More than twenty thousand people on social media have viewed these images of the mysterious women in uniform. That’s a whole lot of eyes. Thank you for all the leads! Here’s the update. The Buildings The United States Army built Spanish Colonial buildings at many of their bases. All had tile roofs and stucco exteriors,…
The details in this picture are plentiful. A man in an apron holding a shoe. Patriotic bunting. A house. It’s so lovely I couldn’t resist. I bought it at an antique shop in Franklin, New Hampshire. A sticker on the front of the glass frame says: “Cobbler Shop, West Bow St., Franklin.” Other than that…
It’s an often-used phrase, but what does it really mean. On the surface it’s about studying the clues in the picture. People, places, and things are key to our understanding of a picture, but that’s not the whole story. It takes more than pictorial evidence to fit a picture into family context. Truths and Mysteries…
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.…
On a recent trip to Burlington, Iowa, I drove through the town of Roseville, Illinois. Right in the middle of town was an antique store. It was lovely. Clean and well organized. “Do you have any photographs?” I asked. “Hmm, I’m not sure. I have trouble keeping them in the store. They get bought as…
On the surface this is a simple family snapshot. My Mom and Dad are in the middle. It’s their wedding day; my mother’s oldest sister stands to her left and my mother’s niece to the right of my father. It captures a happy time. The houses, the car, and the people all help date the…
It was a photo I’d seen all my life. It’s my maternal grandmother with two siblings, their parents and her brother’s two children. I thought I knew the story. Turns out I didn’t. It was a classic case of evidence outside the frame. Let’s call it a photo audit. The trouble started when I decided…
It happened again. I arrived early to a lecture venue at a public library. I thought. Oo. La. La. Books and reference sources, but when I looked around there were only a few short stacks of books and no one in sight. Sigh. Here’s what I remember and why I worry that Reference Departments are…
It is possible to survive the holiday season, with sanity intact, by planning ahead and developing a sense of humor. Unexpected visits by relatives and cranky cousins add to your stress levels, but try to offset the tension with a little family history. Don’t put your charts and notes away for the holidays take them…
As Houston recovers from Hurricane Harvey and Florida from Hurricane Irma. It leaves me with a sense of déjà vu. Almost five years ago Hurricane Sandy stormed into the East Coast of the United States destroying property and taking lives. As with every disaster, generations of family photographs were caught in the weather. The storm…
The latest new photo discovery of 2017 is a long missing image of President John Quincy Adams. It is the oldest known U.S. Presidential photo. The eldest son of John and Abigail Adams was born in 1767. He went on his first diplomatic mission when just 10 years of age. He was secretary to…
I love pictures with houses in the background. They represent a deeper family history mystery. Not just a question of who’s in the picture, but details about the dwelling. One of the photo challenges in this picture is identifying the location. Children’s Party, circa 1920 When we bought our house a few years ago, an…