census returns and local trade publications, to establish when a particular photographer was recorded at a specific address. If using these primary sources, it is important to be aware of their limitations: census returns only show a place of residence every 10 years and, although trade directories and newspaper notices are very useful, not all photographers advertised in the local press every year, so dates of individual advertisements may not necessarily give the full story.

Local libraries and record offices may also hold details of photographers who worked in their respective areas and can be a good source of information. A few local organisations or individuals have published printed guides to past photographers in their city or county and some of the main publications are listed below.

Finding information online

As with many aspects of genealogy, the internet is a valuable tool and may well provide the quickest method of finding dates for a photographer or studio named on a photograph. A simple search will produce any online references to the individual or studio at the named location. Some links will be more useful than others but they should include any specialised photographer websites or databases on which the photographer/studio name appears – the results of research that has already been carried out and recorded for others to view freely.

At present there exists no handy complete online directory of 19th and early 20th century British photographers but several important photographer indexes and databases have been compiled by various national and regional organisations, local and family historians and independent photograph collectors and specialists. These cover the studios from a particular city or county, giving A-Z photographer listings with recorded dates of operation at each address, some entries also including additional biographical details.

Again, researchers should remember the limitations of the recorded data, which usually derives from census returns, trade directories and newspaper advertisements. Some databases and indexes don’t claim to supply complete photographer operational dates, while others helpfully cite their sources, in which cases researchers can judge their scope and reliability. Some of the main searchable online indexes currently available are listed below, while a full list for 2011 is provided in my book.

In general, they offer a very useful short cut and, although they may not indicate all the years of a particular photographer’s operation, if he or she is listed, they should provide an approximate timeframe for your photograph. Data for some areas of the country has not yet been compiled, however, so if a photographer’s details cannot be found on an existing index, or anywhere else on the internet, and primary research using original source material is not viable, researchers may wish to apply to a specialist website that offers photographer information for a small fee. Such services are also listed below.

Look out for the third blog in this series, coming soon. View Jayne’s website here

Resources

General books including photographer information

The Expert Guide to Dating Victorian Family Photographs, Audrey Linkman (Greater Manchester County record Office, 2000)

How to get the most from Family Pictures by Jayne Shrimpton (Society of Genealogists, 2011) [Contains detailed advice on researching photographers and extended listings of databases and regional photographer publications]

Selected regional photographer publications

A Directory of London Photographers 1841-1908, Michael Pritchard (PhotoResearch, 1994)

Professional photographers in Birmingham 1842-1914, C E John Aston et al (RPS Historical Group, 1987)

Directory of Hampshire Photographers 1850-1969, Martin Norgate (Hampshire County Council Museums Service, 1995)

Through the brass-lidded eye: photography in Ireland 1839-1900, E Chandler & P Walsh (Guinness Museum, 1989)

Scottish Photography: A Bibliography 1839-1939, Sara Stevenson & A D Morrison-Low (Salvia Books & Scottish Society for the History of Photography, 1990)

Some free searchable photographer databases/websites

Database of 19th Century Photographers & Allied Trades in London, 1841-1901

History of Photography in Edinburgh

Victorian Professional Photographers in Wales, 1850-1925

Victorian Photography Studios…in and around Birmingham and Warwickshire

Early Photographic Studios: A-Z directories of photographers in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire

Directory of Photographic Studios in Brighton & Hove 1841-1910

Professional photographer data providers (charge a fee)

Photographers of Great Britain and Ireland, 1840-1940

Index of UK portrait & studio photographers c.1840-1950

Welcome to the first in a new series of blogs about how to understand and interpret your old family photos. In this series, Jayne Shrimpton, internationally recognised dress historian, portrait specialist and photo detective (pictured below), dates and analyses different types of photographs and helps you to add context to your old family pictures.

What type of photograph?

Portrait photography is 170 years old and seven, even eight, generations of the family may have been portrayed in photographs. Yet many old photographs have been passed down without labels or notes giving helpful information about the date, occasion or people depicted in them.

Different types of photograph, or formats, were produced throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, each having its own recognisable features. Identifying the format of a ‘mystery’ photograph and locating its place in history is the first step to establishing an accurate timeframe.

Daguerreotypes c.1841 – early 1860s (most common c.1845-55)

The first commercial photography studios of the 1840s produced one-off photographs on a silvered copper plate, known as daguerreotypes. The natural successors to miniature paintings, daguerreotypes cost around one guinea each – expensive luxuries beyond the means of ordinary working ancestors, hence they occur rarely in today’s family collections. Being fragile images, daguerreotypes were protected under glass, framed in a gilt surround and fitted into a folding case.

A few early-1840s daguerreotypes survive, but most belong to the period c.1845-1855. After the mid-1850s they were rapidly eclipsed by cheaper photographic formats.

Ambrotypes (collodion positives) c.1852-1890s (most common 1855-early 1860s)

The next photographic format was the collodion positive, usually known as the ambrotype. Another unique picture, the ambrotype was a negative image on a glass plate, backed with black varnish (shellac) or velvet to create a positive photograph. Like daguerreotypes, ambrotypes were mounted into a brass or pinchbeck surround and often protected in a case, or framed for hanging on the wall. The technique, devised in 1852, was widely used from mid-decade but its heyday was brief. Many ambrotypes set in the studio date from within just a few years, c.1855-60, although a few itinerant photographers produced them until c.1890.

Costing around one shilling by 1857, ambrotypes brought photography to more working people and they occur in a number of family collections.

Cartes de visite c.1858-1919 (most common c.1860-1908)

The small carte de visite, measuring around 10cms x 6.5cms, was the first commercially produced card-mounted photographic print. Arriving from France in 1858, the carte came of age in Britain in 1860 and rapidly achieved widespread popularity from 1861 onwards, inspiring the ‘cartomania’ phenomenon. Convenient cartes (or cdvs) could be mass-produced and, being fairly inexpensive, extended to all social classes by mid-decade.

Copies were collected, given as gifts and exchanged, leading to production of the first purpose-designed photograph albums in the early 1860s. Any collection of early family photographs is likely to include cdvs as they dominated Victorian photography, remaining popular in the Edwardian era.

Cabinet Prints c.1866-1919 (most common late 1870s-c.1910)

In 1866 the cabinet photograph was introduced - another print mounted onto card, but, measuring around 16.5cms x 11.5cms including the mount, over twice the size of the cdv. At first cabinet prints gained little favour, but demand gradually increased during the 1870s and by the 1880s they were a popular choice, their production finally equalling or exceeding the carte by the 1890s.

Cabinet prints, like cdvs, were still available in the early-1900s, even the 1910s, although surviving examples usually pre-date 1910. Together cartes and cabinet prints account for most Victorian and Edwardian studio photographs in early picture collections.

Tintypes (ferrotypes) In Britain 1870s-1940s

The tintype, or ferrotype, is identifiable as a photographic image struck directly onto an iron plate. Like daguerreotypes and ambrotypes, tintypes were unique pictures but they cost just a few pence - their cheap price generally reflected in their inferior quality. Produced in the US from the mid 1850s, tintypes were less fashionable in Britain, scarcely being recognised there until the later 1870s. Never widely popular, demand for these modest photographs nonetheless persisted until the 1940s. Well-suited to itinerant photographers, tintypes often depict outdoor scenes, such as the beach or fairground.

Surviving examples may be framed under glass in a decorative surround or may simply comprise a thin, sharp-edged piece of metal: tiny ‘gem’ tintypes were sometimes inserted into carte de visite or other card mounts.

Portrait postcards c.1902-1940s

Postcards offered a new card format for photographic portraits in the early 20th century. The first picture postcards had appeared in the 1890s, but after 1902, following the introduction of a convenient divided back with separate spaces for the address and a short written message, they began to be used for presenting photographic portraits. Portrait postcards could be posted, like other postcards, but often the photograph was never intended for that purpose, being kept for the image.

Both commercial and amateur photographers used postcard mounts and many examples survive in family collections, dating from c.1902 until the 1940s.

20th century card-mounted studio photographs

Some early 20th century studio photographs are neither cdvs, nor cabinet prints, nor postcards. Large or small prints were sometimes mounted onto a stout card of a pale or muted colour – usually off-white, beige, grey, soft brown or dusty green. Mounts were typically much larger than the picture, the wide border offering scope for subtle detailing – often a series of borders or a decorative surround pressed into the card.

In time, as photographic papers became sturdier, some photographs were presented in a folder. Between the 1920s and 1940s the fold-over card was popular: this had pre-cut slots in its back half for containing the photograph, while the front folded over to protect the image.

Amateur ‘snapshots’

Amateur photography has existed for as long as professional photography, but for many years mainly the affluent, leisured classes followed the expensive and time-consuming pursuit. In the 1880s, following technical advances, some middle-class hobbyists began to shoot spontaneous photographs for their own amusement and some of these 19th century ‘snapshots’ do survive. Most families, however, didn’t take up amateur photography until the 20th century. The early-1900s saw a significant rise, with more rapid growth during the 1910s, and most casual snapshots in family collections date from that decade onwards.

Look out for the second blog in this series, coming soon. View Jayne’s website here

Further reading

The Victorians: Photographic Portraits, Audrey Linkman (Tauris Parke, 1993)

Dating Nineteenth Century Photographs, Robert Pols (The Alden Press, 2005)

Dating Twentieth Century Photographs, Robert Pols (The Alden Press, 2005)

Family Photographs and How to Date Them, Jayne Shrimpton (Countryside Books, 2008)

How to get the most from Family Pictures, Jayne Shrimpton (Society of Genealogists, 2011)