Kathy’s Corner » Exploring Our Mystery Photos, Part 2 » February 2025

Today’s program was one of those epic episodes that will become a reference to you in the weeks and months to come—as the perfect complement,

Kathy Stone

added a long list of resources to include here in the notes.

After Kathy’s core presentation, she opened up the discussion.

Emily Hanson

stepped up to share a delightful example of a family mystery photo and was gracious enough to allow us to share it here.

Emily remembers her grandmother as having some connection to a ship called the Electra. Could this have been taken aboard ship? What do other clues tell us about the date, time, or place of this photo?

Since we were having such a good time exploring old photos with our new skills, Emily followed up with another example of a family photo including a border. What does this border tell us about the probable date for the image? And the dog, what breed?

Photo from Emily’s collection. Again, please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Resources

The Village at Blackcreek: Good Overview of History of Photography

• blackcreek.ca/photography-history/

Fort Lewis College: Information for determining Dates of US Postcards

• fortlewis.edu/finding_aids/images/M194/PostcardDating.htm#Box

Cindi’s List: a list of helpful websites for dating photos

• cyndislist.com/photos/dating

Stamp Community: Photographs and Revenue Stamps

• stampcommunity.org/topic.asp?topic_id=78839&whichpage=1

Lisa Lisson (Are You My Cousin?) on Tax Stamps

• lisalisson.com/how-to-date-photographs-using-tax-stamps/

Film Format and Sizes

• photomemorabilia.co.uk/Colour_Darkroom/Early_Kodak_CameraFilm.html

Old Negative Film & Camera Formats

• nostalgicmedia.com/blogs/media-conversion/guide-to-negative-film-camera-formats

Deckle Edge

• rshare.library.torontomu.ca/articles/thesis/Snapshots_with_an_edge_a_study_of_the_deckle_edge_in_the_North_American_snapshot/14647395?file=28127568

Photo Borders

• flickr.com/groups/elko_borders_on_bw_photos/pool/

Eastman Museum Collections Online (advance search)

• eastman.org/collections-online

Evolution of the Kodak Logo

• designhill.com/design-blog/history-of-evolution-of-the-kodak-logo/

My Heritage PhotoDater

• myheritage.com/help-center?a=What-is-PhotoDatertm-and-how-does-it-work---id--kRRrmbewQUyybCKZB-SYHw