The Photo Detective

This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Sarah Weatherwax, Senior Curator of Graphic Arts at the Library Company of Philadelphia. Sarah has worked at the Library Company for nearly thirty years. From political cartoons to incredible daguerrotypes, these images are preserved for generations to come at the Library. In addition, the two discuss visual literacy and how this can be k...

This week, Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by New York Times bestselling author Katherine Howe. Katherine and Maureen discuss how history and major events in our past have inspired Katherine’s work. To her surprise, her genealogy yielded an unexpected connection to some of her characters Related Episodes: Episode 190: Writing Genealogical Crime Mysteries with Nathan Dylan Goodwin Ep...

This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Dr. Aaron Greenburg, who is the co-founder of Biography, a platform that reinvents the way we tell stories. The two discuss the art of storytelling, how to share those stories, and how Biograph can help.  Related Episodes: Episode 187: Building a Story with the Ancestry.com App Episode 98: Collect Photo Stories with StoryGlory Links: Biog...

This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Pascal Martine. The two discuss Pascal’s collection of wooden stereo photo viewers, both handheld and tabletop, as well as how his collection began out of a love for the nostalgia he had for his childhood Viewmaster. In 2019, he built his own stereo rig in order to take modern stereo photos and then documented his journey on social media....

This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Rick Voight, CEO and Co-founder of Vivid-Pix. Maureen and Rick discuss how he and Vivid-Pix are working with Photo Reminiscence Therapy in order to help individuals with cognitive decline, or memory issues. This process is a way of helping individuals reconnect with their past, with the latest technology from Vivid-Pix. Related Episodes:...

This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by New York Times bestselling author, Matthew Pearl. He and Maureen discuss the differences between fiction and non-fiction writing, and how little details from our history can change the course of the stories that we tell. Related Episodes: Episode 189: Historical Fiction Revealed with Carrie Deming of the Dog-Eared Book Episode 190: Writin...

This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by author, genealogist, and educator Nathan Dylan Goodwin. Nathan and Maureen discuss how writing, genealogy, and historical fiction intersect, and what it means to write for each. His successful Forensic Genealogist series features a mystery-solving genealogist Morton Farrier who applies genealogical research techniques to crimes. Related E...

This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Carrie Deming, the owner of The Dog Eared Book in Palmyra (NY). Carrie and Maureen discuss historical fiction, its rise in popularity, especially on social media, and how there are many different genres of historical fiction that not many know about. It’s a great conversation about the fans behind not only historical fiction, but books in...

This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Robin Kall, who has been the host of “Reading with Robin,” for the past two decades. She chronicles “can’t miss” authors, and facilitates discussions on some of the most popular books of the present day. She and Maureen decide to dive into one of their shared favorite topics: historical fiction. The two discuss what makes books popular, a...

This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Jordan Lundskog, a Product Manager at Ancestry.com. The two discuss using the new story feature in the Ancestry.com app. A partnership with Photomyne allows users to add and edit photos within the app. Jordan explains how it all works and how easy it is to create a story. Related Episodes: Episode 177: Wild about Wildcards with Amy Johnso...

This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Dr. Kate Strasdin, author and honorary deputy curator at the Totnes Fashion and Textile Museum. She was behind the exhibition in Bath, England, that was named one of the top twelve exhibitions of the year by Vogue Magazine. The two discuss historical fashion, and how our ancestors worked with textiles to modify their wardrobes, as well as...

This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Gwyneth of Gwyneths. Stories on TikTok. For the past year, Gwyneth has been tackling family history stories by making videos for her followers on the platform. While a relative “newcomer,” to family history, she’s found a passion and love for the storytelling she can do through genealogy.  Related Episodes: Episode 181: Clothing Care at t...

This week, Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Amanda Meeks, Community and Partnerships Manager at Permanent.org. The two discuss Permanent’s initiative, Byte4Byte, which provides digital storage grants for non-profits across the country, as well as internationally, to enable them to save and share collections. Any size group can apply for grants and internship support. Related Episo...

This week, Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Kathy Amoroso, the Manager of Information Technology at the Maine Historical Society. She also serves as the Outreach Coordinator of the Maine Memory Network (MMN), a collaborative project with historical societies and other historical non-profits across the state. Anyone can access the site, and they encourage users to share their Maine...

This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Melissa Barker, who is known affectionately as The Archive Lady and is a Certified Archives Manager and Public Historian, currently working at the Houston County Tennessee Archives & Museum. The two discuss how archives and genealogy overlap, how you can preserve your ancestor’s heritage through archives, and how sometimes an archive...

This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Michael Murphy, Librarian, and Archivist, as well as Charlotte Engel, who is the clothing historian from the New Canaan Historical Society. The two have been making the rounds on TikTok lately for using behind-the-scenes footage to educate their followers more about exhibits and historical clothing. The two also dive into how they care fo...

This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Emma Jolly, a professional genealogist and historical researcher, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. She and Maureen dive into British ancestry, and how you can begin your research, or even elevate it for those records you may be missing. She was one of the researchers on an episode of the Wedding Detectives on the BBC. Related Episodes: Episo...

This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Nancy Desmond, one of the co-founders of MemoryWeb, a platform dedicated to helping individuals save and store their family photos. In this episode, they discuss how to organize photos before uploading – which makes the process easier and even more fun for those digging into their photo collections.  Related Episodes: Episode 134: Unlocki...

This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Lawrence Verria, whose first book The Kissing Sailor , takes a look at an iconic World War II photo and how to identify it. In the perfect intersection between history and photo identification, Maureen and Lawrence discuss this famous photo, and how even a photo icon can leave plenty of mystery, and twists and turns to discover the answer...

I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations .  Support the show

This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by author Maud Newton – who recently published Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and Reconciliation . She and Maureen dive into what it means to have a skeleton in the closet, or an ancestor who didn’t live up to the same standards we do. It’s the embarrassing and shameful actions of our ancestors – and what to do about it – that drive this conv...

This week, Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Tom Butler, an artist whose work may be controversial to some listeners. Tom uses unidentified cabinet cards to create art, often altering the original image to enhance them, which begs the question if he is destroying the image, or creating something even better than before. Related Episodes: Bonus Episode: Stitching on Pictures with St...

This week, Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Greg Kozlick, who helped reunite a woman with long-lost wedding photos – in the story of a photo reunion that’s sure to tug on the heartstrings.  Related Episodes: Episode 32: The Man Behind Dead Fred Bonus: Lost history Discovered in the Recycling with Paul Moar Links: Returning the Slides Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Cha...

This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by David Shields, Carolina Distinguished Professor at the University of South Carolina. The two discuss his work with cabinet cards, Motion Picture Photography, and the history of stars of the silver screen as told through images.  Related Episodes: Episode 169: How to Spot a Daguerreotype Copy  Episode 166: Picturing Frederick Douglass Link...

This week Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective, is joined by B. Wells Douglas, a professional photographer who has quite the following on the social media platform TikTok. B. Wells looks at slides that he’s found and digs deeper into their meaning, looking at who is in the photographs, and trying to examine why they may have been taken, who is in the photos, and what story they tell.  He also dives...