Remember this couple?

Well, we still don't know who they are, but we now know a little more about them. By some very cool alignment in the universe, I met up with Maureen Taylor - The Photo Detective herself - at the NERGC (New England Regional Genealogical Conference) held April 6-10 in Springfield, MA and asked her to look at the photo to see if she could tell us a little more about it.

This couple are in their middle ages - 40 to 60 years old. The woman is wearing a day cap and the gentleman is sporting an unusual tie... it is patterned, which is not a common thing in the mid 1800's - the possible date of the photograph.

This photograph is actually a copy of a daguerreotype. It says so in the lower right hand corner - not that it was a daguerreotype, but that it is a copy, probably made by the person who signed the photo at the bottom. There are telltale spots in the background that indicate that the photograph is a daguerreotype.

It would be interesting to see if investigating the signature of the photographer would lead to any further answers. I'll let you know what I find.

Someone should start a website of unidentified photographs that people could upload their photos to... then other folks could look at them and hopefully ID the people in the photos. Sort of a WikiPhoto.

Any takers?

Synchronicity... you have to love it.

I scanned some more photos yesterday. This batch came from Mom's desk. Again, most are identified, but some are not. I sat down this morning to look them over and rename the photos - somehow I don't think scan0013 is going to be descriptive enough.

I picked out a photo at random, which turns out to be a picture of Amelia and Henry Stoddard having a meal at the dining table. Breakfast I think, since Henry appears to be reading the newspaper, and there is a lot of light streaming in from the outside.

Henry and Amelia Stoddard's dining room

I was looking at the picture, noticing that Amelia didn't look all that happy about having her picture taken, then the chandelier caught my eye ... lovely shaped glass covers... and the bas relief frieze above the fireplace mirror. Traveling around the picture my eyes settled on the chair by the window. Oh! I've seen that chair before!

A couple of days ago Alex's issue of Fine Woodworking came and guess what is on the back cover?

How is that for coincidence? The article is about a student of Boston's North Bennet Street School (known for producing very fine woodworkers) and his reproduction Federal-era heartback chair. The article continues to describe how Steve Brown found the chair in a book, tracked it down to the Philadelphia Museum of Art where he was permitted to take measurements and trace the original. Heartback chairs were popular in Philadelphia around 1800.

You just never can predict where you will find something interesting about your family.

The next photo may the one we will never figure out. Let me know if you have any ideas...

If all else fails, there is a woman, Maureen Taylor, who specializes in identifying old photographs. Maybe I will send it to her to help us figure it out.



Cheers!