In Alice Quinn’s new book, The Rose Code, women (and a few men) work tirelessly to break German codes to further Great Britain’s World War II efforts. For them, it’s about recognizing the patterns. If you’ve ever tried to tease clues out of a photo then you can relate. Photo code-breaking consists of identifying not only people but objects and places. Get one wrong and the message/story is different.

In my last blog post, I wrote about the supposed Helmuth Voight image taken in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. The place is identifiable and easily researched, except for the building on the left. In the caption for that image, the building is a food concession. But in order to find out more and link Helmuth to it, I needed a name. Searching Google Images helped a bit. On one site a caption refers to the structure as a French restaurant while on another it’s called The Shelter.

Searching for the Right Word

Sometimes all it takes when researching an image is the correct name. That’s why on my reference shelf I keep a visual dictionary. It’s a dictionary of pictures and identifiers. While it’s handy to have around, it didn’t help me with this image.

Ebay.com is a great source when trying to find visuals. Beware though. Descriptions aren’t always accurate. If you’re looking for images of a specific place or family, you can set up an alert so you never miss out. My new YouTube video shows you how. In this case, I found a couple of postcards of interest, but nothing that provided new information.

I like to start with a visual search but publications in Google books supplied details on Prospect Park. When the pieces fall into place, it’s seems so obvious. The answer was there all the time.

In Frederick Law Olmstead’s papers, it’s called the Concert Grove House as opposed to the Concert Grove Pavilion next door. Designed by Vaux and Thomas Wisedell it opened in 1874. It was indeed a restaurant where individuals could have a light supper and refreshments while listening to a concert. It was torn down in 1949.¹

Do I know anything about Helmuth Voight running the concession in this building? Only what the caption said, but I’m not giving up.

Read the full story here

Sources

¹Censer, Jane Turner., Schuyler, David., Hoffman, Carolyn F.., Beveridge, Charles E.., Hawkins, Kenneth., Olmsted, Frederick Law., Shapiro, Michael., Gagel, Amanda., Ranney, Victoria Post., Carr, Ethan., McLaughlin, Charles Capen. The years of Olmsted, Vaux & Company, 1865-1874. United Kingdom: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992. Books.Google.com p. 427.

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Years ago I bought an interesting image at a photo show.  It was completely unidentified–no name and no photographer’s markings.

 

I’d never gotten around to researching the image. Last summer I included it in one of my talks at the International Jewish Genealogical Society conference in Boston.  As soon as I put it up on the screen, a man called out that he knew the identity of this soldier.  He told me that this was Field Marshal von Moltke, a Prussian military expert.

This was a great test for Google Images. To see if there are matches to a particular image you can either cut and paste a URL in the search box or upload an image to the search box.  I choose the latter.

In this case, there was an exact match on the iCollector.com website.

Google Images isn’t 100% effective.  It provides you with exact matches and then visually similar pictures. For the purpose of this search, Google found other carte des visite images of people posed like von Moltke and some that don’t have much in common with the image I searched.

Identity confirmed. Case closed.  Thank you to Paul Silverstone for positively identifying an image from my collection.

The post Tech Tuesday: A Chance Encounter and a Photo Mystery Solved appeared first on Maureen Taylor.