Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter had an article and ordering info on a new publication from Family Chronicle. It's based on an article that ran in the magazine a while back. As I recall - the article was quite well done. Here's the article from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter Patty >From Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter - Vol 5 No 48 - November 25, 2000 - Dating Old Photographs 1840-1929 Family Chronicle magazine recently published an interesting booklet, called "Dating Old Photographs 1840-1929." Some time ago Family Chronicle ran a 16-page article in their magazine on the subject of dating old photographs. Publisher Halvor Moorshead reports that he was quite surprised at the popularity of that article. Several thousand people later requested back issues, and the supply was soon exhausted. As a result, Family Chronicle has now created a 100-page booklet on the same topic. "Dating Old Photographs 1840-1929" is an 8 1/2-inch by 11-inch paperback that consists of a short introduction to the subject of dating old photographs, followed by 88 pages of example photos. The text discusses Daguerreotypes (used from 1839 to about 1860), ambrotypes (1854 until the mid 1860s), tintypes (1856 to about 1900) and the more modern techniques involving negatives. The book also discusses topics such as carte-de-visit photos, cabinet card photos, photographers' imprints, tax stamps, picture frames and more. Of course, clothing styles are also described in some detail. However, the best part of this book is all the examples. More than 650 black and white photographs representing typical family pictures fill 88 pages of this 8-1/2 by 11-inch glossy magazine. By comparing your unknown pictures to those in the book, you can match up clothing and hair fashion, the poses adopted by the subject, and the background settings in both pictures and estimate the date of your pictures. Perhaps the most unique photograph in this book is the one found on page 6: a picture taken in England in 1899 shows 13 girls and women, each dressed in a different style of clothing from the previous 80 years. Each girl or woman holds a sign listing the year in which her clothing style was in fashion. This is a sort of "Rosetta Stone" of women's fashions of the nineteenth century. There are many myths about old photographs, according to Moorshead. The most common is that people in isolated, rural communities wore fashions that were some years behind those in the cities. "The evidence does not bear this out," says Moorshead. "People, especially women, would not be caught dead allowing themselves to be photographed wearing an out-of-date fashion. Our ancestors changed hairstyles and clothing fashions at least as often as we do today." This is an interesting book. "Dating Old Photographs 1840-1929" costs $12.00 U.S. funds, $15.00 Canadian. Those prices include shipping. For more information, or to safely order online via a secure Web site, go to: http://www.familychronicle.com/datphoto.htm

Hello list, What is the difference between a daguerreotype and a tintype? I have a photo that seems like it is made of metal, has been bent slightly in one place, and I think was taken circa 1890. It is very dark, almost like a negative. What are the main differences between the two types of photographs? Thanks. JB Wilson, Beaverton, OR :-) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ JB Wilson, Beaverton, OR, USA "Searching for the Living, Honoring the Dead" <designs@hevanet.com> Researching: Kangas, Eskola, Mattson/Matson, Makkonen, Aho, Runtujärvi, Barnes, Benedict, Crandle/Crandall, Miner, Ufford, Berry & Williams NY/PA Proud to be a Contributing Sponsor of RootsWeb ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~