Pols, Dating Old Photographs

Dating Old Photographs

Second Edition

Robert Pols

Published by The Federation of Family History Societies (Publications) Ltd

First published 1992

Reprinted 1993 Second edition 1995

Reprinted 1998

ISBN 1-86006-013-7

Contents

Introduction	4
The Beginnings of Photography	5
The Effects of Light
Prehistory
The Earliest Photograph
The Daguerrotype
The Calotype
Hypo
The Wet Collodion Process
Egg Whites and After
The Rise of the Professional Photographers
Dry Plates
The Arrival of the Snaphot
Identifying Early Photographs	16
Daguerrotypes and Calotypes
Ambrotypes
Cartes de Visite
Cabinet Prints
Printing Processes
Tintypes
Novelties
Roll Film Pictures
Stereos
Postcards
Dating Early Photographs	29
Types of Photograph
Evidence other than the Image
Names and Addresses of Photographers
The Image – Studio Backgrounds and Props
The Image – Composition and Technique
The Image – Exterior Background
The Image - Costume
Other Photographic Items	49
Cameras
Stereoscopes
Frames
Albums
Negatives
Copying Photographs	54
The Standard Method
Cheating
Looking after Old Photographs	57
Handling and Using
Light
Temperature and Humidity
Storage
Prevention and Cure
Photographs and Dating Charts	61
(Examples)
(Dating Charts)
Bibliography	89

Introduction

"The fact is, our governor's a friend of the people, and don't mind losing a little money. He's determined that everybody shall have a portrait, from the highest to the lowest. Indeed, next Sunday he do talk of taking them for threepence-ha'penny, and if that ain't philandery, what is?"

Thus, Mayhew records, a Victorian street-photographer's assistant explained his employer's policy. The fact that this explanation was being used to justify a price rise from sixpence to eightpence (if that ain't logic, what is?) may perhaps be overlooked. What matters is the ubiquity of the photographer and the increasing cheapness of the photograph in Victorian England. At the beginning of Victoria's reign the invention of photography was announced; by the end of her reign the day of the snapshot had dawned.

Photography was and is a staggering invention. It brought our ancestors face to face with themselves, and it brings us face to face with them. Not surprisingly, therefore, photographs, whether a full set of albums or a battered handful of pictures, form an important and treasured part of many a family archive. They provide a window through which we gain a glimpse of our own past. But the view through the window is not always clear, and the aim of this small book is, in effect, to dust its glass. More precisely, the intention is to help with understanding the photos which have been handed down, with identifying them, and with dating them. As we come to be more familiar with early photographs we may, incidentally, come to interpret their subjects more aptly. We distinguish between the Sunday best of the formal portrait and the everyday reality of the snapshot, and we recognise that Victorian sternness may owe as much to the conditions of the photographer's studio as to an unrelievedly solemn habit of mind.

In its attempt to polish the window between ourselves and the past, this book looks briefly at the early history of photography, then moves on to consider the identification of the photographs we have inherited and the possibilities of dating them. Later sections deal briefly with related photographic items and with copying and caring for early photographs. The bibliography is selective, but points to possibilities for those who wish to pursue the subject further.

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