A Belle and a Wild Child
It’s August, it’s hot, and I have plans to only work on projects that involve sitting still and sipping cooling drinks. One that fits the bill is cataloging the antique photographs I’ve collected over the last 20 years.
Here’s what I do: I scan the picture in at 600 dpi, which is as high as my scanner can go. Then I can look at it enlarged, and I use the editing tools to adjust tone, contrast, and so on so I can see all the details better. I note down on my spreadsheet the type of collar, sleeve, fabric, etc. At that point, usually I have a pretty good idea of what decade I’m looking at, and I go hunting in all my costume books for those details that will help me figure out the year. (Some resources are below.)
On the cabinet cards, which are cardboard, there are often printers’ names and addresses, and I can hunt for those too, to find what years they were in business.
But the earliest pictures I have are tintypes, which are generally not marked, so I have to use the clues from the style of the mat and case if there is one, or just from the picture. Tintypes are actually thin iron sheets and not tin at all. They were invented in 1856, and most popular during the 1860s, so, within that small time bracket, it seems like it would be easy to date pictures quickly. But I am finding out I don’t know nearly as much about 1800s fashions as I thought I did.
This picture seems to be the oldest one I have.
Young belle, circa 1859.
Her dress is made of two different fabrics, a plaid and a small design of three triangles, with white undersleeves. She has drop earrings, a gold necklace, and what looks to be a pocket watch tucked into her sash. The full skirt and off-shoulder style puts the picture in the 1850s-1860s, and the hair ornament of needlework circles (possibly tatted) helps me narrow it to about 1859, thanks to a picture in My Likeness Taken by Joan Severa.
Brought to life with the miracle of Photoshop Elements.
This next picture has me stumped. It is unusual, because the girl’s dress is so plain and ill-fitting, and yet she has elaborate jewelry. And I have never seen such cropped and messy hair in any other picture! The woman seems very neatly and conservatively dressed, and her clothes look to be of good quality. She does not seem the type to be without a comb.
Tintype of girl with woman, circa 1860s?
Hoping for clarification
There is a picture of three girls from 1862-63 on p. 230 of Dressed for the Photographer, and one has a very similar locket, and one has (combed) hair about this same length. But their dresses have more detailing and much fuller skirts. So is our girl above wearing something made for someone else? A charity dress? Why is it so plain?
While enlarging the pictures gives me a lot of new details for clues, it also sends me on hunts to find out more. Like in the picture above, I would love to know more about the little bar pins on the woman’s sleeves, and about the textile next to her. Even when I zoom in, I can’t see any identifiable texture there to tell me what technique was used to make it. And I can already tell that when I get to my cabinet cards, I will want to find the stories of all the photographers.
If you can help me out with any more information, I would appreciate it! I’ll be right here down this nice cool shady new rabbit hole. 🙂
Resources: Identifying and Dating 19th Century Photograph Types
My Likeness Taken:Daguerreian Portraits in America by Joan L. Severa
Dressed for the Photographer:Ordinary Americans and Fashion, 1840 -1900 by Joan L. Severa
I have many old photographs that aren’t labeled or dated. I also have a few tintypes that are hard to see. Thanks for your tips and resources. I am going to go scan and enlarge my photos and hope to discover more details.
Oh good! It is so much fun. Even if you can never put a date to them, you do notice so much more when you look at all the details, and the people really come alive for you, I think.
So, I think the young girl was ill and her hair is finally growing out.
That’s all I can come up with too. Or maybe she was experimenting with a curling iron and burned it off, and that’s why it looks so frizzy, and not smooth and polished like everyone else’s hair in those old pictures.
It looks like the girl’s dress has a deep (for her size) peplum. Also the skirt is flat in front rather than gathered. I’m not an expert by any means. But I’d hazard a guess that this is late 1860s, not early. And I’m not sure her dress fits poorly, or if it’s more a matter of needing some petticoat to fill it out in the skirt. The top isn’t bad, as the dropped shoulders would have been fashionable. Feel free to correct me if I have it all wrong!! 🙂
I will definitely keep researching on this one! Thanks for your clues!
Fascinating post, wish I could help you.
Lovely to see the care you are taking with these old photos – they are so fascinating, and so poignant – those lost names, and the stories of their lives! I had a chuckle tho’ to see that scanning is what you do in the hot Texan summer – here in the northern, cooler parts of the UK, I have put off the photo scanning to do until the autumn/winter when I’m going to settle in, get cosy, and get scanning! Right now I want to be out and about!
Belle Two Different Fabrics is a High and Top Fashion of today. Great Post. Be Blessed
She would be so happy to know she is still in fashion! 🙂
The intrepid textile detective strikes again! I think you should write some murder mysteries, where your protagonist’s knowledge and interest lead her to solve old mysteries! This is such an interesting project! ! have no knowledge of old fashions but I hope you’ll write more about this as your progress.
James Patterson, watch out! The Case of the Uncombed Hair, The Clue in the Cotton Carders, and The Secret of the Mismatched Dye Lots will be in bookstores soon! 🙂
Thank you , very interesting. My first thought was the girl was a “poor” relative, the other woman had visiting her or got to take care of do to life’s circumstances. The girl is not used to wearing normal underclothes cloths, but did want to wear lots of jewlery. Is that photo related to the 2 fabric dress? Their eyes and lips look similar (if taken at same time then couldnt be same person of coarse).
I found in my family photos a copy of one and wondered how to tell where its from. There is a run background in it and she (about 20) is wearing a light collar that has undulations at the edge, but the dress or shirt looks black or very dark. Am wondering if my Grandmother from AustriaHungary(became Czechoslovakia became Slovakia.
I like your theory about the poor relative, because to me that woman does not look like she is her mother. She doesn’t look “connected” to the girl, just a little satisfied, as if she is doing a deed of charity.
The two photos are not related. I do have some family photos, but I also pick them up at antique stores and flea markets. I got the tintype of the Belle in Central Texas, and the tintype of the woman and child here in East Texas. But there is no telling where they were actually from, because antique dealers pick up their wares all over the place.
As far as your photo, I think the light collar/dark dress was mostly the fashion in the 1880s, but I am still learning how to date them. I also think that it is almost impossible to tell where the picture was taken, because the photo studios used such similar backgrounds. I would be happy to look at it for you if you want to send me a copy: texasstorm (at) outlook dot com. Maybe I can at least point you to more information.
I’d guess the first photo was taken earlier than the second one, based on the dress styles. Of course, clothing was often handed down, though it was sometimes remade to update it. Your wild child indeed looks like she’s wearing a dress made for a woman, not a child. She certainly doesn’t fill out the top. Maybe she was a tomboy forced to don this outfit for the picture. Of course, that doesn’t explain the jewelry. If you do turn to writing a mystery series, please give your heroine a spiffy roadster.
Ha! I am a truck girl all the way. Driving in regular cars scares me because I feel like I am suddenly driving in a deep rut. I can’t do it, even fictionally. I could give her a nice new hybrid truck though. And then when it got stolen (cause it would), she could meet the cute cop who will turn out to be her formulaic connection on the inside to help her solve the mysteries. 🙂
I’m beginning to get the truck thing after traversing western highways, but I’m a city girl where the thought of finding a parking spot for a truck with a trailer hitch makes me shudder. They make hybrid trucks?
I thought they did! But looking around on the internet, it looks like Chevy did make them for a while but quit, Toyota and Ford are going to make them but haven’t yet. It’s hard to sift actual info from all their ads about better MPG. Well, in my fictional world, my heroine can be driving an experimental model or something.
And I am terrible at parking. I always park way in the back so I can get in and out of spots. There are places I won’t drive because I won’t be able to park when I get there. Fortunately I have friends and relatives with smaller cars – I drive when we are going on dirt roads, they drive when we go somewhere more civilized.
I keep my favorite posts and was looking over some again…Maybe there has been a change of fortune. Perhaps her hair was sold Little Women style. But would they have sold off her clothes? Wearing her Mother/ Aunts jewelry?
Ooh, I like the hair-selling idea! I think what really makes me wonder about that picture is the expression on the older lady’s face — she just looks like, “Yes, I know this child does not look like your typical girl, but that’s alright with me.”
I’ve been looking at all the stock photos on Getty Images – when I search for “fashion” and one year at a time, I get some images that look close to some of the photos I have. I think they will end up helping me date mine more precisely. I did see another girl with this wild hair somewhere, but now I can’t remember where!