Every time I see another news story on a photo reunion that’s happened through crowdsourcing images online I chuckle. I have a closet full of mysteries and not much luck reuniting images with living people. Yet, just in the last few months, there are images being shared online that are within a short time being…
The Photo Detective Podcast
Episode 122: Reproducing History and Protecting the Past: One Cased Image at a Time
Over the years, clients have asked, “Where can I purchase a replacement case for my daguerreotype (or other cased images)? I finally have an answer for that. My guest takes molds of historic cases and creates reproductions. Not only can you purchase a variety of designs for old photos. Some of his clients use them…
Episode 121: Ask Maureen March 2021
In this monthly podcast, Maureen shares questions received via email and through social media. Can you tell us about changing exposure times for photographic portraits and why people didn’t smile for pictures?Do you have a good resource for looking up photographer names by location and years they were active?Is there a good resource for dating…
Episode 120: Good Pictures: Amateur Photography and Our Family with Art Historian Kim Beil
How did you and your ancestors learn how to take “Good Pictures?” It’s likely they read Kodak’s guide for amateur photographers, How to Make Good Pictures published from 1912 to 1995. New cameras and new technology influenced how we took photographs and what they photographed. My guest studied those popular guides to photography to compile…
Episode 119: Dressing for the Camera: Rules are Foremothers Followed (and Sometimes Broke)
Episode 118: Eliza Hamilton Revealed with author Susan Holloway Scott
If you thought that you knew Eliza Hamilton because you watched the Broadway musical, well…you need to read Susan Holloway Scott’s book, I Eliza. What makes good theater isn’t necessarily accurate. There is a whole lot more to the Alexander/ Eliza story. Susan is a master storyteller weaving fact with fiction to weave a tale…
Episode 117: Ask Maureen February 2021 Edition
Bonus Episode: Tintypes Made for Movies and Television
I think that 19th-century tintype photographers would be amazed to see that their medium is still thriving in the age of digital photography. Their spirit exists in my guest for this bonus episode. Rob Gibson travels around the country with a motorcycle and a portable studio, similar to his itinerant predecessors who used wagons. He…
Episode 116: America and the Tintype with Steven Kasher
Collecting images is something that I’m familiar with. There are thousands of images in my research collection. It’s hard to stop purchasing interesting pictures because each one is a little different. My own collection features a variety of image formats including tintypes of men fishing off a prop boat with lines and fake fish. Women…