The Photo Detective

Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined this week by Daniel Horowitz, Genealogist for MyHeritage. Daniel visits the podcast to discuss some of MemoryWeb’s new features, which are taking the internet by storm, or as he says, are “Cool and controversial all the same time.”  With these new features, you can actually hear your ancestor “read” their life story back to you with a voice generated...

This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Peter Dumas who owns Picture This Antiques in Massachusetts. While he initially began working with vintage print advertising, he now has expanded to sell antique and vintage cameras. Peter and Maureen discuss cameras, snapshots, and photography with vintage cameras, as well as how the progression of digital technology has helped the expan...

This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Erin Waters, who has taken over the family business of FineDags.com, a website that’s dedicated to helping individuals purchase daguerreotypes and understand more about their history.  Maureen and Erin talk about how to spot paper photocopies of daguerreotypes  Related Episodes: Episode 105:  Women in the Dark: Female Photographers in the...

This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by AJ Jacobs, who is the author of multiple New York Times Best Sellers. He and Maureen talk about how we’re all related – somehow. AJ’s work delves deep into how we’re all interconnected, and not only what that means, but how we can use that principle to approach our everyday lives.  Related Episodes: Episode 153: Ellis Island Immigrant Pho...

Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined today by Dave Wilson, who owns a Victorian Photography Studio in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Dave focuses on creating authentic tintypes and ambrotypes, focusing on small details from recreating Victorian poses, clothing, and style in the images. He explains his process for getting a photo “just right,” how he uses his camera to get the best side of his...

Today Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by the Sumner R. and Marshall S. Kates Professor of English and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, John Stauffer.  John and Maureen dive into his book Picturing Frederick Douglass which has become a national bestseller. The two talk about images of Frederick Douglass, and how photos of individuals from history can giv...

Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined this week by Lora Vogt, who is the Curator of Education at the National WWI Museum and Memorial.  She and Maureen discuss what was happening during WWI, and how photographs, amateur photographers, civilians, and soldiers, helped document a time that felt chaotic and ever-changing around them. They delve into the importance of photography and how it ca...

This week, Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Becca Bender, the Curator, and Archivist of Moving Image and Audio Collections at the Rhode Island Historical Society. The two discuss the necessity of preserving home movies for genealogists, and how movie preservation gives insight into the lives of individuals in the past.  Related Episodes: Episode 75: One Man’s World War I Journey E...

This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Danielle Cordovez, who is a senior librarian for the Music and Recorded Sound Division at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. She and Maureen discuss how sound and music are achieved, and why that matters. They discuss how something as simple as a sound recording can show us how a generation speaks, and fill in clues that...

This week Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective, is joined by Ariel Servadio, from Gaylord Archival, who helps museums and conservation professionals preserve our cultural heritage. Ariel and Ronda Buck developed YourStory™, a collection of the same archival-quality materials professionals use to make it simple for genealogists to preserve their own family history. Save 25 % on your Gaylord.com purc...

This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Amberly Russell, the Preservations Services Manager for the Permanent Legacy Foundation. Permanent is a platform dedicated to allowing individual users to preserve their photos, just as a museum would, through a digital platform.  Related Episodes: Episode 95: How to Save Your Family Archive with Permanent.org Episode 92: What You Need to...

Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is back with her monthly “Ask Maureen” series in which she answers questions submitted by her followers about photos and photo-related items. In this month’s episode, Maureen tackles: How to donate material to an archive Should you keep the folios that come with photos Researching a photo mystery from Moldavia … and more! Give the episode a listen and find out...

This week, I take a look back on my most popular podcast episode from the past year. I’m joined by David Wood, the curator of the Concord Museum in Concord Massachusetts since 1985.  David and I talk about the exhibits from the museum, and how some leave lasting impressions, not only on the community but in the history that it’s taken part in telling. We also discuss what it means to see history,...

I’m joined by Christopher Donovan, the head of the Providence, Rhode Island chapter of Pecha Kucha (don’t worry – we discuss how to pronounce it during the episode).  Pecha Kucha is a storytelling device that pairs twenty slides, chocked full of images, within twenty seconds. It’s a race to captivate your audience, all while engaging in visual storytelling and is incredibly fun. Christopher and I...

This week, The Photo Detective, Maureen Taylor, takes a look back at one of her favorite podcast episodes from the past year as she examines VintageAerial.com, a project dedicated to chronicling the rural areas of the United States.  Maureen is joined by Fritz Byers, President, and CEO of VintageAerial.com, and Lance Roper of Customer Engagement as they discuss the need for preserving these areas...

In this bonus episode, I’m joined by Emma Kilburn-Smith, a mixed-media artist and graduate student who lives in Calgary. Emma made a controversial splash on the social media platform TikTok when she began sharing her work taking vintage photos and embroidering onto them.  Her passion for her work is astounding, and while many were worried at the idea of embroidering onto these photos, Emma makes c...

Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is back with her monthly “Ask Maureen” series in which she answers questions submitted by her followers about photos and photo-related items. In this month’s episode, Maureen tackles: How to tell if a painting frame is old, new, or important How to store and preserve glass slides How to scan in images with low resolution What lantern slides are … and more! Give...

This week, Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Jessica Rose Harpley, an Assistant Curator at The Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Specifically, Jessica works in the Department of Performance, Furniture, and Textiles.  Maureen and Jessica discuss one of Victoria and Albert’s latest exhibits which Jessica helped curate. Called, “Bags: Inside Out” the exhibit examines the role that...

This week, the Photo Detective, Maureen Taylor is joined by Anthony Moss , a rabologist, or collector of walking sticks. He is the joint chairman of The Antique Walking Cane Society, a member of The International Society of Cane Collectors, based in the United States, and a speaker at Canemania, an international cane convention.  I’m sure with a biography like that, you’re pretty sure what this po...

This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Louis Takács, a former librarian, who comes from a line of immigrants and refugees, which inspired a project to examine 20th-century migrant and immigrant lives from 1914-1925, using passport photos.  One of the great hurdles that many fledgling genealogists face is Ellis Island. Known for being the spot where immigrants had to pass throu...

  In this month’s episode: *What did cabinet cards, cost? *What are the numbers on the back of snapshots? *What about writing on the back of photographs? *How can I determine if two photos are of the same person? Related Episodes: Episode 138: Ask Maureen July 2021 Edition Episode 125: Ask Maureen April 2021 Edition Links: Vivid-Pix Restore Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like...

You’ve probably seen the shows where ghost hunters go to spooky places to look for entities and use equipment to capture them. Well, believe it or not, one of the tools they use is special technical cameras. Behind the scenes, ghost hunters are a lot like genealogists. They look for documents and images to help determine what might be going on in these haunted places. This episode is part of my se...

There is so much confusion about which photos depict mourning and which ones don’t. I thought it was time to have someone other than me weigh in on the controversy.  My guest posted on Twitter about mourning dress and it went somewhat viral. So glad she said yes to be a guest on the podcast.   Related Episodes: E pisode 61: Mourning Jewelry: Fact or Fiction Episode 76: Who’s That Baby? Tips for So...

A long time ago, my skills as The Photo Detective helped me identify photographs for press kits and textbooks. Over the years, I’ve located photos for my own publications and helped countless authors and historians with their image problems too.  Today’s guest is an experienced genealogist and historian. When she needed help piecing together a photo mystery, she contacted me. I was happy to help....

Genealogists love going to cemeteries to view the resting place of ancestors. Information and symbolism on stones vary depending on the time period.  Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, some gravestones featured photographs.  Have you ever seen one?  My guest has. He’s been wandering in rural cemeteries in Maine to find out more about the practice.     Related Episodes: Episode 21  The Graves...