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)

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 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 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)

Jeanne Bunting is a well renowned family historian. She regularly gives lectures to family history societies around the UK.

Here she tells us her top 10 tips for people new to family history.

1. Always go back to the original record; never rely solely on a transcription.
2. Always record names, dates, places and sources.
3. Keep a research log and record what you searched for, what you found and what you didn’t find. This can save you going over the same ground again.
4. Be methodical - discipline yourself not to collect more information until you have processed the previous collection.
5. Back up your information regularly. If it is on computer, keep copies in different locations and on different media (frequently refresh the media). Also keep a copy on the internet. If it is paper based, photograph and/or photocopy it and keep copies in different locations.
6. Talk to your oldest relatives. Names, dates and places are important. Talk to your children. Grandparents often tell their grandchildren things they didn’t tell their own children.
7. Never add someone else’s family tree to your own in your genealogy program. Check every piece of information and then add it to a copy of your own.
8. See which genealogy websites your local library subscribes to and use the computers there. Subscribe to a different site for home use.
9. Put the meat on the bones. Find out about the kind of lives they led and place them in their time period.
10. Last, but by no means least, remember that you can’t do it all on the internet.