A Year of Passionate Photo Detecting: What Did You Miss?
On this Photo Detective blog, 2016 was a year of early color (and colorized) photos, photo-ID tips and crowd-sourcing. If you missed the most-popular posts, don't worry. The links in this 2016 wrap-up will take you them. Photo Identification TipsNewspapersWe started the year off right with a big...
Read MoreClues in a 1900s Mystery Photo of the Old Family Farm
Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Planning a menu for that important family meal makes me think about how all that food ended up on my grandmother's table. There are no farmers in my family history, so I love to see reader's photos of rural life. Darlene Sampley...
Read MoreA Pair of Photo Mysteries: Charcoal-Enhanced 1840s Portraits
Darlene Sampley isn't sure who the young woman is in the painted tintype featured in last week's column, but she working on figuring out the mystery. But that tintype isn't the only problem photo in Darlene's collection. This week it's a pair of portraits, of a mysterious man and woman...
Read MoreWhich Grandmother is It?
I own an old "crayon picture" and you might, too. They were extremely popular in the late 19th and early 20th century. It's a photo and a piece of artwork. Photographers hired artists to charcoal these oversize pictures, which held a place of honor in a family home. Joan Klein...
Read MoreClues, Cousins and Contacts: Three Ways to Solve a Photo Mystery
What does it take to solve a picture mystery? In this case it's clues, cousins and contacts. June Thomazin is determined to solve this tintype mystery! I featured it in my Photo Detective column in the September 2010 Family Tree Magazine (you can get a download of that Photo Detective...
Read MoreFamily Resemblances in Old Photos: Who Is This Man?
Last week I discussed how to care for a badly damaged photograph, and showed an image Lois O'Malley photographed back in 2005. Lois wrote: "As soon as I saw the man in the photo he minded me of my grandfather, William Alexander Simmons (1873-1934)." He's seen here: Her Dad's...
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Picture Origins: Overseas or in America?
In response to last week's column on tinted pictures, Barbara Stone sent in this oversize hand colored photo of a young woman. It's on canvas and framed in a gorgeous gold setting. According to Stone is was found in a collection of pictures of her father's Irish relatives who lived...
Read MorePicture Origins: Overseas or in America
In response to last week's column on tinted pictures, Barbara Stone sent in this oversize hand colored photo of a young woman. It's on canvas and framed in a gorgeous gold setting. According to Stone is was found in a collection of pictures of her father's...
Read MoreHand-Colored Photographs
Do you own any photographs that are hand-colored? These tinted enhancements range from delicately shaded pink lips and gold jewelry to elaborate coloring that obscures the image and transforms a photograph into a painting. Powders, paints, crayons and pastels were all used to make photographs look more lifelike. Some photographers...
Read MoreCrayon-Enhanced Portrait of a Child
Last week I wrote about Carolanne’s portraits of her relatives Laura Gilman and her husband James Wyatt Weed. Here’s a third, unidentified, picture. Behind each picture is a story, and Caroleann's three portraits are no different. Photo identification techniques can tell you when a person sat for a picture, but...
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