The Photo Detective

This month’s Q & A is a themed podcast on postcards. Thank you to everyone that mailed me a postcard!     Related Episodes: E pisode 143: Ask Maureen September 2021 E pisode 138: Ask Maureen July 2021 Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the...

Twitter is a social media platform that folks either love or hate. It doesn’t generate too much of an in-between feeling. It’s known for short posts and hashtags. It’s the place you go for breaking news and some groups like #GenChat use it to inspire collaboration and social interaction in the genealogy world. There are photo historians on Twitter too.  But I was surprised to see a photo reunion t...

I know that my guest’s feelings about abandoned orphan photos will resonate with you.  He hates seeing a photo abandoned and unfortunately he sees a lot of them.  It’s a personal mission for Kody Beltz of the Good Finch Company of Witcha, Kansas. He’s an estate and antique dealer.  His eventually successful adventure using Facebook to reunite some identified images with family resulted in national...

How long do you spend working on a photo mystery?  It might surprise you to hear that this week’s guest spent more than a decade on her photo problem. The combination of family connections and research can helped her solve several photo problems. Early on in this journey, she asked me to weigh in on her picture. It resulted in an article in Family Tree Magazine . A few years later another article...

Every month Maureen does a live Q & A on Facebook and YouTube answering questions submitted by listeners. Have a question?  Email her at photodetective@maureentaylor.com This month’s questions: How did Maureen become The Photo Detective? Summertime hazards for photos Disaster planning tips Did snapshots get mounted on card stock?   Related Episodes: Episode 138: Ask Maureen. July 2021 Edition...

Their website makes it clear that the eight-person team at Vintage Aerial loves preserving the heritage of rural America and sharing it with anyone and everyone who cares. They’ve built a website of an amazing 18 million images and growing that anyone can access. There are also photo mysteries on the site that you might be able to solve. Identify one homestead and it unlocks the rest on the roll o...

From stamps to envelopes and postcards, my guest’s collecting passions expanded when he bought a few cards at a sale and became fascinated by the postmarks (and messages). He’s an expert on postmarks and using them as a photo clue. We chat about the golden age of postcard printing and the bits of history a postcard can convey including a link to President Garfield’s assassination. Jim Mehrer tells...

In today’s world, those of us with mobile devices communicate by texting. For our turn of the twentieth-century ancestors, it was through the mail. Imagine getting multiple mail deliveries a day and the possibilities of that communication.  Postcards were a quick way of touching base with friends and family. Businesses used cards to advertise and so did realtors. Real photo postcards are my favori...

It’s time for another themed month. This time it's postcards.  Three guests this month share stories about their personal connections with these mailable images. In this episode, English collector Mark Routh chats about his collection which spans 1869 to the present. He has some museum-quality gems. Did you know that dirigibles mailed items for their passengers?  Neither did I.  You won’t bel...

Every month, Maureen tackles photo identification, photo preservation questions from those submitted through social media and email. You can submit a question through photodetective@maureentaylor.com This month’s questions: After scanning portraits, what to do concerning saving or discarding the card stock photo frame/folders. Will that card stock damage the photo long-term? What should I use to m...

Attorney David Whitcomb purchased space for a new office and found forgotten picture history of the suffrage movement. These old photos revealed clues about local history and national politics. In our last house, we found a note from the first owner hidden beneath the wallpaper. Nothing too amazing. His name and a date. In this house, there is a cobweb-filled bin in the back of the basement filled...

Collecting is often a hobby that starts when we’re in grade school. Did you have a childhood hobby?  I did. I loved learning about family history and old photos. I’m still passionate about it today.   My guest turned his hobby of collecting old photographs of famous stars of television and movies into a lifetime pursuit. At some point, he began gathering bits of New York’s picture history one box...

A few years ago, I gave a presentation at The Varnum Armory a medieval-style building in East Greenwich Rhode Island. After the talk, members took me behind the scenes. Built in 1913, it is the headquarters for Varnum’s Regiment, a chartered unit of the RI colonial militia. Flags, banners, uniforms, artifacts, and weaponry in the collection date from the colonial period through the twentieth centu...

At Rootstech 2021 myself, Nancy and Christopher Desmond of MemoryWeb.me presented a three-part class on unlocking the shoebox of photos.  I love partnering with those two. They have a passion for genealogy and photography.  Thousands of people watched our class and asked questions about the topic. There were so many queries we decided to do a dedicated Q & A webinar. This is a recording of tha...

  Included are ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, glass negatives, tin types, cabinet cards, photo postcards, photo strips, photomatics, and snapshots – over 100 years of social history and the development of photography. Related Episodes: Episode 116: America and the Tintype with Steven Kasher Episode 99: Finding Photographs on the Smithsonian Learning Lab Links: Interview with Hugh Nini and Neal Treadw...

Take one wedding photo, add some research and you’ll end up with quite the story. That’s the premise behind The Wedding Detectives on BBC Radio 4. Charlotte Sibtain was on The Photo Detective back in episode 44 vintage Wedding Photos.  I discovered Charlotte’s Instagram feed and so did reporter Cole Moreton. Together they uncover the tales behind what on the surface look like ordinary wedding imag...

The fight for racial equality in the nineteenth century played out not only in marches and political conventions but also in the print and visual culture created and disseminated throughout the United States by African Americans.  Producing printed and photographic images for activists that advanced their campaigns for black rights.  Related Episodes: Episode 101: Rediscovering an American Communi...

Each month Maureen answers questions from listeners.  When scanning cabinet cards, do you only do one scan of the entire front of the card which would include the border & photographer logo, or do you also make a 2nd scan of just the photo itself? Carol asked: I have a picture of my GG grandmother (1829-1901).  She is elderly in the picture & wearing small hoop earrings.  It appears that h...

Two and a half years ago, Shannon Uschold of Generation Story app was a guest on this podcast.  Listeners rocketed it to one of the  top ten episodes where it stayed for a couple of years. I know you have heirlooms you don’t know what to do with and items you’d like to share. Two years ago, Shannon had a dream and worked tirelessly to find solutions. She did it. Generation Story app gives us a way...

May became National Photography Month in 1987 when Congress recognized the role photography plays in modern society. The American Photographers Association one of the primary backers and supporters of Photography Month. There are activities, exhibits, and sales all month.  Here are some fun ways to participate.  With the advent of digital imaging interest decreased but then returned in 2007.  Nati...

Death by outfit isn’t something featured in the game of Clue but it could be. Our ancestors lured to the new bright colors of the nineteenth century wore garments poisoned with arsenic and mercury, perhaps hurrying along their deaths. Not that you’re likely to see that as a cause on a death certificate. These garments continue to be harmful to curators today with long lasting toxins. You’ve probab...

My guest offers tips on preserving the memories of loved ones we’ve lost. Photographs are a key part of remembering. We can see their faces and it triggers a range of emotions in us.  Family history offers us the way to continue to keep our loved ones a part of our everyday lives. Allison Gilbert’s ideas for honoring the ones we love are not just for adults. Children will be able to participate in...

At the end of every month, I answer questions from listeners. How do I safely remove photos from a spiral-bound album? The kind with the sticky page covered with a sheet of cellophane Celia, that’s called a magnetic album and they were really, really popular and you can still buy them today. There are so many family tree sites. How do we know which one might be best for us? Well, it depends becaus...

It doesn’t take hindsight to realize you’re living in historic times. This last year has taught us that.  This week’s guest told me that residents of Lexington and Concord immediately recognized the significance of April 19, 1775, and saved pieces to document that day. A few years ago, the Concord Museum in Concord, Massachusetts assembled a temporary exhibit called The Shot Heard Round the World....

Every time I see another news story on a photo reunion that’s happened through crowdsourcing images online I chuckle.  I have a closet full of mysteries and not much luck reuniting images with living people. Yet, just in the last few months, there are images being shared online that are within a short time being reunited.  It’s clearly the world’s new Pandemic pastime.   There is a Victoria Johnso...