Birmingham : Old Photographs – Identification and dating

Speaker: Tom Doig

As a child, our speaker’s great grandmother’s boxes of old photographs particularly her carte de visites and cabinet prints – were a source of fascination. Of course, she knew who the people were and so never wrote their names on the reverse. Only on very rare occasions did the Victorians take impromptu photographs – nearly all had a specific reason, such as coming of age, emigration or wedding anniversaries. Tom will look at ways of identifying the sitters of such photographs and methods for determining an indication of their date. Why not bring in a Victorian photo of your own.