Photographs as evidence
An old photograph can show what a street looked like, what people wore, which signs hung over a doorway and how a building was used. It can also mislead. A picture records one moment from one viewpoint, chosen by a photographer for a reason, and the information that usually accompanies it, such as a date and a caption, may have been added much later from memory.
Treat a photograph as evidence to be examined, not as a self-explanatory answer. The aim is a caption that says what can be shown and flags what cannot.
Where historical images are kept
Collections are held by public libraries, historical societies, universities, government archives, museums and newspapers, and some are digitized. Images also remain in private family albums. When searching, try several terms: the place name, the street, a business, an event, and a broad period. Catalog descriptions can be incomplete or use older place names.
A catalog record, often called metadata, may include a title, creator, date, format, subject terms and rights information. Read it, but remember that it was written by a cataloger who may not have had the full story. Holdings, access rules and reproduction policies differ and change, so check the institution’s current information.
Reading the physical object
If you have the original print or negative, the object itself carries clues.
- Format and mount. Different photographic processes and card mounts were common in different periods, and specialist guides from archives and museums describe them. Mount style and printing process give a general window, not an exact date.
- Inscriptions. Writing on the back, studio stamps and numbers may help, but later handwriting is often a guess.
- Condition. Fading or damage is not a reliable dating tool and should not be over-read.
- Studio information. A photographer’s imprint can lead to directories and records that show when that studio operated at that address.
Digital copies lose this information, so ask the holding institution whether it has noted the format.
Reading the picture
The content of the image gives many clues. Look carefully before drawing conclusions.
Buildings and streetscape. Compare the scene with maps and fire insurance atlases. If a building appears in the photo, it should also appear on a map of about the same date. Changes in street paving, rail tracks, utility poles and street lamps can suggest periods, though old features lingered long after newer ones were introduced.
Signs and advertisements. A business name on a sign can be matched to a directory to find when that firm operated at that address. This often provides the best narrow date range available.
Vehicles, clothing and technology. These offer a rough range only. People wore older clothing and drove older vehicles than the latest fashions, so the newest item visible gives an earliest possible date, not the date itself.
Seasons and weather. Leaves, snow and clothing can tell the time of year, which may be useful for matching an event.
Events. Banners, flags, decorations and crowds may connect an image to a recorded occasion. Confirm with newspaper archives, which often describe parades and ceremonies and give their dates.
Building a date range
Dating a photograph is mostly the work of narrowing a range with several clues:
- Record the earliest possible date from the latest-appearing feature.
- Record the latest possible date from any feature that was later removed, demolished or changed.
- Check business signs against directories for the years the business was there.
- Compare the view to maps and atlases from nearby years.
- State the resulting range, such as “between about 1900 and 1915”, and the evidence for it.
When two clues conflict, a feature that survived for a long time should yield to a feature with a clear start or end date.
Writing a good caption
A useful caption answers who, what, where, when and how you know. Separate the confirmed from the inferred.
- Say what is shown, in neutral descriptive terms.
- Give the location as specifically as you can support.
- Give the date, or a range, and use “about” or “circa” for estimates.
- Name people only if you have a reliable identification, and say how it was made.
- Credit the creator, if known, and the holding institution.
- Note the uncertainty plainly, for example “caption date unverified”.
Avoid dramatic language. Photographs of vacant or damaged places are often used to tell a story of decline, but a single image cannot show a whole neighborhood’s history or the lives of its residents, and captions should not imply that it can. Pictures of empty or closed buildings are best described as showing a place at a given moment, in line with the practice used in writing about vacant buildings: context and history, not invitation to enter unsafe sites.
Identifying people and respecting privacy
Naming people in a photograph is the weakest area. A family label such as “Grandmother in 1920” may be right or wrong. Compare against other identified photos, and treat unconfirmed identifications as tentative. For photos of recent decades, consider the privacy of living people and the circumstances in which the picture was taken. Practices around photography etiquette also apply to modern photography in public places.
Rights and permissions
Copyright and permission rules vary with the age of the image, who made it and how it came to the archive. Being old does not necessarily mean being free to reproduce. Check the rights statement in the catalog, and ask the institution if it is unclear. Credit the source whenever you use an image.
Keeping the record
For each image you use, record the archive, collection, item number, title, creator, date, the caption as originally given, and your own notes on how you evaluated it. Keeping the original caption alongside your conclusions allows later readers to see where information came from and what you changed. If new evidence arrives, update your notes rather than your memory of the earlier conclusion.