orphan photos Archives - Maureen Taylor

Episode 133: Loving: Images of Men in Love 1850-1950

Maureen Taylor — Sun, 20 Jun 2021 04:00:00 +0000

Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love, 1850-1950 portrays the history of romantic love between men in hundreds of moving and tender vernacular photographs taken between the years 1850 and 1950. This visual narrative of astonishing sensitivity brings to light an until-now-unpublished collection of hundreds of snapshots, portraits, and group photos taken in the most varied of contexts, both private and public.

Included are ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, glass negatives, tin types, cabinet cards, photo postcards, photo strips, photomatics, and snapshots – over 100 years of social history and the development of photography.

Episode 116: America and the Tintype with Steven Kasher

Episode 99: Finding Photographs on the Smithsonian Learning Lab

About My Guest:

Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell are the authors of LOVING A Photographic History and the owners of the Nini-Treadwell Collection which consists of over 3000 photographs of men in love. The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, CNN, and Vogue featured reviews of their book.

About Maureen Taylor:

Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living, Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel, American Spirit, and The New York Times. Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website, and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles, and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

The post Episode 133: Loving: Images of Men in Love 1850-1950 appeared first on Maureen Taylor.

Let’s Stop Trashing Family Photos

Maureen Taylor — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 21:31:21 +0000

A few weeks ago, my daughter went on a photo hunting expedition with me. Rhode Island is full of tiny antique shops tucked into old buildings. On this particular afternoon we were in an old mill that wandered over the landscape. The smell of mold was in the air. I’d found good things here before. I went one way. My daughter, the other.

After a bit, I wondered where she’d gone. I found her standing in front of a bookcase filled with boxes of discarded snapshots. She was holding a 1960’s black and white one. She held it out and showed me. It was of a mother and an infant sitting in a kitchen. There was no name on the back.

“How could someone get rid of a baby picture?” She said with amazement. There were tears in her eyes.

I sighed. “How indeed?”

The fact is pictures are discarded everyday. Old and new ones. Tossed out in the trash. For genealogists, it’s a hard truth to accept. Those photos might be someone’s great grandparents or even your own.

A Culture of Disposability

An attendee at a recent event told me she had around fifteen hundred images. She didn’t know who they were and didn’t know what to do. A woman on the other side of the room raised her hand. I nodded.

“I know what you can do.” She glanced at the woman who owned piles of pictures. “Scan them all and throw out the originals. You’ll have the pictures, but not the mess. You’ll have the scans just in case, you can identify them later.”

I saw heard several people in the room murmur in agreement. No. Just NO is what I was thinking. That one comment could destroy a whole trove of family pictures.

I replied. “While it’s important to scan your pictures as a preservation method, it’s also important to find them a new home.”

There was silence in the room and no nods of acknowledgement.

After the program I approached the first woman and asked her to contact me before she threw them out. I gave her my card. I know that I’ll never hear from her, but it was worth trying.

Unwanted Images

In that old Christmas movie about Rudolph, there is the island of mis-fit toys. At the end they find homes. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was a place for unwanted images? Imagine a place where they could stay until descendants of the people in the pictures found them. It’s a dream. No such physical place exists.

There are wonderful reunion sites like DeadFred.com. Thousands of people look there every week for their missing family photos.

Here’s what you can do:

· Buy a photo with a name on the back. Research the person and find a descendant using genealogical databases. I’m calling it taking an Orphan Photo Adventure.

· Contact a local historical society to see if they want the image of someone who once lived in their town. A captioned or identified picture will add to their collection.

Send me a copy of the picture and tell me what happens to the picture and the person/place you’ve contacted.

Let’s try to stop this culture of disposability that surrounds old pictures. The scan and toss method destroys the original and all the information that goes with it.

The post Let’s Stop Trashing Family Photos appeared first on Maureen Taylor.

Tips for Saving The Life of a Photo

Maureen Taylor — Tue, 13 Jun 2017 13:35:37 +0000

At a recent family gathering, I met a woman who was amazed that an unidentified photograph could be a valuable piece of family history and that it could be identified. She looked at me with astonishment and confessed, “Oh no, I threw them out. I wish I’d known.” It’s hard to imagine that this charming picture of a Dad and his child could end up in the trash. You can almost hear the father saying, “Look at the camera.” Every day someone somewhere throws out ancestral pictorial bounty. It doesn’t have to happen. All it takes to prevent the senseless loss of photographs is a little understanding.

Amateur cameras allowed for spontaneous pictures

Follow the Clues

Each photo tells you things about your ancestors that aren’t written in a book or document. From how they wore their hair, to how they posed for pictures. Watch for their photographic tell much like card players in a high stakes game. People have their camera faces, tilting their head a certain way, a particular smile or the way they stand. It’s the little things that help us know them as people. Some families always pose in the same place in the yard or like to preen in front of their cars. Photo habits tend to hang around, but can help you identify who’s who.

This child’s mother likely took other pictures of her on that day and at other moments as well, maybe even an album full. This is all that’s left. I found it in a box of unidentified pictures at a photo sale.

If your relatives never left a name on the back of a photo it might be because they knew them well and didn’t need the reminder of who they were. It could be those nameless faces are people you need to know too. Before you toss them out answer the following questions and then take action. Begin by asking family if they know who’s who using telephone, email and social media for starters. Then dig in and try to discern details.

Who Took It?

There’s no photographer’s name on this picture, but if there were it’s possible to learn more about him or her. A photographer’s address often includes a place. Establish when a photographer was in business by researching them online. Finding information on the photo studio online might come with an added bonus—other pictures of your ancestors posted by distant cousins. You might even discover a captioned version of your mystery photo.

Unfortunately, the mother (who likely took the picture), father and child in this lovely summer image are unknown but it’s still possible to put it in a time frame. If there is a snapshot in your collection try to figure out if you have any other pictures taken on the same day by matching up the setting and the people for starters then think about who’s behind the camera. Your snap happy relative might be your great grandmother taking pictures with her shiny new Brownie camera circa 1900. You’ll be seeing your family through a child’s eye.

In this case, it’s clear the way Dad’s is gesturing at the child that her Mom is trying to capture a timeless snapshot of her daughter.

A candid picture might show other buildings, your grandmother’s backyard or even street signs. Knowing where it was taken can be a short cut to figuring out who’s depicted. Only one branch of your family may have lived in a certain location. If so, it might be one of them. ‘’

What are they wearing?

Their personality shines through by the way their clothing choices—stylish, conservative or old fashioned. The Mom dressed her child up in the latest fashion complete with a ruffled bonnet. Dad’s wearing a very stylish summer straw hat with a ribbon banded around the crown. He wears his Sunday best suit for this family outing.

Aunt Lil may have always worn her favorite hat while your grandfather wore his best suit the one from his wedding also intended to be his funeral suit. Occupation, cultural identity and economic circumstances also influenced what people wore.

Work clothes marked the man (or woman). Props brought into the studio or supplied provide clues as well. Immigrants often honored their origins in cultural dress at weddings and funerals by wearing special attire. Rich or poor most individuals dressed for the photographer. Women in far-flung areas of the country and the world often knew the latest Paris fashions and modified the styles to fit their budget and location.

Where Was It Taken?

Look on the photograph for details about where it was taken. There are few clues to location in the child’s picture, but that’s not always the case. Use the photographer address as a guide. There were traveling photographers but most stayed within their community or nearby.

Why Was It Taken?

Even if you know who’s in a picture, try to figure out when they posed. That photograph might represent a key moment in their lives. A visit to the studio was part of documenting family milestones from birth to death. Immigration, family reunions, and outings were also photographed. Sometimes individuals went to the studio with friends as an activity and exchanged pictures, just like high school seniors used to.

When Was It Taken?

Once you know when and where the photo studio operated and verified the clothing, you can estimate a time frame come with a list of possible answers to who’s in the photo.

This picture may be a complete mystery but the clues add up to tell the story of one family’s experience with photography circa 1900. It may not seem like much to go on, but consider the next step—your family history.

If Mom took that image in 1900 and the baby is just walking then it was likely born between 1898 and the early 1900s. Most babies walk between 10 and 18 months. A quick study of you family tree could reveal a limited number of female candidates. The lack of any other children may indicate this little girl is their first child.

All of the answers to these questions bring you closer to telling the story of a picture and your family. Each story is a precious piece of your family history. Putting each of those together is like sewing a quilt. One block of fabric doesn’t create one, it’s all the blocks together sewn together with thread that holds the whole piece of art together. Each photo is a block, the thread is how the story weaves them together and the piece of art is you, the current generation.

Save the life of a photo today by looking at it in a new way and researching its story. Your descendants will thank you for giving them the pictorial context of their lives.

The post Tips for Saving The Life of a Photo appeared first on Maureen Taylor.

Two Small Clues In an Old School Photo

Maureen Taylor — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 17:25:18 +0000

Someone took a snapshot of these two women in an unknown setting. This one picture is part of a set of six images. Only this one has a recognizable background.

They sit on granite stairs engraved with “Class of 1910.”
The wooden landing has a fluted column in the background and a sandstone pillar decorated with a brass plaque. Unfortunately the plaque is unreadable due to the quality of the picture.

Their clothing, hair and the clue on the stair suggests that this image dates from the 1910s. One woman wears what could be a uniform.

But where was it taken? They may be students at a private school or at a women’s college. Does anyone recognize this setting?

So far I’ve had no luck with Google searches.

Here are the rest of the images.

The post Two Small Clues In an Old School Photo appeared first on Maureen Taylor.

Ask Maureen: Photo Reunions

Maureen Taylor — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:11:00 +0000

Patience wrote: I found a stack of quite good portrait photos from the late 1800’s – mostly from California but also from NY, Minnesota, Indiana. Only a very few have names of whose photo it is – but almost all of them have the name of the photography studio. What would be the best way for me to seek out family members who may have lost them?

One of my favorite websites is DeadFred.com. Individuals post images on the site hoping to connect with family or to find missing family photos. Over 5,000 a week search this online archive. The site is easy to navigate and it’s free!

If you want to facilitate the reunion, then join the ranks of genealogists who research the names on these abandoned photos like they’re members of their own family. It’s a wonderful feeling to reunite these photo treasures with their descendants.

The post Ask Maureen: Photo Reunions appeared first on Maureen Taylor.