References on Dating Old Images.

[thebestcpu]

Besides Photoshop one of my other activities is genealogy (family historian). Prior family historians have passed on to me many pictures in various formats. I know I have some that go back to ~1850s. These include daguerreotypes (maybe ambrotypes), tintypes, cabinet cards, etc. I know who most of the people are in the pictures yet not all (not all were marked and some were marked incorrectly).

What I am requesting help with by forum members are pointers to good references (e.g. books or online) that helps date these images down to a range of time when there were in popular use or other factors that might help date them. It helps in the detective work that goes along with genealogy (e.g. some cabinet cards include the photographer and from that I can determine the range of dates they were in business and from where they operated).

Thanks in advance for any help and am linking in @nurgle as I know he is steeped in this area.
Thanks for any pointers
John Wheeler

Here is an example ambrotype of my Great-great Grand uncle H D Shepard, who moved out west in 1856 and started a store/trading post in Wlimington, Kansas (Kansas was not a state as it was just Indian territory). He must have purchased a picture from some traveling photographer. I was able to scan and get enough resolution to so his name on the store as well as the post office he opened up.



PS- I was also lucky enough to get a stash of negatives from the early 1900s. My grandmother really enjoyed photography starting when she was in high school ~1914 and did a lot of home contact printing and sent some out for development. She had a good knack for the "eye of the photographer" as well. She kept all of her negatives and sorted them in envelopes (of all types). My late aunt asked me about 15 years ago when I visited one time if I wanted them right before she was going to through them out. Of course I took them and they are now all in archival sleeves.
I recognize many of the negatives from very small contact prints that have been shared within the family. With today's scanning technology and more advance photo-restoration, am looking forward to continuing to recover those images for relatives (or the Show My Work forum) i.e. bring them back to life (the images not the people )

 

[nurgle]

hi, many early photos can be dated by the clothes worn in the photos. if I could see the group closer up it would probably be easier. defiantly earlier than 1870's.

(I have made 2 date bases, Professional Photographers of Australia, 1841 to 1960's, and Professional photographers of England 1839 to 1945. I have also compiled a data base of New Zealand Photographers. there are several databases of Photographers of Massachusetts (a massive book that lost in the 2011 floods) and a few others states of America have lists of photographers that were active within their state and bordering States)

a good source for accessing these is the Genealogical centre in Salt Lake City.

regards, Sandy Barrie.

 

[thebestcpu]

hi, many early photos can be dated by the clothes worn in the photos. if I could see the group closer up it would probably be easier. defiantly earlier than 1870's.

(I have made 2 date bases, Professional Photographers of Australia, 1841 to 1960's, and Professional photographers of England 1839 to 1945. I have also compiled a data base of New Zealand Photographers. there are several databases of Photographers of Massachusetts (a massive book that lost in the 2011 floods) and a few others states of America have lists of photographers that were active within their state and bordering States)

a good source for accessing these is the Genealogical centre in Salt Lake City.

regards, Sandy Barrie.

Thank you for the info Sandy!
John Wheeler

 

[thebestcpu]

@nurgle This is an enlargement of the portion of the picture that hows how folks were dressed. This is an extremely small portion of the Ambrotype from over 160 years ago so that's probably as good as it will look.
Not sure if impacts dress at the time yet this was not on the east coast yet on the frontier in what would become Kansas in the 1856 to 1866 time range.
John Wheeler

 

[nurgle]

while mens outfits often varied little on decades, women's outfits were more varied (especially when early fashion magazines and mail order catalogs became available. but that is not the case here). though the 2 girls to the right of the images are hard to determine, they are NOT of the early hooped dress era of the late 1850's and appears to be of the early 1860's onward era.

 

[thebestcpu]

while mens outfits often varied little on decades, women's outfits were more varied (especially when early fashion magazines and mail order catalogs became available. but that is not the case here). though the 2 girls to the right of the images are hard to determine, they are NOT of the early hooped dress era of the late 1850's and appears to be of the early 1860's onward era.

Thanks @ nurgle / sandy.
That is consistent when he had that store.
Best regards
John Wheeler

 

[nurgle]

yes. you are very lucky. the only photos I have of my grandparents are ones I took myself. Regards, Sandy