Imagine receiving a family photograph album with a handwritten index! In Rita Werner's case, this gift was a mixed blessing. All but three of the original tintype photographs had been removed from the album, and Werner doesn't know who compiled the index. But Werner's mother recently found an envelope of tintypes she believes are the missing photographs. Now mother and daughter have an opportunity to identify the pictures and put them back in the book where they belong.

It's a typical late-19th-century album of deeply embossed leather with white glass “buttons” on each corner and two clasps holding it together. Such albums resembled family Bibles and often remained on display for visitors. This particular album has “F. Heppenheimer, 22 N. William St., NY” printed on the cover page. The 1869 New York City directory lists a lithographer named Frederick Heppenheimer with a business at that address. To date the album, Werner must search city directories to determine the exact years Heppenheimer worked at North William Street.