Dating Fashions in Antique Photographs
Many fashion collectors now
vie with image collectors, scooping up the best in antique and vintage
photographs. Undoubtedly, photographs are one of the best pieces of evidence
on what people really wore, second only to existing garments. (One could
even argue they are better evidence than existing garments, since people
generally preserved only their "best dress.") The weak link in photographic
evidence, however, is the dating of the image.
Although some period photographs were dated by their photographer, this is
fairly rare in portraiture; those portraits that do have dates marked in
pencil on the back may not be accurate; they are often added years later.
It's certainly possible to date photographs solely by the fashions shown in
them, comparing the images to those shown and described in fashion
magazines. This presents a few problems, however. First, who's to know
whether the fashion magazine was ahead of, or behind, the individual in the
photograph? In the case of trend setters, the photograph may display
fashions that actually predate any description in a magazine.
In addition, people aren't
always perfectly fashionable. Many people, depending upon their age, their
location, or their personality, linger behind the fashions for months (and
sometimes many years). And when did the fashion die? Did, one day, it just
go "poof?" Or, as is more likely, did it peter out slowly? And if it petered
out slowly, can we really known exactly when the style stopped being worn?
So, while it's useful to consider the fashion worn when trying to date
photographs, a wise collector considers more. Start by looking at what type
of photograph it is (a tintype? cabinet card? cartes-de-visite?). In fact,
this is the easiest part of dating a photo, yet it can provide you with a
good general date of manufacture. For example, if the image is a
daguerreotype (a photograph on a piece of glass, not to be confused with
negatives, which may also be on glass), you can learn that most
daguerreotypes were made between 1839 and 1865 or so. If the photo is a
stereo card (a piece of cardboard with two identical images on it), you can
learn that it's probably from c.1863 to 1920s.
But don't stop there. Many details can still be gleaned, if you look at the
photograph carefully. For example, although cartes-de-visite (small
photographs--about the size of a business card--mounted on cardboard) were
made from c.1859 through the 1910s, they often had printed borders of one or
two lines, c. 1861 to 1869. Oval frames were mostly popular between 1864 and
1867. After 1875, the cardboard's edges might be beveled. Etc., etc. A
knowledge of such things has quite an impact on your accuracy in dating.
For more information about the various types of photographs and when they
were produced, see
Victorian Fashion in
America. And don't miss the
great links about historical photographs found
here.
As you become more adept at searching for dating clues in photographs, you'll even be able to use things like furniture, props, and backdrops (as seen in the above photograph of Edwardian vaudeville player Frede West, and the below photo of a late Victorian miner, showing off a gold nugget) to pinpoint dates.
(c) 2004 by Kristina Harris
04/21/2006