Who Were They?

Lost and forgotten photos from the past

From time to time, I am asked by people to help identify photographs, even by finding a general date range. I am happy to do this when possible, although I cannot stress enough that I am not an expert and am simply sharing my general knowledge based on the research I do for this site. …

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This particular gem tintype was added to the Red Gem album after all the pages were filled – making me wonder about the duplicate images and why the owner didn’t remove one of those. The image was also obviously cut to the general shape of an oval, so perhaps it was going to be used …

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This next image from the Liberty Bell Album shows an 1880s image or possibly early 1890s, of a middle-aged woman in 3/4 profile. The image is faded, as well as slightly damaged and so the image quality is not quite as sharp as others we have seen from the album or from the time period. …

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From the late 1880s-1890s, this cabinet card shows a pretty young girl showing off her dress. She is nicely groomed with curls, a fancy dress with lace trim, black stockings and shiny black shoes with buckles on them. I learned recently about an interesting aspect of 19th century photography, which is that colors photographed using …

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A. B. Cross Photo, Salem MA Alva Pearsall Photographer, Brooklyn, NY Turner, Boston MA L. W. Cook, Boston, MA Glines, The Fotografer, Boston MA G. A. Underwood, Worcester, MA These are a selection of unidentified photographs in my collection. They do look like the faces of a ship’s crew to some degree. The two fellows …

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