The Photo Detective
Join The Photo Detective, Maureen Taylor, each week as she discusses historical photos and how they fit into your family history. From ancestor identification to photo preservation, The Photo Detective Podcast covers it all. Featuring special experts from genealogy, fashion history, photo history, and restoration, it’s a not-to-miss for photo fans, genealogists, and lovers of history.
Sun, April 06, 2025
A History of the American Bookstore with Author Evan Friss
In this episode of The Photo Detective , Maureen Taylor welcomes historian Evan Friss, author of The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore . Friss dives deep into the evolution of bookstores in America—from colonial times to the digital age. He shares fascinating insights into their cultural, political, and communal roles throughout history. Early American bookstores were cultural and political hubs, vital for disseminating revolutionary ideas and classic literature, despite also selling sundry items. Bookstores evolved from general goods shops to genre-specific havens—feminist, radical, and neighborhood staples—such as NYC’s famous “Book Row.” Bookstores act as “third spaces,” offering connection, events, and literary engagement beyond just book sales. Independent bookstores face small profit margins, rising ebook popularity, and competition from Amazon, yet persist through innovation and community support. Related Episodes: Episode 198: A Sewing Girl’s Tale with Author John Wood Sweet Episode 189: Historical Fiction Revealed with Carrie Deming of The Dog Eared Book Links: Evan Friss Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Need help preserving your photos? Check out Maureen’s Preserving Family Photographs ebook Need help identifying family photos? Check out The Family Photo Detective ebook Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Evan Friss is a professor of history at James Madison University and the author of two other books: The Cycling City: Bicycles and Urban America in the 1890s and On Bicycles: A 200-Year History of Cycling in New York City. He lives with his wife (a bookseller) and two children (occasional booksellers) in Harrisonburg, Virginia. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective® helps clients with photo related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others. Learn more at <a href='https://maureenta
Sun, March 23, 2025
Family Photos and Preserving Your Memories
In the March 2025 episode of her solo podcast, Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective, discusses a variety of personal and professional experiences related to photo management and genealogy. She begins by addressing the shutdown of MemoryWeb, a platform she used extensively, detailing her efforts to safeguard her photos by enhancing metadata and descriptions before downloading them. Maureen also shares insights from a productive meeting with Forever.com executives about potential metadata improvements. She reflects on the emotional power of photographs, recounting how revisiting family photos led to discoveries and a deeper connection to her past. Additionally, Maureen talks about being the sole memory keeper of her family’s history, emphasizing the importance of documenting and sharing personal stories to preserve them for future generations. She concludes with announcements about her upcoming digital photo organizing course and ongoing engagements with new genealogy and photo management tools. Related Episodes: Episode 254: Solving Family Photo Mysteries: A Journey with The Photo Detective Episode 242: Uncovering the Past Through Postcards with Maureen Taylor Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help preserving your photos? Check out Maureen’s Preserving Family Photographs ebook Need help identifying family photos? Check out The Family Photo Detective ebook Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective® helps clients with photo related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Please <a href='https://itunes.apple.com/us/podc
Sun, March 16, 2025
Diahan Southard’s ‘Monday Minutes’: Transforming Personal Reflections into Genealogical Gold
In this episode of the podcast, host Maureen Taylor is joined by Diahan Southard, known for her expertise as “Your DNA Guide.” Diahan discusses her new book, “Monday Minutes,” which is inspired by her popular newsletter. The book is a collection of reflections on everyday moments and thoughts, aimed at connecting deeply with her audience beyond the realm of genealogy. Key Highlights: Origin and Impact: “Monday Minutes” started as a simple, fun email experiment to connect with Diahan’s customers on a personal level. Content and Themes: Each Monday, Diahan shares thoughts on varied life experiences, ranging from parenting to everyday observations, which resonate deeply with her audience. These reflections encourage readers to find meaning and connection in their own lives. Journal and Reflection: Diahan’s initiative evolved into a book and a journal where readers can write their reflections. This not only serves as personal documentation but also as a genealogical record, adding a personal touch to family histories. Related Episodes: Episode 250: Telling Her Story: How to Research and Write Women’s Histories Episode 190: Writing Genealogical Crime Mysteries with Nathan Dylan Goodwin Links: Get Monday Minutes by Diahan Southard Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. About My Guest: Diahan Southard, Founder and CEO, Genetic Genealogy Expert and Educator Diahan Southard knows firsthand what a difference it can make to know where you came from. What started off as an educational and career interest in genetic genealogy became deeply personal when she used DNA to discover her mom’s birth parents and connect with new relatives. Now she has 25+ years of genetic genealogy experience. She built her company, Your DNA Guide, to show that learning DNA doesn’t have to be intimidating, frustrating, or require a college degree in biology. Her goal is to teach you to “Do the DNA”–and feel confident and have fun in the process! Diahan teaches internationally, writes for popular magazines, authored Your DNA Guide–The Book , and produces<
Sun, March 02, 2025
The Photo Marketplace Shift: What It Means for Your Memories
In this episode, Rick Voigt, co-founder and CEO of Vivid-Pix.com, joins Maureen Taylor to discuss the evolving photo marketplace and its impact on genealogists and everyday users. They explore the recent shutdown of FileShadow, the risks of relying on digital storage providers, and the importance of backing up precious memories. Rick shares insights from his 40-year experience in the photo industry, including lessons from Kodak and Polaroid’s shifts. They emphasize best practices for preserving digital and physical photographs, ensuring long-term access to family history. Plus, they highlight tools like Vivid-Pix for enhancing and organizing images effectively. FileShadow Shutdown: Why its closure is a wake-up call for photo storage users. Backup Strategies: The importance of maintaining at least three backups (local, external, cloud). Industry Lessons: How Kodak, Polaroid, and digital platforms shape the photo marketplace. Preserving Memories: Best practices for safeguarding digital and printed photos. Vivid-Pix Tools: How software can enhance and annotate historical images. Related Episodes: Episode 192: Photo Reminiscence Therapy and Family Photos with Rick Voight of Vivid-Pix.com Links: Vivid-Pix Restore Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help preserving your photos? Check out Maureen’s Preserving Family Photographs ebook Need help identifying family photos? Check out The Family Photo Detective ebook Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: With a few decades of doer and executive experience with Kodak and HP, Rick Voight and Randy Fredlund co-founded Vivid-Pix. Vivid-Pix designs, creates, and delivers fast, easy and affordable photo and document improvement software. Since launching in 2012, Vivid-Pix has advanced its product to earn the support of family historians, genealogists, photographers, and business leaders in over 100 countries. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, T
Sun, February 09, 2025
Digging Into Civil War Pension Files with Brian Rhinehart
In this episode of The Photo Detective , host Maureen Taylor speaks with Brian Rhinehart, founder of CivilWarRecords.com , about uncovering lost Civil War history through archival research. Brian shares his journey from genealogy hobbyist to professional researcher specializing in Civil War records at the National Archives. He explains the misconceptions about military records, emphasizing that most are not available online. They discuss the rich details found in pension files, including personal letters, affidavits, and service histories, as well as the rare chance of finding soldier photographs. Brian also provides insights on tracking elusive ancestors through military, pension, and bounty records. If you’re struggling with your Civil War research, Brian’s expertise can help you find those missing pieces. Related Episodes: Episode 245: The Enduring Legacy of Tintypes: From Civil War Soldiers to Contemporary Artists Episode 60: Finding Pictures of Your Civil War Ancestors Links: Civil War Records.com Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Need help preserving your photos? Check out Maureen’s Preserving Family Photographs ebook Need help identifying family photos? Check out The Family Photo Detective ebook Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Brian Rhinehart is a professional genealogist and speaker and is the owner of CivilWarRecords.com . He is a graduate of Boston University’s Certificate of Genealogy Research and is a regular researcher for the television show Finding Your Roots. A direct descendant of eight Civil War soldiers, Brian specializes in research and record retrieval for Civil War and War of 1812 soldiers at the National Archives in Washington DC and has retrieved military files for hundreds of clients there. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective® helps clients with photo related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s forem
Sun, February 02, 2025
Exploring Project Kin: Barbara Tien's Community for Storytellers and Genealogists
Barbara Tien discusses her role as the “ringleader” of Project Kin on the Photo Detective podcast. After her startup, Ponga, shut down, Tien decided to keep her team together and transitioned to creating Project Kin, a community focused on storytelling and family history without any financial gain. She emphasizes the platform’s global reach, privacy importance, and its emphasis on story preservation and sharing. The platform is built on a foundation of helping members tell their own family stories, with tools and support provided for free. Tien also touches on her previous use of Substack to enhance community engagement. Project Kin fosters a community centered on storytelling and family history. It’s a non-profit initiative with a global outreach, particularly across English-speaking countries. Tien emphasizes privacy and the preservation of family stories in digital and physical forms. Project Kin offers regular events and resources to help members document and share their stories effectively. Related Episodes: Episode 237: How Storied.com Transforms Family HIstory into Captivating Stories Episode 240: The Hidden Stories of Tattooing: Dr. Matt Lodder on Tattoos in Photography and Society Links: ProjectKin on Substack.com The Lafayette Project Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help preserving your photos? Check out Maureen’s Preserving Family Photographs ebook Need help identifying family photos? Check out The Family Photo Detective ebook Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Barbara is the “ringleader” at Projectkin, a community of family historians hooked on stories. After a career in technology startups, she turned her long-time love of family history into a free, platform-independent community that encourages famili
Sun, January 26, 2025
Fileshadow News. Photos of Famous People. Photo Detecting Clues
In this January 2025 solo episode of her podcast, Maureen Taylor, the photo detective, shares news for users of Fileshadow.com. She also shares insights into her professional life, detailing her expertise in analyzing historical photographs to assist in dating them and incorporating them into family histories. She discusses a recent project involving a photograph from Providence, and how she used various historical resources to accurately date it, along with providing updates on the photo marketplace and tips for digital photo management. Maureen Taylor works with clients to help integrate historical photographs into their family histories, keeping up-to-date with the photo marketplace and new technologies. Discusses a case study involving a photograph of Market Square in Providence, using city directories and newspapers to date it to between 1845 and 1846. Notes the suspension of the digital photo organizer website Fileshadow, highlighting the importance of maintaining current contact information for digital services. Previews an upcoming podcast episode with Rick Voight about changes in the photo marketplace, including tips for managing and backing up digital photos. Shares insights from her consultative work with clients and students on various historical and photographic research projects. Related Episodes: Episode 254: Solving Family Photo Mysteries: A Journey with The Photo Detective Episode 251: Through the Lens: Unveiling Family Stories Links: Winslow Homer painting Civil War era backdrops Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help preserving your photos? Check out Maureen’s Preserving Family Photographs ebook Need help identifying family photos? Check out The Family Photo Detective ebook Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor:<br/
Sun, January 12, 2025
Seth Rockman on Plantation Goods: Unveiling Material History of American Slavery
On this episode of The Photo Detective , I’m joined by Seth Rockman, author of Plantation Goods: A Material History of American Slavery . Seth’s groundbreaking research uncovers the economic and material ties that connected New England industries to the Southern plantation economy in the 19th century. From the labor of Rhode Island seamstresses to the cotton fields of Mississippi, his work reveals the intricate networks of production and exploitation that defined this era. Join us as we explore the stories of everyday objects and the lives they shaped across America’s divided landscape. New England’s Role in Plantation Economy: Exploring the economic links between Northern industry and Southern slavery. Material History Insights: How objects like wool pants and shoes reveal hidden narratives of exploitation and labor. Local and Global Perspectives: The intersection of Rhode Island industry with global commodity markets. Impact on Modern Ethical Dilemmas: Connecting 19th-century consumer choices to contemporary concerns like fair trade and sustainable labor. Rich Archival Discoveries: The pivotal role of family records and company account books in reconstructing forgotten histories. Related Episodes: Episode 220: Dress Codes and Fashion Rules Through History with Richard Thompson Ford Episode 195: Imperfect History with Curator Sarah Weatherwax Links: Seth Rockman Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Seth Rockman is an associate professor of history at Brown University. He is the author of Scraping By: Wage Labor, Slavery, and Survival in Early Baltimore and coeditor of Slavery’s Capitalism: A New History of American Economic Development . Rockman serves on the faculty advisory board of Brown University’s Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveTM, helps clients with photo-related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective”
Sun, January 05, 2025
The Power of Knitting: History, Healing, and Resilience in Loretta Napoleoni's Book
Loretta Napoleoni’s The Power of Knitting explores the universal significance of knitting through history, culture, and personal memoir. An economist by profession, Napoleoni combines research with heartfelt reflections, revealing knitting’s historical roles in revolutions, spycraft, and resilience. She highlights its meditative, brain-stimulating effects, debunks its dismissal as a mere domestic craft, and celebrates its community-building power. Her engaging book resonates with seasoned knitters, historians, and curious readers alike, redefining the craft’s place in our lives. Explores knitting’s roles from ancient Egypt to modern revolutions, including its political and cultural impact. Highlights the therapeutic and cognitive benefits of knitting, akin to yoga for the brain. Shares compelling stories of knitting’s use in espionage and personal healing during crises. Examines knitting as a proletariat craft and its evolution in social perception. Combines memoir, history, and science to showcase knitting’s role in survival and creativity. Related Episodes: Episode 241: Threads of Life: Unraveling the Rich Tapestry of Sewing with Author Clare Hunter Episode 240: The Hidden Stories of Tattooing: Dr. Matt Lodder on Tattoos in Photography and Society Links: Loretta Napoleoni Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Need help preserving your photos? Check out Maureen’s Preserving Family Photographs ebook Need help identifying family photos? Check out The Family Photo Detective ebook Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Loretta Napoleoni is the bestselling author of Maonomics, Rogue Economics, Terror Incorporated and Insurgent Iraq. She is an expert on terrorist financing and money laundering, and advises several governments and international organizations on counter-terrorism and money laundering. As Chairman of the countering terrorism financing group for the Club de Madrid, Napoleoni brought heads of state from around the world together to create a new strategy for combating the financing of te
Sun, December 22, 2024
Solving Family Photo Mysteries: A Journey with The Photo Detective
Welcome to the December 2024 solo episode of The Photo Detective with Maureen Taylor. In this episode, Maureen shares the story of Amy Barlow, who solved a photo mystery with Maureen’s guidance during a consultation. Amy’s photograph depicted a family standing in front of a store. Using resources like eBay, WorthPoint, city directories, Sanborn maps, and more, Amy unraveled the store’s history and connection to her family. Maureen highlights the personalized and collaborative nature of her consultations, where she provides guidance, homework, and insights into the historical, genealogical, and material contexts of family photographs. Maureen’s expertise bridges the gap between photos and family histories, from dating tintypes to identifying family snapshots. This episode is a reminder of the power of pictures in preserving and uncovering our personal pasts. Related Episodes: Episode 245 : The Enduring Legacy of Tintypes: From Civil War Soldiers to Contemporary Artists Episode 248: Genealogy Travel Tips: How to Plan an Effective Ancestral Research Trip Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help preserving your photos? Check out Maureen’s Preserving Family Photographs ebook Need help identifying family photos? Check out The Family Photo Detective ebook Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveTM, helps clients with photo-related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts . </
Sun, December 08, 2024
Preserving Everyday History: Kiki Smith's Journey with the Smith College Historic Clothing Collection
Kiki Smith, a professor from the theater department at Smith College, joins the “Photo Detective” podcast to discuss her unique journey with the Smith College Historic Clothing Collection. Initially joining the department temporarily, Smith found herself organizing a chaotic costume storage area into a vital educational and research resource. Her book “Real Clothes, Real Lives” documents 200 years of women’s everyday attire using items from this collection. With a focus on ordinary garments rather than high fashion, Smith emphasizes the stories and social history these clothes tell. Her efforts have transformed the collection into a recognized academic and historical resource, gaining attention for its unique focus and prompting further institutional support. Her book, “Real Clothes, Real Lives,” explores 200 years of women’s attire, focusing on garments from everyday life. Smith’s work highlights the importance of preserving ordinary clothing for educational and historical insights. The collection started modestly but grew through contributions and Smith’s persistent efforts to catalog and display the items. There is currently an exhibit of clothing from the collection at New York Historical Related Episodes: Episode 181: Clothing Care at the New Canaan Historical Society Episode 135: Stitch by Stitch: Saving Historic Clothing a Piece at a Time with Conservator Maria Vasquez Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help preserving your photos? Check out Maureen’s Preserving Family Photographs ebook Need help identifying family photos? Check out The Family Photo Detective ebook Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Kiki Smith is the Director of the Smith College Historic Clothing Collection that was founded 42 years ago by a student and is based there in the basement of the Theatre Building near the Costume Shop. The collection now numbers over 4000 pieces. Her book Real Clothes, Real Lives: 200 Years of What Women Wore (Rizzoli), published
Sun, December 01, 2024
Author Paul Frecker Discusses Cartomania: The Intersection of Photography and Fame
In this podcast episode, we are thrilled to have Paul Frecker, an expert on 19th-century photography and the author of Cartomania: Photography and Celebrity in the 19th Century . Paul brings a unique perspective from his days as a dealer specializing in 19th-century photography, focusing on the intriguing format of Carte de Visite. His journey from collector to author reveals the passion and dedication that culminated in his comprehensive book. Paul discusses how Carte de Visite captured images and shaped celebrity culture and social norms of the era. The episode delves into the historical and cultural significance of these photographic artifacts, providing listeners with a fascinating look into the past through the lens of today. Key Points Covered: The origin and cultural impact of Carte de Visite. The technological advancements in photography during the 19th century. The role of celebrity culture in popularizing Carte de Visite. Paul Frecker’s personal journey from collector to author. The legacy and historical value of Carte de Visite in modern times. Related Episodes: Episode 222: Discovering the World Through Lenses: Dr. Michael Pritchard and the History of Photography Episode 217: Collecting Photography with Greg French of Greg French Early Photography Links: Paul Frecker Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help preserving your photos? Check out Maureen’s Preserving Family Photographs ebook Need help identifying family photos? Check out The Family Photo Detective ebook Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Paul Frecker is a British dealer in vintage photographs who specializes in cartes de visite. He is also a collector and a photo-historian; his book Cartomania: Photography & Celebrity in the Nineteenth Century, published earlier this year , was hailed as the definitive text on the subject for a generation to come. About Mauree
Sun, November 24, 2024
Through the Lens: Unveiling Family Stories
In this episode, Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective TM explores the power of a photo through a series of case studies. She introduces a new photo storytelling option for clients. The Power of a Photo Decoding the Context The Emotional Landscape Integrating Technology Case Study: Putting it into Practice. Related Episodes: Episode 237: How Storied.com Transforms Family History into Captivating Stories Episode 185 Genealogy on TikTok with Gwyneth.Stories Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help preserving your photos? Check out Maureen’s Preserving Family Photographs ebook Need help identifying family photos? Check out The Family Photo Detective ebook Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveÒhelps clients with photo-related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts . I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Sun, November 10, 2024
Telling Her Story: How to Research and Write Women's Histories with Sharon Carmack
In today’s episode of The Photo Detective , guest Sharon Carmack introduces her groundbreaking book, Telling Her Story , a comprehensive guide to researching and writing about historical women. Sharon’s work, spanning 370 pages, is rich with resources, case studies, and examples that empower genealogists and family historians to uncover the hidden lives of women from the past. By using social history research, annotated essays, and speculative writing techniques, Carmack dispels the myth that women’s lives are impossible to document. Her book serves as a resourceful tool for anyone looking to explore and honor the stories of female ancestors. Includes strategies for using social history research and speculative writing. Provides case studies and examples of overlooked sources like court records and newspapers. Empowers genealogists to navigate and document the nuanced histories of women in their family trees. Related Episodes: Episode 105: Women in the Dark: Female Photographers in the U.S., 1850-1900 Episode 149: Rediscovered Photos of an American Medium with Sharon Carmack Links: Warrencarmack.com Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help preserving your photos? Check out Maureen’s Preserving Family Photographs ebook Need help identifying family photos? Check out The Family Photo Detective ebook Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Sharon DeBartolo Carmack is a Certified Genealogist® with a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction Writing, a Diploma in Irish Studies from the National University of Ireland–Galway, and a Diploma from the Spiritualists’ National Union in the UK. As part of the adjunct faculty at Salt Lake Community College, Sharon developed and teaches five online courses. She is also the author of twenty-four books and hundreds of articles, essays, columns, and reviews that have appeared in nearly every major genealogical journal and publication. Some of Sharon’s books include Tel
Sun, November 03, 2024
The Beginner's Guide to Cemetery Sleuthing with Author Erin Moulton
Erin Moulton discusses her book, “The Beginner’s Guide to Cemetery Sleuthing, Scavenger Hunt,” which is uniquely designed as a workbook. Moulton, a local history librarian at Derry Public Library, shares her journey from genealogy enthusiast to cemetery researcher. The book serves as a practical guide for collecting key details from cemeteries, which can then be further explored in archives for deeper genealogical research. Erin Moulton’s book is structured as a workbook to enhance the learning experience through hands-on activities. Techniques in the book include how to extract and interpret data from headstones, such as names, dates, and symbols. Moulton emphasizes the use of local historical resources to aid in locating graves and understanding the broader historical context. The podcast also touches on ethical considerations in cemetery research and the future of genealogical resources with digital archiving. Related Episodes: Episode 203: Recipes on Gravestones with Rosie Grant Episode 246: Uncovering History with Kurt Deion: A Journey to Every Presidential Grave Links: Erin Moulton’s website. Sign up for my newsletter. Need help preserving your photos? Check out Maureen’s Preserving Family Photographs ebook Need help identifying family photos? Check out The Family Photo Detective ebook Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Erin E. Moulton writes books and tracks dead people. As a genealogical researcher, she has explored the lives of the departed for over 14 years. Erin is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, the New Hampshire Historical Society, and the New Hampshire Society of Genealogists. She holds a B.A. from Emerson College, an M.F.A. from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and a Certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University. She is an award-winning author of middle grade and young adult books. You can find her online at www.erinemoulton.com . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective TM helps clients with photo related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detectiv
Sun, October 27, 2024
Genealogy Travel Tips: How to Plan an Effective Ancestral Research Trip
Exploring family history is a personal journey, often sparked by familial influences and nurtured through personal curiosity and research. My mother’s passion for family history was contagious, influencing my own exploration of our ancestry. This shared interest led us on numerous adventures, uncovering the stories and places connected to our lineage, from Quebec to New Hampshire. Key Points: Personal Influence : My mom’s enthusiasm for family history played a pivotal role in my interest in the field. Ancestral Homeland Visits : Living close to Quebec allowed us to visit significant family locations and deepen our connection to our heritage. Utilizing Technology : I leveraged AI tools to enhance research effectiveness, proving beneficial despite some challenges. Travel Tips : Focused on specific areas and ancestors, I optimized my travel plans for genealogical research. Related Episodes: Episode 245: The Enduring Legacy of Tintypes: From Civil War Soldiers to Contemporary Artists Episode 242: Uncovering the Past Through Postcards Links: Maison de Nos Aïeux Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help preserving your photos? Check out Maureen’s Preserving Family Photographs ebook Need help identifying family photos? Check out The Family Photo Detective ebook Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective TM helps clients with photo-related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com <b
Sun, October 13, 2024
Trailblazing Women Behind the Camera: A Deep Dive with Katherine Manthorne
In this episode of the podcast, Katherine Manthorne returns to discuss her book “Women in the Dark: Female Photographers 1840 to 1900.” The conversation explores the overlooked contributions of female photographers during the early days of photography, highlighting their innovative approaches and resilience in a male-dominated field. Manthorne shares insights into her research process, which began at flea markets and led to the discovery of numerous female photographers through their photo cards and studio stamps. The discussion also touches on the societal conditions that allowed women to enter the field of photography, the unique challenges they faced, and the significant yet unrecognized roles they played in the industry. Key Points: Women entered photography as it was a new field without established gender hierarchies, providing them with opportunities for financial independence and creative expression. Many women photographers were not recognized during their lifetimes, and their contributions are only now being rediscovered. The podcast highlights specific stories of female photographers who managed studios, worked in retouching, and even ventured into landscape photography, a challenging feat at the time. Related Episodes: Episode 105: Women in the Dark: Female Photographers in the U.S. 1850-1900 Episode 91: Suffragists and Suffragettes: Fashion and the Vote Links: Katherine Manthorne website Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help preserving your photos? Check out Maureen’s Preserving Family Photographs ebook Need help identifying family photos? Check out The Family Photo Detective ebook Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Katherine Manthorne writes about landscape art across the Americas and the contribution of women to 19th century art and culture. Currently an art history professor at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, she has been a visiting professor in Venice,
Sun, October 06, 2024
Uncovering History with Kurt Deion: A Journey to Every Presidential Grave
Kurt Deion, author of Presidential Grave Hunter , shares his lifelong journey of visiting every U.S. president and vice president’s grave. Sparked by early interests in presidential history and inspired by books and family trips, Kurt’s unique quest began in childhood. His book combines memoir and historical facts, recounting adventures and discoveries at burial sites. Besides graves, Kurt has explored presidential libraries, capturing memories through photographs. He continues his historical pursuits, researching and visiting various historical figures, reflecting his deep passion for public and presidential history. Kurt’s fascination with presidential history began at age seven, spurred by the book So You Want to Be President? . Kurt has visited the graves of all U.S. presidents and vice presidents, documenting these visits in his book. He emphasizes the importance of photographs for documenting and sharing historical sites. Kurt continues to explore and document other historical figures, expanding beyond presidential history. Related Episodes: Episode 148: Early Photographs on Headstones with Elliot Conte Episode 203: Recipes on Gravestones with Rosie Grant Links: Kurt’s Historic Sites Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help preserving your photos? Check out Maureen’s Preserving Family Photographs ebook Need help identifying family photos? Check out The Family Photo Detective ebook Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Kurt Deion is a public historian, author, guest speaker, and presidential expert for RoadsideAmerica.com . He holds an M.A. in history. At age 14 he launched kurtshistoricsites.com as a means to both document his travels and to encourage others to visit gravesites and engage in hands-on history. His website and his cemetery pilgrimages were the subject of a 2015 interview on the C-SPAN show “Q&A.” He
Sun, September 29, 2024
The Enduring Legacy of Tintypes: From Civil War Soldiers to Contemporary Artists
Join Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective, in a solo episode where she delves into the fascinating world of tintypes. This episode covers everything from their historical emergence in 1856 to their resurgence via modern itinerant artists. Discover why tintypes remained popular through the 19th century and explore their unique characteristics, including their affordability, durability, and the fact they are made on iron, not tin. Maureen also shares insights on identifying and preserving these precious pieces of history. Episode Highlights: History and Popularity: Explore the origins of tintypes in 1856, their peak during the 1860s-1870s, and their enduring charm, attributed to their accessibility and affordability. Modern-Day Revival: Learn about the resurgence of tintypes through modern itinerant artists who travel with vans equipped to produce these photographs at events, preserving the traditional methods. Preservation Tips: Maureen provides expert advice on how to preserve tintypes, emphasizing the importance of proper storage and handling to prevent damage from environmental factors like humidity and sunlight. Related Episodes: Episode 116: America and the Tintype with Steven Kasher Bonus Episode: Tintypes Made for Movies and Television Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help preserving your photos? Check out Maureen’s Preserving Family Photographs ebook Need help identifying family photos? Check out The Family Photo Detective ebook Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveÒhelps clients with photo related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Ple
Sun, September 15, 2024
Preserving Your Legacy: Insights from Amanda Meeks of Permanent.org
In this episode of The Photo Detective, host Maureen Taylor speaks with Amanda Meeks, the Community and Partnerships Manager at Permanent.org. They discuss the recent developments at Permanent.org, focusing on the Legacy Lab, a new program designed to help users create and publish public archives. The Legacy Lab includes an email course that breaks down the archiving process into manageable tasks, emphasizing legacy planning and the importance of preserving history. They also touch on the Byte for Byte program, which offers storage grants for community archiving projects, and the new gifting feature for storage. Key Points Legacy Lab : An email-based course helping users create public archives; includes steps for storytelling, metadata, and legacy planning. Byte for Byte Program : Grants 100 GB storage to community archivists and organizations, reviewed biannually. Public vs. Private Archives : Users can choose to keep archives private or share them publicly; public archives support Permanent.org’s mission. New Features : Storage gifting and collaborative archives with designated payer accounts. Copyright Considerations : Users are encouraged to share materials they own the copyright for; measures in place to handle copyright issues. Related Episodes: Episode 184: Byte4Byte: Permanent.org’s Grant Program for Non-Profits Episode 95: How to Save Your Family Archive on Permanent.org Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Need help preserving your photos? Check out Maureen’s Preserving Family Photographs ebook Need help identifying family photos? Check out The Family Photo Detective ebook Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Amanda Meeks is Permanent.org’s community and partnerships manager prior to that, she worked in academic libraries. She’s a professionally trained librarian and an artist as well as an end-of-life doula. One of her primary responsibilities is managing the Byte4byte grant program. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveÒhelps clients with photo related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo de
Sun, September 08, 2024
The Hidden History of Pockets: A Conversation with Hannah Carlson
In this episode, Hannah Carlson, author of “Pockets: An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close,” discusses the historical and social significance of pockets. Inspired by a personal experience where she had no pockets during an emergency, Carlson explores how pockets have evolved from medieval times to modern days, highlighting their gender disparity. She delves into how pockets in women’s clothing were often inadequate or non-existent, contrasting with men’s standardized pocketed garments. Carlson also examines pockets in historical contexts, like women’s sports and military uniforms, and how pockets have influenced and reflected societal norms and gender roles. Key Points Historical Evolution : Pockets have evolved from medieval pocket slits to modern integral pockets in clothing, with men often having more practical pockets than women. Gender Disparity : Women’s clothing historically lacked pockets, reflecting societal views on femininity and practicality, and influencing how women carried their belongings. Pockets and Society : Pockets were banned in some eras due to their association with concealed weapons, and they influenced how people moved and interacted with the world. Modern Pockets : Despite advancements, women today still face issues with inadequate pockets, often expressed through social media and fashion movements. Related Episodes: Episode 220: Dress Codes and Fashion Rule Through History with Richard Thompson Ford Episode 215: The Story Behind Twentieth Century Skirts with Dr. Kimblerly Chrisman Campbell Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Need help preserving your photos? Check out Maureen’s Preserving Family Photographs ebook Need help identifying family photos? Check out The Family Photo Detective ebook . About My Guest: Hannah Carlson teaches dress history and material culture at the Rhode Island School of Design. After training as a conservator of costume and textiles at the Fashion Institute of Technology, she received a PhD in material culture from Boston University. She is the author of Pockets: An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close and has contributed articles to Commonplace: The Journal of Early American Life ; Dress: The Journal of the Costume Institute of America ; Design Observer ; and MacGuffin: The Life
Sun, August 25, 2024
Uncovering the Past Through Postcards with Maureen Taylor
In this solo episode of Maureen Taylor’s podcast, “The Photo Detective,” Maureen delves into the captivating world of postcards. She explores their historical significance and practical uses, both as travel memorabilia and valuable tools in family history research. The episode highlights the evolution of postcards from the early 1900s, including the introduction of Kodak’s folding pocket camera that could take postcard-sized photos, to the legislative changes in 1907 allowing messages on the back. Maureen shares her personal experiences and tips on collecting postcards, emphasizing their role in documenting local history and personal stories. Historical Evolution of Postcards: Tracing back to Kodak’s 1903 introduction of a camera for postcard-sized photos and the legislative change in 1907 allowing messages on the back. Practical Uses of Postcards: From travel souvenirs to event invitations, and even as a method for advertising and documenting local businesses and real estate. Collecting Postcards as a Hobby: Tips on starting a postcard collection that can reflect personal or local history, and how to manage and organize such collections effectively. Unique Postcard Collections: Insights into Maureen Taylor’s own collections, including real photo postcards and historical doorways, offering a glimpse into the early 20th century life. Interactive Postcard Projects: Highlighting innovative projects like the TikTok channel “Return to Sender,” which reconnects postcards with descendants of the intended recipients. Related Episodes: Episode 139: Collecting Postcards for a Half Century with Mark Routh Episode 141: Postal History Stories of Selling and Collecting with Jim Mehrer Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective TM helps clients with photo related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the natio
Sun, August 11, 2024
Threads of Life: Unraveling the Rich Tapestry of Sewing with author Clare Hunter
Clare Hunter, author of “Threads of Life,” joins Maureen on The Photo Detective podcast. A Scottish native with a background in theatre, community art, and creative writing, Clare discusses her book, which intertwines memoir and history, highlighting the social, emotional, and political significance of sewing. “Threads of Life” explores the profound impacts of needlework beyond its traditional domestic roles, demonstrating its importance in various social and historical contexts. Clare shares anecdotes from her personal life and research, emphasizing sewing’s transformative power in both personal and communal settings. Clare Hunter’s journey from theatre to writing, leading to her debut book “Threads of Life.” The book discusses needlework’s extensive historical roles, transcending mere hobbyism to include social and political significance. Insight into needlework in community settings, its therapeutic aspects, and its historical gender dynamics. Exploration of sewing’s portrayal in family photographs and its potential for storytelling. Clare’s ongoing work, including her new projects focusing on historical and personal narratives through textiles. Related Episodes: Bonus Episode: Stitching on Pictures: Stitchography by Emma Episode 155: Ancestral Handbag History with Curator Jessica Harpley Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Clare Hunter has been a community textile artist, banner maker and textile curator for over twenty years and established the award-winning community sewing enterprise NeedleWorks in Glasgow in the 1980s. Threads of Life : the History of the World through the Eye of a Needle , was her first book. It was warmly received, reaching The Sunday Times Bestseller List, chosen as Waterstone’s Book of the Month in Scotland and BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week and becoming joint winner of the Saltire Award for First Book . Her second book, Embroidering her Truth: Mary, Queen of Scots and the Language of Power , was published in March 2022 and has already reached the Scottish Books Bestseller list. Clare Hunter lives in Scotland.
Sun, August 04, 2024
The Hidden Stories of Tattooing: Dr. Matt Lodder on Tattoos in Photography and Society
Dr. Matt Lodder discusses his book Painted People: 5,000 Years of Tattooed History on The Photo Detective podcast. Focuses on tattoo history post-photography, noting tattoos often didn’t show up in early photos. Tattoos were private, often hidden under clothing, and not commonly photographed. Lodder's interest in tattoos started from family stories about his grandfather and great-grandmother’s tattoos. His research bridges common sailor tattoos with lesser-known tattoos on women and the middle class. Tattooing has a rich history, including 19th-century European aristocracy and tattoo tourism in Japan. He addresses common misconceptions: tattooing’s exclusivity to sailors/criminals and its introduction to Europe by Captain Cook. Lodder highlights tattooing’s historical continuity and its representation in art. The discussion covers various historical anecdotes and the evolution of color in tattoos. Related Episodes: Episode 210: The Dress Diary of Anne Sykes with Historian Dr. Kate Strasdin Episode 215: The Story Behind Twentieth Century Skirts with Dr. Kimberly Chrisman Campbell Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Dr. Matt Lodder is an academic, writer, curator, and broadcaster. He is currently Senior Lecturer in Art History and Theory and Director of American Studies at the University of Essex. He teaches European, American, and Japanese art, architecture, visual culture, and theory from the late 19th century to the present. His research primarily concerns the application of art-historical methods to the history of tattooing from the 17th century to the present day, with a principal focus on the professional era in the West from the 1880s onwards. Matt curated “Tattoo London” at the Museum of London in 2016. His latest major exhibition, “British Tattoo Art Revealed,” began at the National Maritime Museum Falmouth in March 2017 and toured through to 2021. He also served as the presenter of the landmark television series “Art of Museums,” which aired across Europe and beyond in late 2018 and early 2019. His first book, Painted People: Humanity i
Sun, July 28, 2024
Discovering Civil War Ancestors Through Photography: Tips and Tools for Family Historians
This solo episode of the “Photo Detective” podcast delves into the intriguing task of discovering photographs of Civil War ancestors. Host Maureen offers a wealth of strategies and resources that not only cater to finding Civil War soldier images but also generalize to uncovering historical family photographs. Emphasizing the personal connections and untold stories each photo can reveal, she provides a comprehensive guide to enhancing your family history through visual documentation. Key Points from the Episode: Networking with Relatives: Beyond immediate family, connect with distant relatives found through online family trees and DNA matches to explore their photo collections. Library of Congress: Utilize their extensive Civil War prints and photographs collection by searching specific names or military units at loc.gov. Civil War Photo Sleuth: This tool uses facial recognition to help identify unknown soldiers in Civil War-era photographs, enhancing research through a user-contributed database. Historical Societies and Archives: Local historical groups often have unique collections; the story of finding an ancestor’s photo through a Facebook group underscores the potential of such resources. Online Resources: Websites like Fold3.com and DeadFred.com offer extensive archives of Civil War images and other historical photographs, which can be searched by name, location, or unit. Related Episodes: Episode 32: The Man Behind DeadFred.com Episode 24: The Civil War Photo Sleuth Links: Download a list of links mentioned in this episode Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveTM hel
Sun, July 14, 2024
Uncovering Manchester’s Dark Past: Dr. Dean Kirby on Angel Meadow and the Victorian Slums
In this fascinating podcast episode, Dr. Dean Kirby, a historian, journalist, and professional genealogist based in Manchester, England, shares his deep-rooted interest in the Manchester slums. Key Inspiration: Discovery of great-great-great grandfather’s history in Angel Meadow, a notorious Manchester slum. Research Focus: Manchester slums during the Industrial Revolution, leading to a PhD and the book “Angel Meadow: Victorian Britain’s Most Savage Slum.” Living Conditions: Overcrowded homes, cellar dwellings, and poor sanitation in 19th-century Manchester. Impact of American Civil War: Blockade of southern ports affected Manchester’s cotton industry, leading to starvation. Scuttlers: Notorious gangs of street fighters in Manchester with distinct attire and territories. Genealogy Tips: Use of poor rate books, prison archives, and newspaper records for historical research. Historical Insights: The connection between Manchester and the American Civil War, and the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 Related Episodes: Episode 180: Photos, Memories, and English Genealogy with Emma Jolly Episode 197: What You Need to Know about Heraldry with Dr. Nathaniel Taylor, FASG Links: The Manchester History Club Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . About My Guest: Dr Dean Kirby has a PhD in urban history and is an associate of the UK’s body for professional genealogists, the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives. His interest in family history was sparked when archaeologists dug up his Irish ancestor’s home in one of Manchester’s worst slums – the inappropriately named district of Angel Meadow. Dean now runs the professional family history research service www.manchesterfamilyhistory.com which helps families around the world research their Manchester and Lancashire roots. He also writes the Manchester history newsletter www.manchesterhistory.uk , which reveals forgo
Sun, July 07, 2024
How Storied.com Transforms Family History into Captivating Stories
In this episode of “The Photo Detective,” host Maureen Taylor welcomes Kendall Hewlett, CEO of Storied.com, to discuss the revolutionary platform that fills a crucial gap in the family history industry by emphasizing the importance of storytelling over mere data collection. Inspiration Behind Storied.com : Kendall Hewlett created the platform to focus on the storytelling aspect of family history, inspired by research showing that knowledge of family stories increases resilience in children. Unique Features : Storied.com offers an end-to-end family history platform where users can build family trees, document stories, and produce hardbound books. Storytelling Focus : The platform emphasizes creating bite-sized, engaging stories that are easier to digest and more appealing than lengthy tomes. Community and Relationships : Storied.com maps out not only family relationships but also significant non-blood connections, enhancing the storytelling experience. User Engagement : Users can create private or public groups, share stories, and invite family members to contribute, making it a collaborative effort. Advanced Tools : The platform includes AI-assisted writing tools, audio transcription, and a growing database of historical records and newspapers. Related Episodes: Episode 235: Exploring Ancestry.com’s New Photo and Storytelling Features with Crista Cowan Episode 221:Permanent Digital Storage Solutions with Tammy Kirby of Forever.com Links: Storied.com Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . About My Guest: Kendall Hulet is the CEO of Storied, is passionate about the power of family stories to strengthen us and bring us together. Earlier in his career, Kendall led product management at Ancestry, where he oversaw the search engine, international growth, mobile app, AncestryDNA features, and where he co-created
Sun, June 23, 2024
How to Manage and Remove Duplicate Photos for Genealogy Projects
In this solo episode of Ask Maureen, I’ll address a common genealogist’s dilemma: managing and organizing digital photos, including handling duplicates. Whether you’re a seasoned genealogist or a beginner, mastering photo organizers and duplicate detection tools can simplify your work and enhance your family history projects. Key Topics Importance of photo organizers for genealogists Key features to look for in photo organizing software Popular photo organizing tools and their benefits Strategies for effective photo organization and duplicate detection Tips for maintaining an organized digital photo collection Related Episodes: Episode 234: Transforming Photo Organization: Insights from Mylios Founder David Vascovich Episode 221: Permanent Digital Storage Solutions with Tammy Kirby of Forever.com Links: Ask Maureen Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveÒhelps clients with photo-related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss you
Sun, June 09, 2024
Exploring Ancestry.com’s New Photo and Storytelling Features with Crista Cowan
Today, I am thrilled to have Crista Cowan, Ancestry.com’s Corporate Genealogist, also known as “The Barefoot Genealogist” on YouTube, as our guest. Crista has been a pivotal figure at Ancestry, helping countless people uncover their family histories. Introduction of the “Memories” feature, previously known as “Storymaker Studio.” Details on how users can share and collaborate on photo albums. Privacy settings and sharing options on Ancestry. Integration with Family Trees Overview of Pro Tools features: Error Checker, Fan Chart, Charts and Reports, Map Feature Explanation of privacy settings for trees and photos. Crista’s upcoming podcast, “Stories That Live In Us.” Related Episodes: Episode 184: Byte4Byte: Permanent.org’s Grant Program for Non-Profits Episode 180: Photos, Memories, and English Genealogy with Emma Jolly Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Crista Cowan has been employed by Ancestry.com since 2004; her involvement in family history, however, reaches all the way back to childhood. From being parked under a microfilm reader at the Family History Library in her baby carrier to her current career as a professional genealogist, Crista has spent thousands of hours discovering, documenting, and telling family stories. During her time at Ancestry, she has been a European Content Acquisition Manager, the Digital Preservation Indexing Manager, and the Community Alliance Manager for the Ancestry World Archives Project. For the past several years she has been the Corporate Genealogist, with responsibilities for speaking and teaching at genealogy conferences around the world and helping with family history research for public relations stories. Known online as “The Barefoot Genealogist” with a
Sun, June 02, 2024
Transforming Photo Organization: Insights from Mylio's Founder David Vascovich
Today, we have a special guest, David Vascovich, the CEO and founder of Mylio.com, a revolutionary digital photo organizing site. In this episode, we delve into the inspiration behind Mylio, its innovative features, and how it stands out in the crowded field of photo organization tools. Key Features of Mylio The Life Calendar: A unique way to visualize decades of memories. Automatic face recognition and its efficiency. Support for photos, videos, and documents. Integration with other tools and apps for editing and management. Compatibility with third-party editing tools like Photoshop Metadata management and its importance for organizing photos. Support and Resources Mylio’s help system, user forums, and support team. Options for professional assistance and bundles for new users. Related Episodes: Episode 228: Joseph Quaderer: Democratizing Biographies with StorySavor.com Episode 221: Permanent Digital Storage Solutions with Tammy Kirby of Forever.com Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: David Vaskevitch’s career as visionary software architect, business innovator, and author spans more than 50 years. He built one of the first three email systems in the world in 1971. After joining Microsoft in 1986, he held various senior executive positions during his 23-year tenure, including chief technical officer. The founder of several software ventures, Vaskevitch is founder and CEO of Bellevue, Wash. Mylio. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective TM helps clients with photo related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s for
Sun, May 26, 2024
Essential Genealogy Organization Tips: Listener Advice
In this third solo podcast episode on organization and documentation, listeners shared tips to improve genealogy research. Weekly Paper Organization: Ann Marie recommends setting aside one hour each week, similar to Cindy Ingle’s “Filing Friday”. Note-taking Advice: Stress on thorough documentation to avoid forgetting crucial sources during intense research. Initial Organizational Plan: Barbara underscores the importance of a solid plan from the start to manage growing family documents. Using Genealogy Software: Highlighting the benefits of integrating digital tools for data management. Documenting and Citing Sources: Various speakers, including Beverly and Donna, emphasize the necessity to immediately record sources. Labeling Photographs: Kathy and other guests discuss the importance of labeling photos and using metadata for future reference. Digital Tools for Storytelling: Suggestions to use modern technology to record and transcribe family stories. Physical Albums and Photos: Advice on creating tangible family albums for easier sharing and storytelling. Genealogy Research Tips: Various speakers share personal anecdotes and tips for efficient genealogy research. Related Episodes: Episode 224: Tracing Your Roots: Key Strategies for New Genealogists Episode 230: Unlocking Family Secrets: Expert Tips for Interviewing Relatives Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveÒhelps clients with photo related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Ple
Sun, May 12, 2024
Harnessing AI for Family Photo Tasks with Steve Little and Mark Thompson
In this episode of "The Photo Detective," guests Steve Little and Mark Thompson return to discuss AI's integration in genealogy photo projects. They discuss historical breakthroughs in image analysis, such as the ability of AI to recognize visual jokes and extract text from images, such as tombstone inscriptions. They also cover the practical applications of AI in managing and tagging large photo collections, greatly reducing the time and effort required. The discussion emphasizes the importance of critical analysis in genealogy, noting that AI tools should complement but not replace traditional research methods. The episode highlights the evolving nature of AI technology, the ethical considerations in its use, and the potential future advancements that could further revolutionize genealogical photo analysis. Key Topics: Historical development of AI in image recognition. Practical uses of AI in photo tagging and collection management. Detailed case studies of AI successfully identifying and analyzing elements in photos. Ethical concerns and limitations of AI, especially in facial recognition. Future prospects and potential improvements in AI photo analysis technology. Insights: Discussion on AI's role in identifying visual jokes. How AI has revolutionized the task of managing and tagging massive photo collections. Ethical implications of advanced facial recognition technologies. Importance of maintaining a skeptical and analytical approach to AI-generated data in genealogy. Conclusion: Emphasis on AI as a tool in genealogy that requires cautious integration and continual evaluation. Related Episodes: Episode 207: An Underutilized Source: The Newberry Library Episode 221: Permanent Digital Storage Solutions with Tammy Kirby of Forever.com Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for <a href='htt
Sun, May 05, 2024
Navigating the New Era of AI in Genealogy with Steve Little and Mark Thompson
In this episode of the Photo Detective Podcast, Maureen was joined by Mark Thompson, a professional genealogist and IT expert, and Steve Little, AI Program Director at the National Genealogical Society. Main Discussion Points : Comparisons of AI's current impact to the dot-com era. The role of small companies and startups in driving AI innovations. Potential applications of AI in genealogy and historical research. Ethical Considerations : Discussion on privacy issues related to AI. Ethical use of AI in processing sensitive genealogical data. Future of AI in Genealogy : Predictions on AI's evolving role in research and data analysis. Integration of AI tools into mainstream applications like Microsoft products. Related Episodes: Bonus Episode: ChatGPT and Image Generators: What You Need to Know Episode 205: Numbers to Names: A Holocaust Database Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guests: Stephen J. Little, is the AI Program Director for the National Genealogical Society and has lifelong passions for language, technology, and genealogy. His passion lies in AI & genetic genealogy, with a keen interest in endogamy, pedigree collapse, and the art of deciphering multiple relationships through DNA segment triangulation, and an insatiable curiosity to explore beneficial uses and current limits of artificial intelligence in genealogy. Mark Thompson is a professional genealogist and educator who specializes in genetic genealogy and researching personal family archives. Prior to becoming a genealogist, Mark worked in leadership roles in information technology. Mark’s combined background in technology and genealogy uniquely positions him to introduce genealogists to the rapidly changing field
Sun, April 28, 2024
Unlocking Family Secrets: Expert Tips on Interviewing Relatives for Genealogy
In today's solo episode, Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective, delves into the essential practice of interviewing relatives for family history research. Following the feedback from newsletter subscribers and podcast listeners, this episode focuses on the collective wisdom and personal insights shared on this topic. We will explore the nuances of conducting effective interviews, the importance of capturing oral histories, and how these personal accounts enrich our understanding of family lineage and heritage. Introduction to the importance of interviewing relatives for family history research. Summary of listener and subscriber advice on conducting interviews. Tips for preparing for an interview, including researching and creating a conducive environment. Discussion of the best practices for recording interviews and preserving oral histories. Insights on starting with elder relatives and verifying family information. Techniques for encouraging relatives to share stories and memories. Overview of resources for developing effective interview questions, such as AmericanAncestors.org. Personal anecdotes and advice from other listeners on the value of capturing family stories. Preview of the next episode focusing on advice for one’s younger self in family history research. Related Episodes: Episode 228: Joseph Quaderer: Democratizing Biographies with StorySavor.com Episode 77: Interviewing Relatives: A Conversation with Personal Biographer Francie King Links: Conducting a Family History Interview from AmericanAncestors.org 100 Questions to Ask Your Mother from Today.com Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . </
Sun, April 14, 2024
Savoring the Story: Andrew Scravani on the Intersection of Food, Photography, and Life
Today, we dive into the flavorful world of Andrew Scrivani, a renowned food photographer and author of “That Photo Makes Me Hungry”. Andrew shares his extensive experience spanning over two decades, revealing insights into the evolution of food photography, his creative process, and the broader implications of visual storytelling in our culinary experiences. As we explore his journey from capturing the essence of food to coaching emerging creatives, Andrew illuminates the intricate relationship between art, life, and the ever-changing digital landscape of photography. Discussion on the evolution of food photography and its cultural significance Insights into the impact of social media and technology on the photography industry Exploration of food photography’s role in documenting cultural and temporal changes The importance of storytelling and personal connection in creating memorable images His involvement with the Content Authentication Initiative Future trends in photography, including the challenges and opportunities presented by AI Related Episodes: Episode 209: Seeing Double: Talking Look-Alikes with Francois Brunnelle Episode 196: Early Color Photos and the American Museum of Photography Links: Content Authenticity Andrew Scrivani’s website Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Andrew is a photographer, director, and producer who has worked on editorial, publishing, advertising, content creation, documentary, and feature film projects. He is also the producer and co-host of The Chef John Podcast. Andrew launched his online learning platform in April of 2022 called the Andrew Scrivani Academy. His first book, That Photo Make
Sun, April 07, 2024
Digitize Your Past: How ScanMyPhotos.com Transformed Photo Preservation
Mitch Goldstone, from ScanMyPhotos.com, returned to the Photo Detective Podcast to discuss the growth and evolution of his photo-scanning business. Having preserved over a billion pictures, the company specializes in digitizing old photographs, slides, and films, thus safeguarding personal and historical memories. Mitch shared the journey of adapting from traditional photo labs to digital scanning, fueled by shifts in technology and public events. He highlighted the emotional impact of rediscovering and sharing old photos, especially through their ScanFast service for urgent needs. The conversation also touched on the future of photo archiving, including AI and virtual reality enhancements. Mitch Goldstone of ScanMyPhotos.com discusses surpassing a billion scanned photos. Technological shifts and events like 9/11 influenced the transition from traditional photo labs to digital scanning. The importance of digitizing photos to preserve memories and prevent loss due to deterioration or disasters. Introduction of ScanFast service for same-day scanning, aiding in immediate needs like memorial services. The role of digital archiving in preserving family history and cultural heritage. The impact of AI and virtual reality in enhancing photo viewing experiences. Note: This is an affiliate promotion, meaning we may earn a commission if you take advantage of this fantastic deal. Act fast, preserve your history, and save big with 'GoDigital' at ScanMyPhotos.com ! Related Episodes: Episode 50: Scan My Photos with Mitch Goldstone Episode 162: Preserving Your Life with Gaylord Archival Links: ScanMyPhotos.com USA Today Tech Tips Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consulta
Sun, March 31, 2024
Tracing Your Roots: Key Strategies for New Genealogists
In this solo episode, Maureen shares invaluable advice from her listeners, guiding beginner genealogists on their journey to trace their ancestry. From the critical importance of verification to the joy of discovering untold family stories, Maureen navigates through the collective wisdom of her audience, offering a treasure trove of tips and insights for anyone embarking on their genealogical quest. Overview of the episode’s theme: collecting advice for beginner genealogists from experienced listeners. Discussion on the importance of documenting family history accurately and avoiding assumptions. Insights into the challenges and rewards of genealogical research, including unexpected discoveries and the depth of family history. Tips for organizing genealogical research, including the use of timelines and careful documentation. Emphasis on the collaborative nature of genealogy and respecting the ownership of research findings. Exploration of the evolving career opportunities in genealogy and the importance of education in the field. Importance of skepticism towards online information and the value of primary sources in genealogical research. Related Episodes: Episode 160: Ask Maureen December 2021 edition Episode 147: Ask Maureen September 2021 Edition Links: Submit Your Ask Maureen Question Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveÒhelps clients with photo related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others. Learn more at <a href='https://mau
Sun, March 24, 2024
The Power of Relatives at RootsTech with Elizabeth Swanay O’Neal
Elizabeth Swanay O’Neal discusses the popular Relatives at Rootstech feature, which allows conference registrants to connect with family. It’s free to sign up, easy to participate in, and only available until March 31, 2024. Elizabeth shares her strategies for using it. Register for RootsTech to access recorded content and participate in “Relatives at RootsTech” for family tree connections. Opt-in to participate in “Relatives at RootsTech” and ensure you have an updated family tree on FamilySearch. Use the FamilySearch family tree mobile app to find relatives and actively engage with the genealogical community. Experience sharing reveals the potential to connect with distant relatives and gain new insights into family history. New features like saving contacts on RootsTech improve long-term communication possibilities with newfound relatives. Related Episodes: Episode 205: Numbers to Names: A Holocaust Photo Database Episode 24: Civil War Photo Sleuth Links: 5 Things to Do With Relatives at Rootstech Heart of the Family Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Elizabeth Swanay O’Neal is a professional genealogist, writer, educator, and national genealogical speaker. She is the author of the family history lifestyle website, Heart of the Family ™ where her mission is to help others make the past part of their present. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveÒhelps clients with photo related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearanc
Sun, March 10, 2024
Joseph Quaderer Democratizing Biographies with StorySavor.com
In this episode, we explore the fascinating journey of Joseph Quaderer, founder of StorySavor.com. Learn how this unique company is changing the landscape of biography writing, making it accessible to everyone. Joseph shares his transition from a finance professional to a passionate writer and entrepreneur. He discusses his experiences, from writing novels to starting a successful blog, and how these experiences led to the birth of StorySavor. Discover how StorySavor is democratizing the biography writing process, allowing anyone to have their stories artfully captured and preserved for generations. Joseph explains the streamlined process StorySaver uses to connect clients with professional writers, ensuring personal stories are told with authenticity and depth. Learn about the growth of StorySavor, its network of professional writers, and its impact on the writing community. Joseph reflects on the importance of storytelling, the therapeutic nature of sharing life stories, and his vision for the future of StorySavor. Related Episodes: Episode 77: Interviewing Relatives: A Conversation with Personal Biographer Francie King Bonus Episode: Katherine Howe on Writing–from the Salem Witches to Gloria Vanderbilt Links: StorySavor.com Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Joseph Quaderer is a graduate of The University of Notre Dame (BA in finance), New York University Stern School of Business (MBA in finance and strategy), and Columbia University Journalism School (MS in long-form journalism). After spending 17 years as a banker on Wall Street, he left finance to pursue his passion for storytelling. He’s currently the founder and CEO of StorySavor – a biography writing services company. StorySavor has a roster of 74 professional writers with credits in The New York Times, R
Sun, February 18, 2024
Rediscovered Memories: The Unexpected Return of Family Movies
Welcome to another captivating episode of our podcast! In today’s show, we’re joined by the remarkable Howlin Davis, a genealogy enthusiast with an extraordinary story to share. After tuning into one of our newsletters, Howlin revealed his unique tale of rediscovery. His journey began with an unexpected phone call that led him to a treasure trove of lost family memories captured in old film reels. Approximately 11 months ago, Howlin received a mysterious call asking if he was related to someone involved with the New York Stock Exchange. This call was the key to unlocking a series of family films dating back to the 1940s. These films, mistakenly believed to be related to the Stock Exchange, were actually personal family movies, showcasing scenes of New York City, Boston, and upstate New York. In this episode, Howlin takes us through the emotional journey of discovering these films. He explains his meticulous process of documenting each frame, revealing not just images but stories of his ancestors – his young parents, grandparents, and even family friends. This collection offers a rare glimpse into their lives, capturing their personalities and their era. Related Episodes: Bonus Episode: Lost History Discovered (in the Recycling) Episode 65: Lost Films Need Your Help! With Elil Savada Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: In 1973, Howland’s mother-in-law wanted to update her father’s descendency information (Neher/Near) which she published by hand (printing press & type). He had the book scanned so that they could work on it together. The updated book was republished in 1997. His mother then asked him to update her father’s family history (Fabyan), which was dated 1925 and was on a sheet of paper 40 inches wide by 30 inches high. He used that to make a book with that information in October 2
Sun, February 04, 2024
Past Preserved: Julian Rebello's Mission to Reunite Lost Heirlooms
In this episode, we delve into the heartwarming and intriguing world of Julian Rebello, the founder of the Chosen Families Project. Julian, a recent graduate with a unique blend of chemistry and graphic design expertise, has embarked on a poignant mission to reunite lost photographs, documents, and letters with their rightful families. His journey, which began with a chance discovery in an antique store, has evolved into a passionate project blending genealogy, history, and storytelling. Julian shares his experiences, challenges, and the satisfying moments of reuniting people with a piece of their history. His story is not just about preserving the past but also about connecting generations and honoring memories. Introduction to Julian Rebello and the Chosen Families Project. Origin and evolution of the Chosen Families Project: Returning photographs, documents, and letters to families. The project’s uniqueness: Not just photographs, but also documents and letters. The first project: Wedding photographs from Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania. The future goals and visions for the Chosen Families Project. Realistic perspectives on photo and document reunions. Closing thoughts and appreciation for Julian’s work. Related Episodes: Episode 174: A Case of Mistaken Identity: Sue’s Wedding Photo Reunion Episode 145: Orphan Photos Reunited Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Julian Rebelo is a New Jersey-based genealogist who, several years ago, created The Chosen Family Project out of his passion for collecting orphaned family photographs and documents whilst trying to reunite them with their respective families. Julian graduated from Monmouth University in 2023 with his Bachelor’s in Chemistry and recently graduated from the Boston Univer
Sun, December 24, 2023
Discovering the World Through Lenses: Dr. Michael Pritchard and the History of Photography
Maureen Taylor is thrilled to have Dr. Michael Pritchard on the podcast. He’s a celebrated historian and the author of A History of Photography in 50 Cameras . They discuss cameras, history, and the art of capturing moments. Introduction to Dr. Michael Pritchard: His background and expertise in the history of photography. Discussion on “A History of Photography in 50 Cameras”: Insights into the book’s approach to storytelling through cameras. Evolution of Camera Collecting: Trends in camera collecting from the 1980s to the present. The Importance of the Camera Obscura: Discuss the significance of this device in the history of photography. Digital Photography and its Future Related Episodes: Episode 170: Snapshot Cameras in Your Family with Peter Dumas Episode 120: Good Pictures: Amateur Photography and Our Family with art historian Kim Beil Links: British Photo History Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Dr. Michael Pritchard, a renowned figure in photography, has a diverse career spanning various roles. Initially a photography specialist at Christie’s, he set record auction prices for cameras. Holding a PhD in photographic history, he has extensively written and lectured on the subject both in the UK and internationally. His expertise extends to teaching MA courses and consulting for the British Library on the Kodak Historical Collection. He contributes significantly to the field as the director of the Royal Photographic Society’s public programs. His practical experience includes studio and location photography, darkroom techniques, and alternative processes. Michael has also been prominent in curating exhibitions and judging international photography
Sun, December 10, 2023
Permanent Digital Storage Solutions with Tammy Kirby of Forever.com
In this episode, Maureen Taylor talks with Tammy Kirby, a Senior Lead Ambassador at Forever.com. Their conversation delves into the innovative world of Forever.com. As someone who transitioned from traditional scrapbooking to embracing the digital era, Tammy offers a unique perspective on how Forever.com is redefining how we store and preserve our digital memories. She explains its distinct features compared to other cloud storage solutions and how it ensures the longevity and safety of our digital legacies. Tammy Kirby’s Background and Introduction to Forever.com: The concept and functionality of Forever.com as more than just a digital photo organizer. Unique Features of Forever.com Introduction of Artisan software, Forever Box for physical conversions, and digital restoration services. Collaborative Features and App Functionality: Supported File Formats and Future Developments: Pricing and Storage Options: Tammy’s Favorite Feature: The ability to add rich descriptions to photos, enhancing the narrative of digital memories. Related Episodes: Episode 161: Creating a Digital Archive with Permanent.org Episode 95: How to Save Your Family Archive on Permanent.org Links: Tammy Kirby, Forever.com Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: A Personal Photo Management Coach from Connecticut, Tammy has been working for over 20 years, helping individuals and families find solutions for all their photo memory needs. She focuses on creating an organized, permanent, and secure digital home that includes not just names and dates but the stories behind the memories. Working together with her clients, from digitizing vintage photos to managing current phone photos & v
Sun, November 26, 2023
Dress Codes and Fashion Rules Through History with Richard Thompson Ford
In this episode, Maureen talks with Richard Thompson Ford, author of “Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History.” They explore how fashion has been used throughout history as a way to reinforce class structures, gender roles, and social norms. Though dress codes are not as overt today, Richard explains how unwritten fashion rules still dictate what we wear. The “Straw Hat Riot” of 1922 erupted over men wearing straw hats past September 15th High heels originated as a masculine fashion, first worn by Persian horseback riders to lock into stirrups The flapper look in the 1920s was the first successful “rational dress” movement for women Tartans emerged as symbols of Scottish identity partly in reaction to British dress codes banning them Though we think fashion is casual today, there are still unwritten “uniforms” in many industries and social groups Related Episodes: Episode 91:Suffragists and Suffragettes: Fashion and the Vote Episode 155: Ancestral Handbag History with Curator Jessica Harpley Links: Richard Thompson Ford Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Richard Thompson Ford is Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. He writes about law, social and cultural issues and race relations and has written for The New York Times , The Washington Post , The San Francisco Chronicle, CNN and Slate. He is the author of the New York Times notable books The Race Card and Rights Gone Wrong: How Law Corrupts the Struggle for Equality . He has appeared on The Colbert Report , The Rachel Maddow Show , and The Dylan Rattigan Show . He is a member of the American Law Insti
Sun, November 05, 2023
Preserving Local History Through Film: A Conversation with Northeast Historic Film
Northeast Historic Film is a nonprofit organization founded in 1986 to preserve and share historic films from Maine and the broader New England region. Based in Bucksport, Maine, their extensive collection includes home movies, local TV news, documentary films, and more. In this episode of the Photo Detective podcast, co-founders David Weiss and Jane Donnell discuss their mission to save endangered films and make them accessible through digitization and online platforms. They provide film preservation services like digitization for individuals and institutions. They have climate-controlled vaults for long-term storage of film. Home movies are a core part of their collection. These give insights into everyday life, local history, family dynamics, fashion, and architecture. Their theater shows archival clips before contemporary films. They also share films on their website, YouTube, etc. Filmmakers and documentarians contact them looking for footage to license. They constantly get new donations as historic films surface from basements, attics, etc. Digitization is a key focus to make the films more accessible. Related Episodes: Episode 172: Vintage Film Finds with B. Wells Douglas Episode 65: Lost Films Needs Your Help with Eli Savada Links: Northeast Historic Film Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guests: David S. Weiss is the co-founder and executive director of Northeast Historic Film, a non-profit moving image archive located in Bucksport, Maine. Jane Donnell is the Marketing, Membership & Theatre Manager. Since its founding in 1986, NHF has built collections including more than 12 million feet of film and 10,000 hours of videotape. The facility includes a 3-story climate-controlled moving image vault building
Sun, October 22, 2023
The Encyclopedia of Things with creator Elisabeth Smolarz
This week on the podcast, Maureen is joined by Elisabeth Smolarz, who created the Encyclopedia of Things. They discuss the items that define our lives and why we keep them. Related Episodes: Episode 187: Building a Story with the Ancestry.com App Episode 180: Photos, Memories, and English Genealogy with Emma Jolly Links: Elisabeth Smolarz Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Elisabeth Smolarz was born in Poland and emigrated to Germany as a teenager. She creates photography, video, and social interactions investigating how consciousness, perception, identity, and value are formed by one’s cultural milieu. Smolarz has exhibited her work nationally and internationally for two decades. Her most recent solo exhibition, the “Encyclopedia of Things,” was presented at the Morgan Lehman Gallery resulting from a multi-year project supported by National Endowment for the Arts; the Queens Council on the Arts; and the City Artist Corps Grants program, and featured on PBS on 03/14/20. The German publisher Spector Books published a monograph with a selection of 120 portraits from the “Encyclopedia of Things” in the summer of 2022. The monograph was reviewed by Brooklyn Rail this Spring. Additionally, her work has been presented in venues including The Bronx Museum of Art, The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, EYEBEAM Center for Art + Technology, Lesley Heller Gallery, NARS Foundation, The Sculpture Center, Smack Mellon, The Queens Museum of Art, and Wave Hill, all New York City; Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland; Oberwelt e.V Stuttgart, Germany; Baden Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany; Photography Triennial Esslingen, Germany; Independent Museum of Contemporary Art, Cyprus; Reykjavik Photography Museum, Iceland; Espai d’art contemporani
Sun, October 08, 2023
Collecting Photographs with Greg French of Greg French Early Photography
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective TM, is joined by Greg French. Greg is an antique photograph enthusiast who buys and sells his images, as well as lending images to projects such as the 1991 book “American and the Daguerreotype, as well as placing a rare stereoview of Abraham Lincoln’s second inauguration in the Library of Congress. Greg and Maureen talk about photo collecting, photo identifying, and all about what it means to be a photo enthusiast in this week’s episode. Related Episodes: Episode 207: An Underutilized Source: The Newberry Library Episode 204: Many Shades of Blue--Cyanotypes with Sabina Ocker Links: Greg French Early Photography Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Greg French started collecting antique photographs in 1981, focusing on social history. As a collector, he lent images to seminal projects such as the 1991 book ‘American and the Daguerreotype’ by John Wood and the 1999 groundbreaking ‘Africans in America" documentary. Greg was one of three founding members of the ‘Mirror of Race’ project. Greg is affiliated with the Photographic Historical Society of New England. He chaired the Auction Committee of the Daguerreian Society for 17 years. Greg still toils away on eBay offering 21 auctions a week and many buy-it-nows at least 50 weeks a year. Meanwhile, he sells to museums around the country, with a particular interest in New England. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveÒhelps clients with photo-related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others. Learn more a
Sun, September 10, 2023
The Story Behind Twentieth Century Skirts with Dr. Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Dr. Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, an award-winning fashion historian and curator from Los Angeles, as well as the author of multiple books on fashion history. The two discuss skirts and how one piece of clothing can help us learn about history and how the skirt showed changes in ideals toward women and fashion, as well as how we present ourselves to the world based on what we wear. Related Episodes: Episode 210: The Dress Diary of Anne Sykes with Dr. Kate Strasdin Episode 167: Victorian Photo Studio Secrets Links: Dr. Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Dr. Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell is an award-winning fashion historian, curator, and journalist based in Los Angeles. She is the author of Fashion Victims: Dress at the Court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette (Yale, 2015), Worn on This Day: The Clothes That Made History (Running Press, 2019), The Way We Wed: A Global History of Wedding Fashion (Running Press, 2020), Red, White, and Blue on the Runway: The 1968 White House Fashion Show and the Politics of American Style (Kent State University Press, 2022), and Skirts: Fashioning Modern Femininity in the 20th Century (St. Martin’s Press, 2022). She has written about fashion, art, and culture for The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Politico, Slate, and The Wall Street Journal and has appeared on NPR, the Biography Channel, and Reelz, along with several podcasts. She was a 2020-21 NEH Public Scholar and a 2021-22 USC Libraries Fellow. As well as writing books and articles, she does writing, lecturing, curating, and consulting for museums, universities, and the entertainment industry. About Maureen Taylor:
Sun, September 03, 2023
Meet Me At The Biltmore with Author Amanda Blount
In this week’s bonus episode, Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by author Amanda Quay Blount. Amanda has recently been taking the literary scene in Rhode Island (and beyond) by storm, as she recently published Meet Me at the Biltmore , a historical look at The Biltmore Hotel in Providence, Rhode Island, which has been around for over 100 years, and seen many famous visitors, including John F. Kennedy and The Rolling Stones. In this episode, she and Maureen discuss the hotel, Amanda’s writing process, what it means to fall in love with a historic building, and how to tell its story. Related Episodes: Bonus Episode: Chat GPT, Image Generators, and What You Need To Know Bonus Episode: Tintypes Made for the Movies and Television with Rob Gibson Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Amanda Quay Blount is an author and historian who lives in Rhode Island. Amanda hails from New Jersey but came to the Ocean State in 2018 and was instantly enthralled by the historic allure of the city. Amanda holds a degree in History from Rutgers University and a Masters in Social Work and Community Development from Washington University in St. Louis. When she isn’t writing or researching, Amanda runs a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting adult literacy. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveÒhelps clients with photo related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Please <a href='https:/
Tue, August 29, 2023
216 From Bustles to Broadway with Heather Radke
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Heather Radke, whose first book Butts: A Backstory, has taken the world by storm. Don’t let the title fool you – this book takes a deep look into women’s history and fashion. From bustles to Broadway to Coco Chanel, the two dive into the meaning of fashion and how it has shaped not only our history, but also our media, our photos, and so much more. Related Episodes: Episode 155: Ancestral Handbag History Episode 127: Toxic Dress and Criminal Dress Links: Heather Radke Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Heather Radke is a writer, teacher, and Contributing Editor and Reporter at Radiolab, the Peabody-award winning podcast from WNYC. Her critically-acclaimed first book, Butts: A Backstory, is now out in paperback. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective TM helps clients with photo related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maure
Sun, August 20, 2023
Mourning Jewelry Curiosities with Amanda Soth
This week on the podcast, Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Amelia Soth. Amelia is a Wisconsin-based writer who has been writing the column “Cabinet of Curiosities” for JSTOR, which focuses on historical oddities. Maureen and Amelia discuss her process in writing and finding these stories and how the nuanced parts of history can often lead to great discoveries. Related Episodes: Episode 150: Victorian Mourning Curiosities Episode 61: Mourning Jewelry: Fact and Fiction Links: Cabinet of Curiosities on JSTOR Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Amelia Soth is a Wisconsin-based writer who is fascinated by (as Dr. Francis Young puts it) “the great tension of being a historian: [the fact that] people in the past were simultaneously both just like us and quite unlike us.” She also writes and edits for Mouse Magazine . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveÒhelps clients with photo-related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss y
Sun, August 06, 2023
Egyptomania and Your Family Photos: Fashion Repeats
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by fashion historian Darnell-Jamal Lisby, who is currently the Assistant Curator of Fashion at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the first to take this role. They discuss the latest exhibition, “Egyptomania: Fashion’s Conflicted Obsession,” and how the fascination with this time period has led to fashion influence throughout the centuries, as well as how it can impact your family photos. Darnell-Jamal and Maureen also delve into the history of fashion, fashion inspiration, and how something in our society and culture inspires and change trends. Related Episodes: Episode 186: Fashion History on Twitter Episode 155: Ancestral Handbag History Links: Egyptomania: Fashion’s Conflicted Obsession Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Assistant Curator of Fashion Darnell-Jamal Lisby joined the Cleveland Museum of Art in 2021. He develops fashion study projects across the museum’s various curatorial departments. Before coming to Cleveland, Lisby was an education coordinator at Cooper Hewitt and the Smithsonian Design Museum, where he organized the museum’s first virtual—and best-attended—symposium, “Fashion, Culture, Futures: African American Ingenuity, Activism, and Storytelling.” Lisby previously worked at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He also taught in the Fashion Institute of Technology master’s program in fashion design. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveÒhelps clients with photo-related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detec
Sun, July 23, 2023
Family Tree Magazine with Editor Andrew Koch
I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Sun, July 09, 2023
History through Fiction with Colin Mustful
This week on the podcast Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Colin Mustful, author, publisher, and founder of History Through Fiction. He and Maureen discuss the differences between historical fiction, and what Colin calls “History Through Fiction,” where individuals write high-quality fiction that is rooted in historical research – or, as they call it on the podcast – history with footnotes! It’s a way to tackle history that encourages its readers to place themselves in the story – all within a historical context. This is a wonderful conversation on this “new” genre and how you can go about querying Colin if you’re interested in publishing your own work. Related Episodes: Episode 190: Writing Genealogical Crime Mysteries with Nathan Dylan Goodwin Episode 191: Mathew Pearl on Narrative Non-Fiction & The Taking of Jemima Boone Links: History Through Fiction Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Colin Mustful is an independent author, historian, editor, and publisher. His writing helps readers learn and understand the complicated and tragic history of settler-colonialism and Native displacement in the Upper Midwest. He has a Master of Arts degree in history and a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing. He is also the founder of History Through Fiction, an independent press that publishes high-quality fiction that is rooted in historical research. He believes that learning history is vital to understanding our world today and finding just, long-lasting solutions for the future. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveÒhelps clients with photo-related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s
Sun, June 18, 2023
The Dress Diary of Anne Sykes with Dr. Kate Strasdin
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Dr. Kate Strasdin, author and honorary deputy curator at the Totnes Fashion and Textile Museum. In this episode, Kate examines her upcoming book - inspired by The Dress Diary of Anne Sykes. This is a brilliant look into one of the rarer artifacts Kate has uncovered - a dress diary featuring fabric swatches from the 1800s. These types of diaries are so rare - and hard to find intact - that Kate believes there are only one or two in the United States. Maureen and Kate talk about the importance of diaries like this, and how she’ll be covering this story all in her new book entitled The Dress Diary of Mrs. Anne Sykes and how this diary has given immense clues into Victorian fashion. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Sun, June 04, 2023
Seeing Double: Talking Look-alikes with Francois Brunnelle
This week on the podcast, Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective is joined by Francois Brunelle. Francois is a professional photographer and author, who resides in Montreal. Francois and Maureen discuss his fascinating project “I’m Not a Lookalike” where Francois photographs individuals who look similar – and then compares them. These individuals are not related and typically have never met. The idea is to show how sometimes we can have physical similarities to someone we don’t even know. Francois has been working on this project since 2000 – making it 23 years since he first began. It’s a critical look at something that many who collect vintage photographs and work on their family photographs may not realize – that sometimes people look alike – but aren’t always your ancestor. Just like today. Related Episodes: Episode 114: Modern Tintypes Made With History with Photographer Josh Wool Episode 105: Women in the Dark with Katherine Manthorne Links: Francois Brunnelle Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Photography is François Brunelle’s chosen medium of artistic expression. Born in Sherbrooke, Canada, he discovered photography through the works of André de Dienes and Richard Avedon, two photographers who look at the world sincerely and authentically. He wrote a book titled The 7 Essential Tools for the Creative Photographer published by Éditions du Trait. He has been working on the I’m not a look-alike! project since 1999. François Brunelle lives and works in Montréal, Canada. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveÒhelps clients with photo related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has e
Sun, May 21, 2023
The Family Photo Detective
This week on the podcast Maureen is doing a solo episode! This episode is an intimate look at Maureen’s life and behind-the-scenes of how she became The Photo Detective. Additionally, Maureen details her journey over the past year as she’s updated her book Family Photo Detective , from getting the publishing rights to going through to update all links and book sources, to how the republishing of the updated edition has helped her continue in the work she’s always set out to do: help families understand more about where they come from through photographs and images. Family Photo Detective , the updated version for 2023, is available now at MaureenTaylor.com, right on the homepage. Related Episodes: Episode 204: Many Shades of Blue: Cyanotypes Episode 195: Imperfect History with Curator Sarah Weatherwax Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveÒhelps clients with photo-related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery
Sun, May 07, 2023
An Underutilized Resource: The Newberry Library
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Will Hansen, the Director of Reader Services and Curator of Americana at the Newberry Library in Chicago. Will and Maureen discuss several collections at Newberry Library, including their 1.6 million books, 600,000 different maps, and one collection with 44 glass lantern slides that document the great migration of African Americans from the South to the North. The two also discuss a fan favorite – postcards! There are currently 600,000 unique postcard images within the library. Related Episodes: Episode 99: Finding Photos on the Smithsonian Learning Lab Episode 183: History Galore: The Maine Memory Network Links: Newberry Library on CBS News Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Will Hansen is Director of Reader Services and Curator of Americana at the Newberry Library in Chicago. In his dual role, he directs the Department of Reader Services, which serves researchers at the library’s reference desks, in the reading rooms, and outside the Newberry’s walls via email and other communications; manages the Newberry’s collections in its 10-story stacks building; and coordinates hands-on instructional activities with the Newberry’s collections. Mr. Hansen holds a master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveÒhelps clients with photo-related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Please I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos the
Sun, April 02, 2023
Numbers to Names: A Holocaust Photo Database
This week on the Photo Detective Podcast, Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Daniel Patt, a software engineer and descendant of three holocaust survivors. It’s this familial relation that inspired Daniel, in his spare time, to create an artificial intelligence platform called “From Numbers to Names” that aids those descended from individuals who faced the Holocaust to discover connections and photos of their loved ones. The project also aims to help identify the millions of unidentified faces in the Holocaust photo and video archives. It’s a project that all listeners should hear about, whether they are descendants of those who were in the Holocaust or not. Related Episodes: Episode 187 : Building a Story with the Ancestry.com App Episode 153: Ellis Island Immigrant Photos Identified with Louis Takács Links: Numbers to Names Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Daniel Patt is a software engineer at Google, and is the grandson of three holocaust survivors. In his spare time, he created an artificial intelligence platform called From Numbers to Names to help Holocaust descendants discover photos of their loved ones – and help identify the millions of unidentified faces in Holocaust photo and video archives. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveÒhelps clients with photo related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts . I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo inve
Fri, March 31, 2023
Found in an Attic, Returned to Family with Trevor Mattea
This week on The Photo Detective podcast, Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective, is joined by Trevor Mattea. Trevor shares how finding a photo in his home’s attic helped inspire him to find who that photo belonged to – meaning the descendants of the people in the photo. This episode examines the intimate journey that can come from these so-called “orphan photos” and what a reunion looks like. Trevor reached out to Maureen for advice on what to do with the photo, and the two recount those steps and how to approach one of these ownerless photos to help find a descendant. Related Episodes: Bonus Episode: Lost History Discovered (in the Recycling) Episode 137: The Walls Can Talk: Finding History in a Hidden Room with David Whitcomb Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Trevor Mattea has a range of professional experiences and interests grounded in conversation, knowledge-building, and creative expression. As an at-home parent to a young son, he focuses on genealogy, family traditions, homeschooling, and home renovation. He creates personalized gifts and party games through his Etsy store, BingoMe. He also hosted the New Books in Education podcast. He holds an M.A. in Education from Stanford University and an A.B. in Political Science from Washington University. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveÒhelps clients with photo-related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These coll
Sun, March 26, 2023
The Many Shades of Blue: Cyanotypes with Sabine Ocker
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Sabine Ocker, a photo collector and photo historian with over 500 snapshot albums in her collection. The two dive into cyanotypes as a popular format with young women attending one of the 7-sister colleges, as well as their shared love of the cyanotype process, and Sabine’s collection of women’s cyanotype snapshot albums. Related Episodes: Episode 196: Early Color Photos and More: The American Museum of Photography Episode 193 Stereographs with Pascal Martine Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Sabine Ocker began collecting photos 20 years ago, initially focusing on snapshot albums, especially those between the period 1890-1920. She was drawn to women’s photograph albums as they give insights into what life was like for women during that time period. Today She owns about 500 snapshot albums. She’s presented her research at the George Eastman House and the Photo Historical Society of New England and has contributed articles on 19th-century photographic processes to publications, journals, and newsletters. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveÒhelps clients with photo-related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts . I'm thrilled to be offering some
Bonus · Sun, March 19, 2023
ChatGPT and Image Generators: What You Need to Know
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Carol Cox, the founder and CEO of Speaking Your Brand, a coaching and training company. Carol and Maureen tackle one of the biggest topics out there right now: writing with artificial intelligence. Specifically, the two discuss the new ChatGPT AI-- what it does and how it can be used. Their conversation might spark some ideas on how you can use it for your genealogy work. They also talk about image generators that use AI with surprising results. Related Episodes: Bonus Episode: Tintypes Made for Movies and Television Bonus Episode: Lost History Discovered (in the Recycling) Links: Speaking Your Brand Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Carol Cox is the founder and CEO of Speaking Your Brand®, a coaching and training company. Through her company and content, her mission is to empower more women to find and use their voice, to tell the stories that need to be told, and to activate ideas for change. Carol is host of the weekly 5-star rated Speaking Your Brand® podcast. Carol was named as one of Orlando’s Women of the Year in 2021 and has been featured in Forbes. Through her company and content, her mission is to empower more women to find and use their voice, to tell the stories that need to be told, and to activate ideas for change. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveÒhelps clients with photo related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts . I'm thrilled to be offe
Sun, March 12, 2023
Recipes on Gravestones with Rosie Grant
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Rosie Grant, a part-time digital librarian at the American Jewish University, who recently went viral for her work with finding recipes on gravestones. The two discuss Rosie’s TikTok account ghostlyarchive and how these recipes imprinted on gravestones help continue to tell the story of someone who has long passed, as well as keep their special recipes alive for generations to come. Related Episodes: Episode 105: Women in the Dark with Katherine Manthorne Episode 49: Women Patriots with Mary Tedesco Links: GhostlyArchive Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Rosie Grant is a part-time digital librarian at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles and full-time Outreach and Communications Manager for the CSW Women’s Center at UCLA. Follow her on TikTok @ghostlyarchive or message on Instagram @ghostly.archive. Fellow taphophiles and cemetery lovers are welcome to connect and share any favorite graves or cemetery recommendations. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo DetectiveÒhelps clients with photo-related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collabor
Sun, February 19, 2023
The Story Behind President Lincoln's Portrait
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Leonard Marcus, a leading writer about children’s books and the people who create them. The two discuss Leonard’s book Mr. Lincoln Sits for his Portrait and how Abraham Lincoln not only had a huge influence on the world of portraits – but how he may be responsible for some of the most famous photos today – all for believing in the technology behind a new device – the camera. Related Episodes: Episode 166: Picturing Frederick Douglass E pisode 167: Victorian Photo Studio Secrets Links: Leonard Marcus Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page to get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Leonard Marcus is the author of more than 25 award-winning books including Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon; Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom; You Can’t Say That!; and most recently Mr. Lincoln Sits for His Portrait. Leonard is a founding trustee of the Eric Carle Museum and was the curator of the NY Public Library’s landmark exhibition “The ABC of It: Why Children’s Books Matter.” He lives in Brooklyn and speaks about his work to audiences across the world About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective helps clients with photo-related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a r
Sun, January 22, 2023
Tips for Organizing with Darla DeMorrow owner of HeartWork Organizing
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Certified Professional Organizer and owner of HeartWork Organizing, Darla DeMorrow. The two discuss how to organize a photo collection, and what it means to do so. They look at the work of a professional organizer, and how digital and tangible photos can be approached in organizing – as well as what Darla does professionally within the world of organizing. Related Episodes: Episode 179: How to Organize Photos Before Scanning with Nancy Desmond of MemoryWeb.me Episode 164: Taking Care of Your Home Movies with Becca Bender Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Darla DeMorrow is a Certified Professional Organizer® and owner of HeartWork Organizing since 2004. Based near Philadelphia, PA, she is mom of 2, international speaker, and author of the best-selling book series SORT and Succeed , which outlines five simple steps to help you organize stuff, time, paperwork, money, and photos. The Upbeat, Organized Home Office is the third book in the series bridging the productivity gap between the home office, home life, and the company office. Darla has been tapped for insight by such media as NPR, Forbes, HufPo Business, NBC, GMA, Realtor.com, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, among many others. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective helps clients with photo related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars,
Sun, January 08, 2023
Organize with FileShadow.com
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Jeff Looman, a software developer who is the Vice President of Engineering at FileShadow, Inc. FileShadow is a software platform that categorizes your files based on metadata and content. It’s a secure vault for all of your files. The two discuss how saving our images and documents, collaboration with family and friends, and preserving our digital footprint are critical components to preservation. Related Episodes: Episode 134: Unlocking the Shoebox : Digitize, Identify and Organize Family Photos Episode 95: How to Save Your Family Archive with Permanent.org Links: FileShadow Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Jeff Looman has been working in software development for over 38 years, both as an engineer, in engineering management, product management, and product placement strategies. He is currently the Vice President of Engineering at FileShadow, Inc. and has worked for a variety of large companies such as WordPerfect, Novell, Apple Computer, and Corel and small companies such as AccessData, eDepoze, and FileShadow. He has been involved in the production of numerous software packages predominantly focused on business productivity in a collaborative environment, focusing on the needs of individual entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and everything in between. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective helps clients with photo related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others. Learn more at <a href='https://mauree
Sun, December 18, 2022
A Conversation with Kenyatta D. Berry
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Kenyatta D. Berry, author of The Family History Toolkit , and host of PBS’ Genealogy Roadshow . The two discuss professional genealogy, and how stories that have been forgotten in history are often the ones that can teach us the most. They also delve into what it means to have your family history, and why you should share it. Related Episodes: Episode 190: Writing Genealogical Crime Mysteries with Nathan Dylan Goodwin Episode 176: Ancestor Trouble with Author Maud Newton Links: Kenyatta D. Berry Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Kenyatta D. Berry is the author of The Family Tree Toolkit and a Contributor to the groundbreaking “1619 Project” published by The New York Times. She was the 2019 Honorary Chair for Preservation Week and was named a “Newsmaker” in American Libraries magazine a publication of the American Library Association. Kenyatta is an author, attorney, lecturer, professional genealogist, and television personality. She ignites the genealogy world with a bigger-than-life personality and an illustrious career spanning over 20 years. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Jo
Sun, December 04, 2022
A Sewing Girl's Tale with John Wood Sweet
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by John Wood Sweet, a professor of history at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and author. The two discuss his book The Sewing Girls Tale: A Story of Crime and Consequences in Revolutionary America and how narrative nonfiction helps us, the reader, get a glimpse into the past in ways we may have never thought were possible. Related Episodes: Episode 191: Mathew Pearl on Narrative Non-Fiction and The Taking of Jemima Boone Episode 166: Picturing Frederick Douglass Links: John Wood Sweet Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: John Wood Sweet is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and former director of UNC’s Program in Sexuality Studies. He graduated from Amherst College ( summa cum laude ) and earned his Ph.D. in History at Princeton University. His first book, Bodies Politic: Negotiating Race in the American North , was a finalist for the Frederick Douglass Prize. He has served as a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians, and his work has been supported by fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, the National Humanities Center, the Institute for Arts and Humanities at UNC, the Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale, the McNeil Center at Penn, and the Center for Global Studies in Culture, Power, and History at Johns Hopkins. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundre
Sun, November 20, 2022
What You Need to Know About Heraldry with Dr. Nathaniel Taylor
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Dr. Nathaniel Taylor, the Editor and Publisher of The American Genealogist . As a former medieval and modern history professor, Dr. Taylor’s genealogical research spans from medieval Spain all the way to colonial New England and Virginia. Through this, Dr. Taylor has become an expert in heraldry. The two discuss what heraldry means, how to learn about its customs and traditions, and how Dr. Taylor’s knowledge of heraldry has helped him in his genealogy work. Related Episodes: Episode 185: Genealogy on TikTok with Gwyneth.Stories. Episode 187: Building a Story with the Ancestry.com App Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Dr. Nathaniel Taylor, FASG, is the Editor and Publisher of The American Genealogist . He taught medieval and modern history at the university level for fifteen years. His genealogical research spans from medieval Spain, France, and Britain to colonial New England and Virginia. He has been a volunteer on the Committee on Heraldry of the New England Historic Genealogical Society since 2006 and has been its Registrar since 2019. He was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists in 2011. He lives in Barrington, Rhode Island, where he has been active in local historical organizations. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and
Sun, November 13, 2022
Early Color Photographs and More: American Museum of Photography™
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Bill Becker, who is the curator of The American Museum of Photography, as well as an award-winning author, and Emmy-award winner for his writing and production work. The two discuss the importance of imagery, storytelling, and preservation through images. Related Episodes: Episode 173: Cabinet Cards of Broadway and Silver Screen Stars Episode 167: Victorian Photo Studio Secrets Links: American Museum of Photography The Daguerreian Society Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Wm. B. Becker tackled the job of establishing The American Museum of Photography™. A noted historian of photography whose research has been published in American Heritage, History of Photography: An International Quarterly, and other forums, Bill Becker is also a television producer and writer whose work has been honored with four EMMY® awards. He is the author of Brady of Broadway , a one-man play about the photographer Mathew Brady that’s been performed at the Smithsonian Institution and other venues. The American Museum of Photography™ is “A Museum Without Walls…for an Art Without Boundaries.” Its predecessor, Photography’s Beginnings: A Visual History, made its debut on the World Wide Web on May 25, 1996. About The Museum The American Museum of Photography is an award-winning Virtual Museum dedicated to educating, informing, and sharing great photographs with millions of visitors world-wide. The Collection includes five thousand individual images, from the earliest daguerreotype portraits to the work of Ansel Adams
Sun, November 06, 2022
Imperfect History with Curator Sarah Weatherwax
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Sarah Weatherwax, Senior Curator of Graphic Arts at the Library Company of Philadelphia. Sarah has worked at the Library Company for nearly thirty years. From political cartoons to incredible daguerrotypes, these images are preserved for generations to come at the Library. In addition, the two discuss visual literacy and how this can be key for working with any type of image. Related Episodes: Episode 182: The Archive Lady, Melissa Barker Episode 165: Reading the Clues in World War I Images Links: Imperfect History Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Sarah Weatherwax has worked at the Library Company of Philadelphia since 1993 and has been the Senior Curator of Graphic Arts since 2020. She has written articles about photography for the Daguerreian Annual and Pennsylvania History and has co-authored a book about 19th-century photographic views of Center City Philadelphia from the Library’s collections. She has curated exhibitions on diverse topics including Philadelphia daguerreotypes; the work of William Rau, the Pennsylvania Railroad’s official photographer; and most recently, Imperfect History: Curating the Graphic Arts Collection at Benjamin Franklin’s Public Library , a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Graphic Arts Department at the Library Company. Her research interests include women in photography and Philadelphia’s built environment. She currently serves on the board of the Daguerreian Society and is Assistant Editor of the Daguerreian Annual . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family h
Bonus · Sun, October 30, 2022
Katherine Howe on Writing from the Salem Witches to Gloria Vanderbilt
This week, Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by New York Times bestselling author Katherine Howe. Katherine and Maureen discuss how history and major events in our past have inspired Katherine’s work. To her surprise, her genealogy yielded an unexpected connection to some of her characters Related Episodes: Episode 190: Writing Genealogical Crime Mysteries with Nathan Dylan Goodwin Episode 189: Mathew Pearl on Narrative Non-Fiction and the Taking of Jemima Boone Links: Katherine Howe Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Katherine Howe is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning writer of historical fiction. Her adult novels are The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, which debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list in 2009, and The House of Velvet and Glass, ( USA Today bestseller in 2011). For young adults, Katherine has written Conversion, ( 2015 Massachusetts Book Award in young adult literature), and a New York City-based literary ghost story called The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen, (2016 “Must Read” for young adults by the Massachusetts Center for the Book). In 2014 she edited The Penguin Book of Witches for Penguin Classics, a primary source reader on the history of witchcraft in England and North America. The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs, ( Henry Holt and Co 2019). She co-wrote Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty with Anderson Cooper. She has appeared on “Good Morning America,” “CBS This Morning,” NPR’s “Weekend Edition,” the BBC, and the History Channel, and she hosted “Salem: Unmasking the Devil” for National Geographic. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identifica
Sun, October 23, 2022
Biograph: A Facebook Alternative with Co-founder Aaron Greenberg
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Dr. Aaron Greenburg, who is the co-founder of Biography, a platform that reinvents the way we tell stories. The two discuss the art of storytelling, how to share those stories, and how Biograph can help. Related Episodes: Episode 187: Building a Story with the Ancestry.com App Episode 98: Collect Photo Stories with StoryGlory Links: Biograph Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Dr. Aaron Greenberg co-founded Biograph, a storytelling technology company that has published dozens of books for families and entrepreneurs. He has served on the Core Faculty of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine’s Bioethics Clinical Scholars Program and is a lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living, Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel, American Spirit, and The New York Times. Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website, and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles, and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com<
Sun, October 16, 2022
Stereographs with Pascal Martiné of Stereosite.com
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Pascal Martine. The two discuss Pascal’s collection of wooden stereo photo viewers, both handheld and tabletop, as well as how his collection began out of a love for the nostalgia he had for his childhood Viewmaster. In 2019, he built his own stereo rig in order to take modern stereo photos and then documented his journey on social media. Related Episodes: Episode 173: Cabinet Cards of Broadway and Silver Screen Stars with David Shields Episode 170: Snapshot Cameras in Your Family with Peter Dumas Links: Stereosite.com Pascal Martine’s Instagram Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Pascal Martine started his stereoscopic journey in late 2016 soon after he spotted a small cardboard viewer at a local antique market. His collection now includes dozens of wooden viewers, both handheld and tabletop, sometimes with their storage furniture, cameras, and developing tools as well as historic documents like catalogs and thousands of glass stereo views. He enjoys restoring viewers, bringing back the original beauty to a viewer or camera that was long forgotten in an attic or basement. After the 2019 ISU congress in Lübeck, Germany Pascal built his own stereo rig and began sharing his photos on Instagram. You can read about his current standard workflow for taking modern stereo photos here and see the results on Instagram. In 2020, he got involved in the Virtual Stereoscopic Community. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances in
Sun, October 09, 2022
Photo Reminiscence Therapy and Family Photos with Rick Voight of Vivid-Pix
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Rick Voight, CEO and Co-founder of Vivid-Pix. Maureen and Rick discuss how he and Vivid-Pix are working with Photo Reminiscence Therapy in order to help individuals with cognitive decline, or memory issues. This process is a way of helping individuals reconnect with their past, with the latest technology from Vivid-Pix. Related Episodes: Episode 126: Passed and Present–Keeping Memories of Loved Ones Alive with Allison Gilbert Episode 37: What’s New with Vivid-Pix Restore Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: With a few decades of doer and executive experience with Kodak and HP, Rick Voight and Randy Fredlund co-founded Vivid-Pix. Vivid-Pix designs, creates, and delivers fast, easy, and affordable photo and document improvement software. Since launching in 2012, Vivid-Pix has advanced its product to earn the support of family historians, genealogists, photographers, and business leaders in over 100 countries. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Learn more at Mau
Sun, October 02, 2022
Matthew Pearl on Narrative Non-Fiction & The Taking of Jemima Boone
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by New York Times bestselling author, Matthew Pearl. He and Maureen discuss the differences between fiction and non-fiction writing, and how little details from our history can change the course of the stories that we tell. Related Episodes: Episode 189: Historical Fiction Revealed with Carrie Deming of the Dog-Eared Book Episode 190: Writing Genealogical Crime Mysteries with Nathan Dylan Goodwin Links: Matthew Pearl’s website Truly Adventurous Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Matthew Pearl writes both fiction and nonfiction, including The Taking of Jemima Boone. He is co-founder of the digital magazine Truly*Adventurous. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living, Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel, American Spirit, and The New York Times. Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website, and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles, and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at <a href='https://mau
Sun, September 18, 2022
Writing Genealogical Crime Mysteries
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by author, genealogist, and educator Nathan Dylan Goodwin. Nathan and Maureen discuss how writing, genealogy, and historical fiction intersect, and what it means to write for each. His successful Forensic Genealogist series features a mystery-solving genealogist Morton Farrier who applies genealogical research techniques to crimes. Related Episodes: Episode 176: Ancestor Trouble with author Maud Newton Episode 94: Dead Still: Postmortem Photography and Crime Fiction on Acorn TV Links: Nathan Dylan Goodwin Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Nathan Dylan Goodwin is a writer, genealogist, and educator. He was born and raised in Hastings, East Sussex. Schooled in the town, he then completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Radio, Film, and Television Studies, followed by a Master of Arts degree in Creative Writing at Canterbury Christ Church University. A member of the Society of Authors, he has completed a number of local history books about Hastings, as well as several works of fiction, including the acclaimed Forensic Genealogist series, and Mrs. McDougall Investigates and Venator Cold Case series. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal,
Sun, September 11, 2022
Historical Fiction Revealed with Carrie Deming of The Dog Eared Book
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Carrie Deming, the owner of The Dog Eared Book in Palmyra (NY). Carrie and Maureen discuss historical fiction, its rise in popularity, especially on social media, and how there are many different genres of historical fiction that not many know about. It’s a great conversation about the fans behind not only historical fiction, but books in general, too. She’s created New Book Tuesday on her TikTok channel. Related Episodes: Episode 120: Good Pictures: Amateur Photography and Our Family Episode 118: Eliza Hamilton Revealed with author Susan Holloway Scott Links: The Dog Eared Book The Dog Eared Book on TikTok Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Carrie Deming has a life-long passion for books and reading. In high school, she began working for the Macedon (NY) Public Library. Her popular TikTok channel has over 82K followers. Carrie created a theme called New Book Tuesday where she profiles new book releases. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top new
Sun, September 04, 2022
Reading with Robin's Historical Fiction Picks
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Robin Kall, who has been the host of “Reading with Robin,” for the past two decades. She chronicles “can’t miss” authors, and facilitates discussions on some of the most popular books of the present day. She and Maureen decide to dive into one of their shared favorite topics: historical fiction. The two discuss what makes books popular, and why we’re drawn to inserting ourselves into these stories, much like we would when looking at an ancestor’s photo. Related Episodes: Episode 168: We're All Related with A.J. Jacobs Episode 105: Women in the Dark 1840-1900 with Katherine Manthorne Links: Reading With Robin Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Robin is a literary influencer, who over the past two decades has built a devoted and passionate following both in her local Rhode Island, online, and wherever there are readers. In addition to her radio talk show, Robin has hosted countless “can’t miss” author events including her annual “Summer With Robin” and the more recently minted author series, “The Cardigan Connection” which she hosts with her daughter, Emily. Robin is a graduate of Binghamton University and lives in Rhode Island with her husband and their corgi, Benny. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The
Sun, August 21, 2022
Building a Story with the Ancestry App
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Jordan Lundskog, a Product Manager at Ancestry.com. The two discuss using the new story feature in the Ancestry.com app. A partnership with Photomyne allows users to add and edit photos within the app. Jordan explains how it all works and how easy it is to create a story. Related Episodes: Episode 177: Wild about Wildcards with Amy Johnson Crow Episode 98: Collect Stories with StoryGlory Links: Ancestry.com Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Jordan Lundskog is a Product Manager at Ancestry focused on finding ways to explore and build tools to help people protect, preserve and enhance memories before they fade away. Jordan has been part of the Ancestry team since 2018. He enjoys finding ways to solve human problems with technology and most recently he has been working on a free set of tools to help anyone upload, enhance, and share photos, stories and other types of media on Ancestry. Prior to Ancestry, Jordan held product management roles at Vivint Solar, PlanSource, and ApplicantPro. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit,</
Sun, August 14, 2022
Fashion History on Twitter with Dr. Kate Strasdin
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Dr. Kate Strasdin, author and honorary deputy curator at the Totnes Fashion and Textile Museum. She was behind the exhibition in Bath, England, that was named one of the top twelve exhibitions of the year by Vogue Magazine. The two discuss historical fashion, and how our ancestors worked with textiles to modify their wardrobes, as well as how we can preserve these garments, and even how the people of the past tried to. Related Episodes: Episode 85: Pin-Up Photos and Modern Women Episode 72: Wearing the Past: A Modern Woman’s Fascination with Period Dress Links: Dr. Kate Strasdin Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Dr. Kate Strasdin joined Falmouth University in 2009 as an associate lecturer teaching histories and theories to students in BA(Hons) Fashion Design and BA(Hons) Performance Sportswear Design. She is the author of Inside the Royal Wardrobe: A Dress History of Queen Alexandra. She became a historical consultant for the exhibition Royal Women at the Fashion Museum, Bath in 2018 (named as one of Vogue’s top 12 exhibitions of the year). In 2011 she received the annual Gervers Fellowship given by the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Dr. Stasdin is honorary deputy curator at the Totnes Fashion and Textile Museum in Devon. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today
Sun, August 07, 2022
Genealogy on TikTok with Gwyneth.Stories
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Gwyneth of Gwyneths.Stories on TikTok. For the past year, Gwyneth has been tackling family history stories by making videos for her followers on the platform. While a relative “newcomer,” to family history, she’s found a passion and love for the storytelling she can do through genealogy. Related Episodes: Episode 181: Clothing Care at the New Canaan Historical Society Episode 176: Ancestor Trouble with Maud Newton Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Gwyneth is a family historian, storyteller, and content creator. Gwyneth uses TikTok to tell family history stories as @gwyneths.stories and takes the audience along on her relatively new journey into genealogy. Gwyneth lives in the UK and has a background in journalism and communications. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at <a hre
Sun, July 24, 2022
Byte4Byte: Permanent.org's Grant for Non-Profits
This week, Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Amanda Meeks, Community and Partnerships Manager at Permanent.org. The two discuss Permanent’s initiative, Byte4Byte, which provides digital storage grants for non-profits across the country, as well as internationally, to enable them to save and share collections. Any size group can apply for grants and internship support. Related Episodes: Episode 161: Creating a Digital Archive with Permanent.org Episode 95: How to Save Your Family Archive on Permanent.org Links: Byte4Byte webinar Byte4Byte application Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Amanda Meeks is Permanent.org’s community and partnerships manager prior to that, I worked in academic libraries. She’s a professionally trained librarian and an artist as well as an end-of-life doula. One of her primary responsibilities is managing the Byte4byte grant program. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spoke
Sun, July 17, 2022
History Galore at the Maine Memory Network with Kathy Amoroso
This week, Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Kathy Amoroso, the Manager of Information Technology at the Maine Historical Society. She also serves as the Outreach Coordinator of the Maine Memory Network (MMN), a collaborative project with historical societies and other historical non-profits across the state. Anyone can access the site, and they encourage users to share their Maine recollections. Kathy and Maureen discuss the different records that MMN has, all of which can inspire your own research. Related Episodes: Episode 84: U.S. Naval Photo Collections: Online Resources You Can Use Episode 103: Organize, Preserve and Share with Collectionaire.com Links: Maine Memory Network Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Kathy started working at the Maine Historical Society in October 2001 as the Outreach Coordinator of the Maine Memory Network one of the country’s first collaborative online museums and archives. Kathy has been with the Society for 20 years involved in managing all things digital, including their four websites, all internal information technology, and audio/video needs, workstation and networking, image rights and reproduction services, and consulting on various projects. She trains contributing partners on how to digitize and catalog their collections and create online exhibits. She has a degree in Communications (video production focus) and Psychology from the University of Miami and training and experience in professional video production, website management, and information design. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a co
Sun, July 10, 2022
The Archive Lady Melissa Barker
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Melissa Barker, who is known affectionately as The Archive Lady and is a Certified Archives Manager and Public Historian, currently working at the Houston County Tennessee Archives & Museum. The two discuss how archives and genealogy overlap, how you can preserve your ancestor’s heritage through archives, and how sometimes an archive can help you discover something about your ancestor that you never knew. Related Episodes: Episode 56 Disaster Preparedness for the Family Archive Episode 82: Building an Archive for Our Times Links: Houston County Historical Society A Genealogist in the Archives Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Melissa Barker is a Certified Archives Manager and Public Historian currently working at the Houston County, Tennessee Archives & Museum. She is affectionally known as The Archive Lady to the genealogy community. She lectures teaches, and writes about the genealogy research process, researching in archives and records preservation. She conducts virtual presentations across the United States and other countries for various genealogy groups and societies. She writes a popular blog entitled A Genealogist in the Archives and is a well-known published book reviewer . She has been a Professional Genealogist for the past 17 years with expertise in Tennessee records. She has been researching her own family history for the past 32 years. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances
Sun, July 03, 2022
Clothing Care at the New Canaan Historical Society
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Michael Murphy, Librarian, and Archivist, as well as Charlotte Engel, who is the clothing historian from the New Canaan Historical Society. The two have been making the rounds on TikTok lately for using behind-the-scenes footage to educate their followers more about exhibits and historical clothing. The two also dive into how they care for historical clothing in an effort to preserve it and help educate future generations about the past through clothing. Related Episodes: Episode 127 Beautiful but Deadly: Toxic Fashion and Criminal Dress Episode 91: Suffragists and Suffragettes: Fashion and the Vote Links: New Canaan Historical Society Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guests: Charlotte Engel and Michael Murphy work for the New Canaan Museum & Historical Society in New Canaan, Connecticut. Mike is the Museum’s archivist, and Charlotte is the Museum’s clothing historian. They work together as part of an ongoing project to digitize the Museum’s historic clothing collection. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York
Sun, June 19, 2022
Photos, Memories, and English Genealogy with Emma Jolly
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Emma Jolly, a professional genealogist and historical researcher, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. She and Maureen dive into British ancestry, and how you can begin your research, or even elevate it for those records you may be missing. She was one of the researchers on an episode of the Wedding Detectives on the BBC. Related Episodes: Episode 31: A World War I Resource Episode 132: The Wedding Detectives Links: Emma Jolly The Wedding Detectives Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Emma is a professional genealogist, writer, and historical researcher, based in Edinburgh. Along with being awarded the Russell Finch prize for best History MA dissertation, Emma has attained the IHGS Higher Certificate in Genealogy. She regularly writes for family history publications and is the author of four books as well as contributing to works such as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Emma is a very active member of several historical societies including the Society of Genealogists and is a member of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA). About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall
Sun, June 12, 2022
How to Organize Photos Before Scanning with Nancy Desmond
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Nancy Desmond, one of the co-founders of MemoryWeb, a platform dedicated to helping individuals save and store their family photos. In this episode, they discuss how to organize photos before uploading – which makes the process easier and even more fun for those digging into their photo collections. Related Episodes: Episode 134: Unlocking the Shoebox Episode 50: Scan Your Photos with Mitch Goldstone Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Nancy Desmond is a co-founder of MemoryWeb.me a digital photo organizer About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a
Sun, June 05, 2022
An Iconic WWII Photo Identified
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Lawrence Verria, whose first book The Kissing Sailor , takes a look at an iconic World War II photo and how to identify it. In the perfect intersection between history and photo identification, Maureen and Lawrence discuss this famous photo, and how even a photo icon can leave plenty of mystery, and twists and turns to discover the answers. Related Episodes: Episode 75: One Man's World War I Journey Episode 105: Women in the Dark: Female Photographers, 1850-1900 Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Lawrence Verria is the Social Studies Department Chair at North Kingstown High School, and Rhode Island's 2000 Teacher of the Year. He will be entering his 40th year teaching United States History and Civics. He is the recipient of the Susan B. Wilson Civic Education Merit Award and Rhode Island College's Evelyn Walsh Prize for excellence in history studies. "The Kissing Sailor" is Verria's first book, co-authored with George Galdorisi. Verria plans to publish his second book, "The Cool Moose: Robert J. Healey Jr., Beyond the Beard. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . M
Sun, May 29, 2022
Wild About Wildcards with Amy Johnson Crow
I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Sun, May 15, 2022
Ancestor Trouble with Maud Newton
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by author Maud Newton – who recently published Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and Reconciliation . She and Maureen dive into what it means to have a skeleton in the closet, or an ancestor who didn’t live up to the same standards we do. It’s the embarrassing and shameful actions of our ancestors – and what to do about it – that drive this conversation. Or, as we discuss in the episode, “Everybody’s family is different and everybody’s family has something, even if they don’t admit it.” Related Episodes: Episode 22: A Murder Mystery with the Literary Detective Episode 78: A Grandmother’s Gift with Gonzalo Luengo Links: Maud Newton Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Maud Newton has written for The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, The New York Times Book Review, and Oxford American. She grew up in Miami and graduated from the University of Florida with degrees in English and law. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living, Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel, American Spirit, and The New York Times. Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website, and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles,
Sun, May 08, 2022
Cabinet Card Photos Transformed Into Art with Tom Butler
This week, Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Tom Butler, an artist whose work may be controversial to some listeners. Tom uses unidentified cabinet cards to create art, often altering the original image to enhance them, which begs the question if he is destroying the image, or creating something even better than before. Related Episodes: Bonus Episode: Stitching on Pictures with Stitchography by Emma Episode 153: Ellis Island Immigrant Photo Identified Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: For the last twelve years artist, Tom Butler has been appropriating anonymous Victorian cabinet cards with incorporated personal symbols such as hair, masks, flowers, and geometric abstractions, painted on the surface with gouache. In the process, he attempts to reveal the imagined personalities of the sitters while in the knowledge that he is cloaking them with parts of himself. He also makes self-portraits and uses cabinet cards and found photographs to create collages, sculptures, and rubbings to express both a love of the medium and a critique of photography as a whole. Butler was born in London, England and now lives in Portland ME, USA. He studied at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, Chelsea College of Art, UAL, and the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL. He exhibits internationally and his work can be found in collections such as The British Museum and Soho House. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearan
Sun, May 01, 2022
A Case of Mistaken Identity: Sue's Wedding Photo Reunion
This week, Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Greg Kozlick, who helped reunite a woman with long-lost wedding photos – in the story of a photo reunion that’s sure to tug on the heartstrings. Related Episodes: Episode 32: The Man Behind Dead Fred Bonus: Lost history Discovered in the Recycling with Paul Moar Links: Returning the Slides Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Greg Kozlick has a deep passion for photography including portraiture, architectural images, and photojournalism. He is currently a student at Aurora University. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website, and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles, and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Please <a href='https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-photo-detective/id1255965884?mt=2&mc_cid=670
Sun, April 17, 2022
Cabinet Cards of Broadway and Silver Screen Stars with David Shields
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by David Shields, Carolina Distinguished Professor at the University of South Carolina. The two discuss his work with cabinet cards, Motion Picture Photography, and the history of stars of the silver screen as told through images. Related Episodes: Episode 169: How to Spot a Daguerreotype Copy Episode 166: Picturing Frederick Douglass Links: David Shield collection on Pinterest Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: David Shields is the Carolina Distinguished Professor at the University of South Carolina. He is a scholar in three fields: Food Studies, Early American Literary Culture, and Photographic History. He is the author of STILL: American Silent Motion Picture Photography and creator of the Broadway Photographs website: broadway.cas.sc.edu. He is currently the Ritchie Distinguished Research Fellow at the Huntington Library completing a biography of Napoleon Sarony, America’s greatest portrait photographer in the 19th century. He is also a collector of photographs and is airing portions of his cabinet card and CDV collection on Pinterest . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and
Sun, April 10, 2022
Vintage Photo Finds with B. Wells Douglas
This week Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective, is joined by B. Wells Douglas, a professional photographer who has quite the following on the social media platform TikTok. B. Wells looks at slides that he’s found and digs deeper into their meaning, looking at who is in the photographs, and trying to examine why they may have been taken, who is in the photos, and what story they tell. He also dives into what it means to be able to afford camera equipment, and how our ancestor’s socioeconomic status often influences just how many photos we have of them, and approaches the slides with an artistic lens, looking at their composition and the world of light and dark. Related Episodes: Episode 165: Reading Clues in World War I Snapshots with Curator Lora Vogt Episode 144: A Ten Year Photo Identification Journey Links: Vintage Film Finds Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: B. Wells Douglas is a photographer who lives in Bloomington, IN. His work uses historical vernacular photography to construct digital spaces that explore social and political issues facing the United States. He grew up in Montana within a family of artists and was taught from a young age the importance of approaching life creatively. In 2019, he joined the Indiana University BFA photography program and began building an archive of 35mm slides. An additional outcome of this work has been the development of a large social media platform with over 20,000 followers. Several followers have shared/donated images and his pages have become an intersection of a wide variety of people. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective is sought out by clients all over the world to help them solve their photo m
Sun, April 03, 2022
Make Your Ancestors Talk with MyHeritage.com's LIVE Story
Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined this week by Daniel Horowitz, Genealogist for MyHeritage. Daniel visits the podcast to discuss some of MemoryWeb’s new features, which are taking the internet by storm, or as he says, are “Cool and controversial all the same time.” With these new features, you can actually hear your ancestor “read” their life story back to you with a voice generated by MyHeritage. In addition, other new features are being developed and introduced in order to help attract new genealogy enthusiasts, as well as other new tools that MyHeritage has recently rolled out. Related Episodes: Episode 74: Big News For Family Photos From MyHeritage.com Episode 78: A Grandmother’s Gift with Gonzalo Luengo Links: Sign up for MyHeritage.com Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Dedicated to Genealogy since 1986, Daniel was the teacher and the study guide editor of the family history project “Searching for My Roots” in Venezuela for 15 years. He is involved in several crowdsource digitization and transcription projects and holds a board-level position at The Israel Genealogy Research Association (IGRA). Since 2006 Daniel has been working at MyHeritage liaising with genealogy societies, bloggers, and media, as well as lecturing, and attending conferences around the world. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances incl
Sun, March 20, 2022
Snapshot Cameras in Your Family with Peter Dumas
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Peter Dumas who owns Picture This Antiques in Massachusetts. While he initially began working with vintage print advertising, he now has expanded to sell antique and vintage cameras. Peter and Maureen discuss cameras, snapshots, and photography with vintage cameras, as well as how the progression of digital technology has helped the expansion of the camera industry. They specifically look at the history of Kodak, Epson scanners, and Polaroid cameras, as well as how camera collecting can be a wonderful hobby. Related Episodes: Episode 120 Good Pictures: Amateur Photography and Our Family with Art Historian Kim Beil Episode 119: Dressing for the Camera Rules are Foremothers Followed and Sometimes Broke Links: Picture This Antiques Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Peter Dumas is the owner of Picture This Antiques, founded in 2013 in West Boylston Massachusetts. While he started specializing in vintage print advertising, he began selling antique and vintage cameras in mid-2017, and since then has sold nearly 600 cameras to happy customers nationwide. He’s a frequent vendor at the Providence Flea as well as at various antique shows in New England and New York, and sells at three store locations in Central Massachusetts. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances i
Sun, March 13, 2022
How to Spot a Daguerreotype Copy with Erin Waters
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Erin Waters, who has taken over the family business of FineDags.com, a website that’s dedicated to helping individuals purchase daguerreotypes and understand more about their history. Maureen and Erin talk about how to spot paper photocopies of daguerreotypes Related Episodes: Episode 105: Women in the Dark: Female Photographers in the US 1850-1900 Episode 122: Reproducing History and Protecting the Past: One Cased Image at a Time Links: FineDags.com Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Erin Waters started collecting photographs at age eight, following in her father’s footsteps. Her focuses include pre-revolutionary Russian images, interiors, and unusual photo postcards. Waters has a Master of Arts in Museum Studies from New York University. While in New York, she interned in Sotheby’s Photographs department. Her master’s thesis explored vernacular photography’s place in art museums, utilizing interviews with collectors, curators, and dealers. Waters enjoys speaking about photography and has given papers at a number of international conferences on both copy photography and how people used photography in their personal spaces. Waters has been a full-time dealer since 2007, based in Lancaster, PA. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show
Sun, March 06, 2022
We're All Related with A.J. Jacobs
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by AJ Jacobs, who is the author of multiple New York Times Best Sellers. He and Maureen talk about how we’re all related – somehow. AJ’s work delves deep into how we’re all interconnected, and not only what that means, but how we can use that principle to approach our everyday lives. Related Episodes: Episode 153: Ellis Island Immigrant Photos Identified Episode 162 Preserving Your Life with Gaylord Archival Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: A.J. Jacobs is the author of four New York Times bestsellers, including “The Know-It-All,” “Drop Dead Healthy” and “The Year of Living Biblically.” He has given four TED talks that have total views of more than 7 million. He is a frequent contributor to NPR’s Weekend Edition, and writes for the New York Times and Esquire magazine, among others. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website, and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles, and online co
Sun, February 20, 2022
Victorian Photo Studio Secrets
Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined today by Dave Wilson, who owns a Victorian Photography Studio in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Dave focuses on creating authentic tintypes and ambrotypes, focusing on small details from recreating Victorian poses, clothing, and style in the images. He explains his process for getting a photo “just right,” how he uses his camera to get the best side of his subjects, and how he goes about the chemical process for all of his work. Related Episodes: Episode 114: Modern Tintypes with Photographer Josh Wool Bonus Episode Tintypes Made for Movies and Television Links: Victorian Photography Studio Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Dave Wilson is a large format photographer, focusing on the wet plate collodion process. He shoots authentic tintypes and ambrotypes at the Victorian Photography Studio in Gettysburg PA, as well as across the US. Our specialty is recreating Victorian poses, clothing, and styles with our extensive wardrobe and props. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living, Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel, American Spirit, and The New York Times. Maureen was recently a
Sun, February 13, 2022
Picturing Frederick Douglass
Today Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by the Sumner R. and Marshall S. Kates Professor of English and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, John Stauffer. John and Maureen dive into his book Picturing Frederick Douglass which has become a national bestseller. The two talk about images of Frederick Douglass, and how photos of individuals from history can give us a fuller picture of their lives. John delves into telling the audience more about Frederick Douglass’ life and work but also explains how he believes that Douglass’ rebellion in how he was photographed, in how often he was photographed, and his passion for pushing standards, makes him a critical figure not only in our nation’s history but also the history of photography. Related Episodes: Episode 131: Visualizing Equality: African American Rights in Photographs and Drawings with Dr. Aston Gonzalez Episode 101: Rediscovering an American Community of Color Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: JOHN STAUFFER is the Sumner R. and Marshall S. Kates Professor of English and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. He is the author or editor of 20 books and over 100 articles, including GIANTS: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, a national bestseller; and the award-winning Black Hearts of Men, Battle Hymn of the Republic, and Picturing Frederick Douglass. His essays and reviews have appeared in Time, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, and in exhibition catalogs, journals, and books. Professor Stauffer has presented on CNN and other national TV and radio stations and has served as a consultant or co-curator on films, exhibitions,
Sun, February 06, 2022
Reading the Clues in World War One Snapshots with Curator Lora Vogt
Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined this week by Lora Vogt, who is the Curator of Education at the National WWI Museum and Memorial. She and Maureen discuss what was happening during WWI, and how photographs, amateur photographers, civilians, and soldiers, helped document a time that felt chaotic and ever-changing around them. They delve into the importance of photography and how it can be stabilizing in a word that’s only constant is change. Related Episodes: Episode 75: One Man’s World War One Journey Episode 31: An Online World War One Resource Links: World War One Museum Exhibit on Snapshots Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Lora Vogt is the Curator of Education at the National WWI Museum and Memorial. Founded in 1926, the Museum and Memorial holds the most comprehensive collection of Great War artifacts in the world and has been ranked one of the top 25 museums in the country. Under Vogt’s guidance, the Museum and Memorial has consistently broken records for public program attendance, learner participation and developed internationally recognized online exhibitions and curricula. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s be
Sun, January 23, 2022
Taking Care of Your Home Movies with Becca Bender
This week, Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Becca Bender, the Curator, and Archivist of Moving Image and Audio Collections at the Rhode Island Historical Society. The two discuss the necessity of preserving home movies for genealogists, and how movie preservation gives insight into the lives of individuals in the past. Related Episodes: Episode 75: One Man’s World War I Journey Episode 65: Lost Films Needs Your Help! with Eli Savada Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Becca Bender is the Curator and Archivist of Moving Image and Audio Collections at the Rhode Island Historical Society. She’s a deep believer that archives should engage collaboratively with the communities they represent, and that through partnerships we can all work toward creating a more equitable and inclusive historical record. She holds a master’s degree from NYU’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program and studied Film Production and Africana Studies as an undergraduate at Vassar College. She’s an active member of the International Association of Moving Image Archivists and part of a core group of professionals working to improve the preservation of local television news collections across the United States. Prior to becoming an archivist, Becca worked for many years as a documentary archival producer on projects such as the Emmy-nominated PBS series “Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise” and “Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies.” About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include
Sun, January 16, 2022
Saving the Sounds of Our Past with the New York Public Library
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Danielle Cordovez, who is a senior librarian for the Music and Recorded Sound Division at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. She and Maureen discuss how sound and music are achieved, and why that matters. They discuss how something as simple as a sound recording can show us how a generation speaks, and fill in clues that we may not know about our past. Related Episodes: Episode 137: Using Twitter for a Photo Reunion Episode 127 Beautiful but Deadly: Toxic Fashion and Criminal Dress Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Danielle Cordovez is a senior librarian for the Music and Recorded Sound Division at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts – serving as the lead reference and outreach librarian for Recorded Sound. Danielle advocates for patrons to support onsite research, including orientation to collections and discovery tools, and collaborates with branch libraries and partner institutions to create public programming. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an
Sun, January 09, 2022
Preserving Your Life with Gaylord Archival
This week Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective, is joined by Ariel Servadio, from Gaylord Archival, who helps museums and conservation professionals preserve our cultural heritage. Ariel and Ronda Buck developed YourStory™, a collection of the same archival-quality materials professionals use to make it simple for genealogists to preserve their own family history. Save 25 % on your Gaylord.com purchase with coupon code PD25 Save $10. on a single photo consult on MaureenTaylor.com with coupon code podcast Related Episodes: Episode 109: Portable Photo Preservation with Shotbox Episode 103: Collect, Preserve and Share with Collectionaire Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Ariel Servadio has been working in the preservation industry for over 10 years for Gaylord Archival, helping museums, archives, and conservation professionals to preserve our cultural heritage. She developed YourStory™, a collection of the same archival-quality materials that professionals use, to make it simple for genealogists to preserve their own family history to share with future generations. She has exhibited and presented at NERGC, FGS, and NYG&B conferences. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieir
Sun, January 02, 2022
Creating a Digital Archive with Permanent.org
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Amberly Russell, the Preservations Services Manager for the Permanent Legacy Foundation. Permanent is a platform dedicated to allowing individual users to preserve their photos, just as a museum would, through a digital platform. Related Episodes: Episode 95: How to Save Your Family Archive with Permanent.org Episode 92: What You Need to Know About Metadata with Christopher Desmond of MemoryWeb.me Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Amberly Russell is a Texas-based archivist and is currently the Preservation Services Manager for Permanent Legacy Foundation. Amberly brings her lifelong passion as a photographer, videographer, and archivist to her work with clients. She is a United States Army Veteran who earned her Master of Science in Information Studies, Libraries,and Archives from The University of Texas at Austin. Amberly loves hiking, listening to live music, and honing her photography skills in and around Austin, TX. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyH
Sun, December 26, 2021
Ask Maureen December 2021
Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is back with her monthly “Ask Maureen” series in which she answers questions submitted by her followers about photos and photo-related items. In this month’s episode, Maureen tackles: How to donate material to an archive Should you keep the folios that come with photos Researching a photo mystery from Moldavia … and more! Give the episode a listen and find out the answers to these questions. Related Episodes: Episode 156 Ask Maureen November 2021 Episode 152: Ask Maureen October 2021 Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website, and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles, and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com , Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on
Sun, December 19, 2021
Shot Heard Round the World at the Concord Museum
This week, I take a look back on my most popular podcast episode from the past year. I’m joined by David Wood, the curator of the Concord Museum in Concord Massachusetts since 1985. David and I talk about the exhibits from the museum, and how some leave lasting impressions, not only on the community but in the history that it’s taken part in telling. We also discuss what it means to see history, not only as an adult, but also as a child, and how understanding how we look at history can help foster a deeper love in the exhibits we see and also show to our audiences. It’s a fascinating look at curation, history exploration, and understanding how moments in history can continue to affect us, even after they’ve long since happened. It doesn’t take hindsight to realize you’re living in historic times. This last year has taught us that. This week’s guest, David Wood, told me that residents of Lexington and Concord immediately recognized the significance of April 19, 1775, and saved pieces to document that day. A few years ago, the Concord Museum in Concord, Massachusetts assembled a temporary exhibit called The Shot Heard Round the World. It was an amazing display of ordinary and extraordinary bits of history. Now they’ve created a permanent exhibit of the same name. It’s one of my favorite museums but don’t worry if you can’t travel to see it. Their website is worth exploring. Concord Museum was the first cultural institution to be officially recognized by the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission for this “Shot Heard Round the World” microsite. We’ve plenty of time before the 250th celebration in 2026. Related Episodes: Episode 49: Women Patriots with Mary Tedesco Episode 79: The American Revolution and Abraham Lincoln Links: Concord Museum A Revolutionary Trio Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for <a hr
Sun, December 12, 2021
How To Tell a Family History Story in Six Minutes
I’m joined by Christopher Donovan, the head of the Providence, Rhode Island chapter of Pecha Kucha (don’t worry – we discuss how to pronounce it during the episode). Pecha Kucha is a storytelling device that pairs twenty slides, chocked full of images, within twenty seconds. It’s a race to captivate your audience, all while engaging in visual storytelling and is incredibly fun. Christopher and I also discuss what goes into making a Pecha Kucha, with Maureen having done her first just before the global pandemic put us into lockdown, and Christopher being a regular at hosting and presenting. This short-form storytelling format is perfect for sharing small bits of family history. Try it and share it with me. The Providence Pecha Kucha chapter has been the longest-running Pecha Kucha chapter in the world, second only to its origin in Japan, while currently on a hiatus, they will return in Spring 2022 with their 150th show. Related Episodes: Episode 98: Collect Photo Stories with StoryGlory Episode 132: The Wedding Detectives with Charlotte Sibtain and Cole Moreton Links: We Are Here Lost and Found Bennie’s Bamboo Bonanza Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Chris Donovan believes that effective storytelling positively transforms the hearts and minds of those around us. With a decade of experience as a stage manager in the performing arts, he stays behind the scenes creating seamless experiences that keep the ’magic‘ in the spotlight, while hiding all of the nitty-gritty details ’behind the curtains‘. Since 2017 he has been
Sun, December 05, 2021
Find Your Family Farm on VintageAerial.com
This week, The Photo Detective, Maureen Taylor, takes a look back at one of her favorite podcast episodes from the past year as she examines VintageAerial.com, a project dedicated to chronicling the rural areas of the United States. Maureen is joined by Fritz Byers, President, and CEO of VintageAerial.com, and Lance Roper of Customer Engagement as they discuss the need for preserving these areas and how the site has become dedicated to chronicling over 18 million images, all available for public use. Related Episodes: Episode 108: Researching the Ships of Our Ancestors Episode 84: U.S. Naval Collections: Online Resources You Can Use Links: VintageAerial.com Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: My guests are Lance Roper of Customer Engagement and Fritz Byers, President, and CEO of VintageAerial.com About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website, and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles, and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at
Fri, December 03, 2021
Stitching on Pictures: Stitchography by Emma
In this bonus episode, I’m joined by Emma Kilburn-Smith, a mixed-media artist and graduate student who lives in Calgary. Emma made a controversial splash on the social media platform TikTok when she began sharing her work taking vintage photos and embroidering onto them. Her passion for her work is astounding, and while many were worried at the idea of embroidering onto these photos, Emma makes certain that they tell the stories of the people she finds and helps to bring attention to these orphan photos in order to give them new life. Related Episodes: Episode 135: Stitch by Stitch Saving Historic Clothing a Piece at a time Episode 155: Ancestral Handbag History with Curator Jessica Harpley Links: Stitchography by Emma Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Emma is a mixed media artist and graduate student living in Calgary, Alberta. Her academic research into photo animation technologies (like DeepNostalgia) helps to inform her vibrant creative practice as an artist who embroiders on vintage found photos. With a background in journalism, her passion for the artistic medium is rooted in her curiosity for the people and the stories revealed in the photographs that she finds. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The
Sun, November 28, 2021
Ask Maureen November 2021
Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is back with her monthly “Ask Maureen” series in which she answers questions submitted by her followers about photos and photo-related items. In this month’s episode, Maureen tackles: How to tell if a painting frame is old, new, or important How to store and preserve glass slides How to scan in images with low resolution What lantern slides are … and more! Give the episode a listen and find out the answers to these questions. Join Maureen on her Facebook at the end of every month to submit your questions and have them answered. Related Episodes: Episode 147: Ask Maureen September 2021 Episode 143: Ask Maureen August 2021 Links: Modern Day Antique How to Tell If a Frame is an Antique Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recent
Sun, November 21, 2021
Ancestral Handbag History with Curator Jessica Harpley
This week, Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Jessica Rose Harpley, an Assistant Curator at The Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Specifically, Jessica works in the Department of Performance, Furniture, and Textiles. Maureen and Jessica discuss one of Victoria and Albert’s latest exhibits which Jessica helped curate. Called, “Bags: Inside Out” the exhibit examines the role that bags, be it handbags, briefcases, and yes, the Queen’s tiny purses are mentioned, and what role they have played throughout the centuries in regards to fashion. From frivolousness to practicality, this episode looks at these accessories and how a single item can tell a very interesting story about the individual holding it. Related Episodes: Episode 132: The Wedding Detectives Charlotte Sibtain and Cole Moreton Episode 119: Dressing for the Camera: Rules Our Foremothers Followed and Sometimes Broke Links: Bags Inside Out Exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Jessica Rose Harpley is an Assistant Curator at The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England, within The Department of Performance, Furniture, Textiles, and Fashion, having formerly worked within The Costume and Textile Department at Norwich Castle Museum. Jessica has a Master’s degree in Fashion Cultures from The London College of Fashion, and has published on the chatelaine, exploring their use and representation within Victorian Britain. She has specific interests in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, including gender theory and the construction of the self via dress; and, the dissemination and representation of fashion, most nota
Mon, November 15, 2021
Walking Sticks and Canes in Family Photographs
This week, the Photo Detective, Maureen Taylor is joined by Anthony Moss , a rabologist, or collector of walking sticks. He is the joint chairman of The Antique Walking Cane Society, a member of The International Society of Cane Collectors, based in the United States, and a speaker at Canemania, an international cane convention. I’m sure with a biography like that, you’re pretty sure what this podcast episode is about. After Anthony’s wife purchased him two canes, he became obsessed and started to collect them. We talk about walking sticks as an accessory, as a necessity, and as a historical fashion item. What often appears in images, including photographs, as a walking stick often makes us skim over it without a second thought. Well, this single item can actually tell a story you might be missing. Related Episodes: Episode 144: A Ten Year Photo Identification Journey Episode 127: Beautiful but Deadly: Toxic Fashion and Criminal Dress with Dr. Alison Matthews David Links: Antique Canes Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Anthony Moss is a Rabologist (a collector of walking sticks), Joint Chairman of The Antique Walking Cane Society based in London, a Member of The International Society of Cane Collectors based in the USA, and a regular speaker at Canemania, an International Cane Convention. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today S
Sun, November 07, 2021
Ellis Island Images Identified with LouisTakács
This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Louis Takács, a former librarian, who comes from a line of immigrants and refugees, which inspired a project to examine 20th-century migrant and immigrant lives from 1914-1925, using passport photos. One of the great hurdles that many fledgling genealogists face is Ellis Island. Known for being the spot where immigrants had to pass through for migration to the United States, Louis began to find emergency passport applications, which gave him insight into the process of immigration, and, more importantly, what individual experiences were like going to Ellis Island. Louis’ goal is to construct the narrative of how individuals came to the United States, and what their lives were like. It’s beautiful, poignant, and shines a light that not many of us have seen on what it means to come to a new country. Related Episodes: Episode 55: Photos of Our Mill Working Ancestors with Joe Manning Episode 108: Researching the Ships of Our Ancestors Links: Let Me Get There Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Louis Takács studied Anthropology and Philosophy as an undergraduate and Information Science and Learning Technologies in graduate school. He became a librarian, worked at the Chicago Public Library and Northwestern University, then moved to the Netherlands. He currently works in the communications field for an NGO. Takács’ great-grandfather was a return-migrant, his grandfather an immigrant, and his father a refugee—all from Hungary to the United States. Becoming an immigrant himself caused him to reflect deeply on migration in general and seek to better understand the role photography has played in shaping the age of m
Sun, October 31, 2021
Ask Maureen October 2021
In this month’s episode: *What did cabinet cards, cost? *What are the numbers on the back of snapshots? *What about writing on the back of photographs? *How can I determine if two photos are of the same person? Related Episodes: Episode 138: Ask Maureen July 2021 Edition Episode 125: Ask Maureen April 2021 Edition Links: Vivid-Pix Restore Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on
Sun, October 24, 2021
Ghost Hunting Photo Clues with Dustin Pari
You’ve probably seen the shows where ghost hunters go to spooky places to look for entities and use equipment to capture them. Well, believe it or not, one of the tools they use is special technical cameras. Behind the scenes, ghost hunters are a lot like genealogists. They look for documents and images to help determine what might be going on in these haunted places. This episode is part of my series on how other professions use historical images. Related Episodes: Episode 61: Mourning Jewelry Fact or Fiction Episode 94: Dead Still: Postmortem Photography Links: Dustin Pari Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: With over 25 years of experience researching the unknown, Dustin Pari brings exciting and positive lectures about the paranormal all across the country, As a part of SyFy television’s Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters International, and appearances on Destination Truth and Ghost Nation, Dustin has traveled the world over looking for answers and expanding his understanding of the unseen realm. Dustin’s fascination with the paranormal began with an encounter he had with a spirit in his childhood home. In his efforts to better understand what had happened, and why, he has traveled across the United States to 27 countries upon 6 different continents, learning a little more with each step of his journey. Follow Dustin on: Twitter = @DustinPari Instagram = @DustinPari Youtube = youtube.com/DustinPari Facebook = facebook.com/DustinPari About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker o
Sun, October 17, 2021
Victorian Mourning Curiosities with Kate Kierstead
There is so much confusion about which photos depict mourning and which ones don’t. I thought it was time to have someone other than me weigh in on the controversy. My guest posted on Twitter about mourning dress and it went somewhat viral. So glad she said yes to be a guest on the podcast. Related Episodes: E pisode 61: Mourning Jewelry: Fact or Fiction Episode 76: Who’s That Baby? Tips for Solving Snapshot Mysteries Links: Roses and Rue Antiques Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Kate Kierstead is an antique dealer who specializes in Victoriana, with a focus on the sentimental, devotional, and unusual. She lives in the Greater Boston area, where she consumes a steady diet of books, movies, music, and art fusses over clothes, and makes wisecracks. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website, and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles, and online columns for such media as Smithson
Sun, October 10, 2021
Rediscovered Photos of an American Medium with Sharon Carmack
A long time ago, my skills as The Photo Detective helped me identify photographs for press kits and textbooks. Over the years, I’ve located photos for my own publications and helped countless authors and historians with their image problems too. Today’s guest is an experienced genealogist and historian. When she needed help piecing together a photo mystery, she contacted me. I was happy to help. Without her guidance as an editor at Betterway Books (now Family Tree Books), there wouldn’t be a Family Photo Detective book written by me. Related Episodes: Episode 118: Eliza Hamilton Revealed with Susan Holloway Scott E pisode 22: A Murder Mystery with the Literary Detective Paul Collins Links: Sharon Carmack Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Sharon DeBartolo Carmack is a Certified Genealogist® with a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction Writing, a Diploma in Irish Studies from the National University of Ireland–Galway, and a Diploma from the Spiritualists’ National Union in the UK. As part of the adjunct faculty at Salt Lake Community College, Sharon developed and teaches five online courses: Tracing Immigrant Origins, Writing Life Stories, Genealogy and Family History Writing, and Preparing for Certified Genealogist I and II. She is also the author of twenty-four books and hundreds of articles, essays, columns, and reviews that have appeared in nearly every major genealogical journal and publication. Some of Sharon’s books include Tell It Short: A Guide to Writing Your Family History in Brief, You Can Write Your Family History, and most recently, In Search of Maria B. Hayden: The American Medium Who Brought Spiritualism to the U.K., available on Amazon.com. About Maureen Taylor:</
Sun, October 03, 2021
Early Photographs on Headstones with Elliot Conte
Genealogists love going to cemeteries to view the resting place of ancestors. Information and symbolism on stones vary depending on the time period. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, some gravestones featured photographs. Have you ever seen one? My guest has. He’s been wandering in rural cemeteries in Maine to find out more about the practice. Related Episodes: Episode 21 The Gravestone Girls Episode 94 Dead Still: Postmortem Photography and Crime Fiction Program Links: Daguerreian Society Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Over the past 11 years, Elliot Conte has collected, studied, and made daguerreotypes. He gave a talk on his research on daguerreotypes in cemeteries at the Nelson Atkins Museum and wrote an article on the topic for The Daguerreian Annual About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website, and also writes guide
Sat, September 25, 2021
Ask Maureen: September 2021
This month’s Q & A is a themed podcast on postcards. Thank you to everyone that mailed me a postcard! Related Episodes: E pisode 143: Ask Maureen September 2021 E pisode 138: Ask Maureen July 2021 Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website, and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles, and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts . I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to mau
Sun, September 19, 2021
Using Twitter for a Photo Reunion
Twitter is a social media platform that folks either love or hate. It doesn’t generate too much of an in-between feeling. It’s known for short posts and hashtags. It’s the place you go for breaking news and some groups like #GenChat use it to inspire collaboration and social interaction in the genealogy world. There are photo historians on Twitter too. But I was surprised to see a photo reunion trending. Historian and author Victoria Johnson maximized her Twitter reach by encouraging her students and twitterstorians (historians on Twitter) to share an unidentified photo she found in a used book. It caused a flood of comments, resulted in a reunion and landed Victoria in the national spotlight of CNN and ABC News. It’s made me reevaluate the power of Twitter for family history ( and it might make you take a look at the social media platform). Related Episodes: Episode 142: Vintage Aerial Photos Episode 101: Rediscovering an American Community of Color Links: Story on CNN ABC News Story Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Victoria Johnson is a historian and Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at Hunter College of the City University of New York. Her most recent book, American Eden, a biography of the New York doctor who served at the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr (yes, he has a small part in the musical!) was a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award in Nonfiction and for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in History. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and fa
Sun, September 12, 2021
Orphan Photos Reunited
I know that my guest’s feelings about abandoned orphan photos will resonate with you. He hates seeing a photo abandoned and unfortunately he sees a lot of them. It’s a personal mission for Kody Beltz of the Good Finch Company of Witcha, Kansas. He’s an estate and antique dealer. His eventually successful adventure using Facebook to reunite some identified images with family resulted in national attention. Here’s the amazing part–Kody isn’t a family historian. He just loves photos and prefers they remain in family hands even if they end up in a shoebox. His mission is to reunite orphan photos with relatives. Related Episodes: Episode 32: The Man Behind DeadFred.com Bonus Episode: Lost History Discovered (in the Recycling) Links: Photos in auction returned to Family The Good Finch Co. Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Kody Beltz is the Co-Owner of The Good Finch Co. Selling vintage and antiques along with Estate Sale services. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and
Sun, September 05, 2021
A Ten Year Photo Identification Journey
How long do you spend working on a photo mystery? It might surprise you to hear that this week’s guest spent more than a decade on her photo problem. The combination of family connections and research can helped her solve several photo problems. Early on in this journey, she asked me to weigh in on her picture. It resulted in an article in Family Tree Magazine . A few years later another article in Family Tree Magazine was a status update. Recently she sent me her analysis and I was amazed. In addition to the pictures, she explained her process. It made me smile. She listened to my advice and followed techniques that aren’t usually applied to photos. You won’t believe how this came together. In this episode, she talks about what sparked her interest in family history and how her search for family images is ongoing. Her advice: keep reaching out to cousins. They might hold the key. Related Episodes: Episode 137: The Walls Can Talk: Finding History in a Hidden Room with David Whitcomb Episode 132: The Wedding Detectives Charlotte Sibtain and Cole Moreton Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: June Thomazin’s passion for solving her family photo mysteries is a case study on how to tackle even the toughest photo identification project. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been
Sun, August 29, 2021
Ask Maureen: August 2021 Edition
Every month Maureen does a live Q & A on Facebook and YouTube answering questions submitted by listeners. Have a question? Email her at photodetective@maureentaylor.com This month’s questions: How did Maureen become The Photo Detective? Summertime hazards for photos Disaster planning tips Did snapshots get mounted on card stock? Related Episodes: Episode 138: Ask Maureen. July 2021 Edition Episode 125: Ask Maureen. April 2021 Edition Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website, and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles, and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts</
Sun, August 22, 2021
Vintage Aerial Photos
Their website makes it clear that the eight-person team at Vintage Aerial loves preserving the heritage of rural America and sharing it with anyone and everyone who cares. They’ve built a website of an amazing 18 million images and growing that anyone can access. There are also photo mysteries on the site that you might be able to solve. Identify one homestead and it unlocks the rest on the roll of film. Anyone can sign up for an account, browse the collection, and order prints. Beware though…once you start looking at these pictures, it’s hard to stop. My guests are Lance Roper of Customer Engagement and Fritz Beyers, President, and CEO. We talk about how the company started and its plans for the future. Hint: More scanning and adding more photos is part of it. Related Episodes: Episode 108: Researching the Ships of Our Ancestors Episode 84: U.S. Naval Collections: Online Resources You Can Use Links: VintageAerial.com Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: My guests are Lance Roper of Customer Engagement and Fritz Beyers, President, and CEO of VintageAerial.com About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and
Sun, August 15, 2021
Postal History Stories of Selling and Collecting with Jim Mehrer
From stamps to envelopes and postcards, my guest’s collecting passions expanded when he bought a few cards at a sale and became fascinated by the postmarks (and messages). He’s an expert on postmarks and using them as a photo clue. We chat about the golden age of postcard printing and the bits of history a postcard can convey including a link to President Garfield’s assassination. Jim Mehrer tells some great stories relating to postcards–why they were sent and why we should definitely read the backs of old cards. I know he’s inspired me to take a second look at the ones in my collection. Related Episodes: Episode 139: Collecting Postcards for a Half-Century with Mark Routh Episode 104: Clues in Group Portraits and Albums Links: Postal-history.com Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Jim Mehrer is an Illinois native and lifelong resident. After graduating from Augustana College in Rock Island, he spent several years managing independent retail stores. In 1993, Jim combined his business management experience with his hobby interests and established Jim Mehrer’s Postal History. Since then, he has offered hundreds of thousands of items to collectors of postal history and postcards in his mail bid sales. Also, Jim offers related storage supplies and reference literature, including several titles that he has compiled and published. Information about Jim’s business and the products he offers is on his websites at www.postal-history.com and www.deltiology.com . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at histori
Sun, August 08, 2021
Talking Postcards with The Postcardist
In today’s world, those of us with mobile devices communicate by texting. For our turn of the twentieth-century ancestors, it was through the mail. Imagine getting multiple mail deliveries a day and the possibilities of that communication. Postcards were a quick way of touching base with friends and family. Businesses used cards to advertise and so did realtors. Real photo postcards are my favorite, but if you think they were unique, my guest clarifies that. My guest started writing postcards as a child and never stopped. He receives dozens of them in the mail every day. Related Episodes: Episode 103: Organize, Preserve and Share with Collectionaire.com Episode 98: Collect Photo Stories with StoryGlory.com Links: The Postcardist Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Frank Roche is the host of The Postcardist Podcast . Over the past three years and 110 episodes, he’s interviewed leading collectors, designers, writers, and authors about their postcard passion. A former journalist and executive communication consultant, Frank has been writing postcards since he was five. Frank is the proud owner of the world’s largest Bigfoot postcard collection. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been fe
Sun, August 01, 2021
Collecting Postcards for a Half Century with Mark Routh
It’s time for another themed month. This time it's postcards. Three guests this month share stories about their personal connections with these mailable images. In this episode, English collector Mark Routh chats about his collection which spans 1869 to the present. He has some museum-quality gems. Did you know that dirigibles mailed items for their passengers? Neither did I. You won’t believe how many postcards he’s accumulated in his lifetime. It all began with a single card that his father gave him. Related Episodes: Episode 116: America and the Tintype with Steven Kasher Episode 108: Researching the Ships of Our Ancestors Links: Picture Postcard Monthly Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Mark Routh’s postcard collection began 50 years ago. He’s a recently retired police officer. He has a substantial collection from all periods of postcard production (1869 – 2021). He wrote a regular postcard article for the international magazine ‘Picture Postcard Monthly’ – 1992 to 2020 (the pandemic closed down the magazine) He now writes a monthly article for the new international magazine ‘Picture Postcard Collecting’ which started up in 2020 as a replacement for the previously mentioned magazine. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vie
Sun, July 25, 2021
Ask Maureen July 2021 Edition
Every month, Maureen tackles photo identification, photo preservation questions from those submitted through social media and email. You can submit a question through photodetective@maureentaylor.com This month’s questions: After scanning portraits, what to do concerning saving or discarding the card stock photo frame/folders. Will that card stock damage the photo long-term? What should I use to mark the back of un-mounted tintypes? I inherited family pictures that are incredibly old. Many of them are in old scrapbooks that are slowly deteriorating with age. I know there are facts written on the back of many photos, but I am torn about taking the albums apart to organize and store vs keeping them as I received them where someone put a lot of thought into it at the time. Thoughts or suggestions to offer? If I am scanning and saving documents for family archival purposes, what is the best way to title each picture when I save it? Also, should I save it as a tiff or jpg? I know this has been asked before, but what pen/pencil should I use to identify photos? Any updates on the family movies you sent out? How are you planning to save and share any digital versions? I have inherited a large collection of photos from my mother-in-law’s school. How can I get them online so that people can find them? Our poor coal miner /steelworker ancestors in the 1900’s took quite large wedding photos. Where might one find the cost of a photo like this way back then? Related Episodes: Episode 125: Ask Maureen April 2021 Episode 117: Ask Maureen February 2021 Links: Where to Find the Products Maureen Uses Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor:
Sun, July 18, 2021
The Walls Can Talk: Finding History in a Hidden Room With David Whitcomb
Attorney David Whitcomb purchased space for a new office and found forgotten picture history of the suffrage movement. These old photos revealed clues about local history and national politics. In our last house, we found a note from the first owner hidden beneath the wallpaper. Nothing too amazing. His name and a date. In this house, there is a cobweb-filled bin in the back of the basement filled with old doors that were once used. I’m actually afraid to dig around in it, but this podcast episode is inspiring me to do so. Perhaps you’ve discovered a forgotten bit of the past in a place you’ve lived or worked? I’ve received countless emails from people that have found photographs in the darndest places when they are renovating houses–in walls, behind fireplaces, and more. Never has anyone ever said they found a whole room. Well…that is until I spoke with attorney David Whitcomb and his amazing unexpected find. His tale will have you looking in closets, examining ceilings, and hoping to rediscover lost history as he did. Related Episodes: Bonus Lost History Discovered (in the Recycling) Episode 84 U.S. Naval Photo Collections: Online Resources You Can Use Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: David J. Whitcomb is the founder/owner of Whitcomb Law Firm, P.C. Mr. Whitcomb is a graduate of Canandaigua Academy (1995) and obtained his law degree from the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law (2007). Mr. Whitcomb focuses his practice on real estate (transactions, contracts, leases, and evictions), lending, estate planning and probate, business entity formation and representation as well as representation in matrimonial and criminal matters. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker
Sun, July 11, 2021
A Lifetime of Love: Collecting Images of New York City with Ray Simone
Collecting is often a hobby that starts when we’re in grade school. Did you have a childhood hobby? I did. I loved learning about family history and old photos. I’m still passionate about it today. My guest turned his hobby of collecting old photographs of famous stars of television and movies into a lifetime pursuit. At some point, he began gathering bits of New York’s picture history one box of glass negatives at a time. When I asked him about the size of his collection, he laughed. Yup…that a clue to how many pictures he’s accumulated. A LOT. Prints get saved (sometimes) but negatives are often discarded, but to Ray Simone, those pieces of history are worth a second look. We chatted about his lifetime of saving the past, how he preserves his collection, and how you can obtain a print. Related Episodes: Episode 103: Organize, Preserve, and Share with Collectionaire.com Episode 101: Rediscovering an American Community of Color Links: Original Vintage Fine Art Photographs Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Ray Simone has been a professional photographer for over 20 years, shooting fashion throughout NYC and product photography. He has been collecting original vintage photographs since he was 10 years old and when he started shooting professionally he decided to start collecting original camera negatives. Ray would search the city far and wide for them. 6th Ave between 14 & 34th Streets was a treasure trove before the 1990’s came along. There were many empty parking lots on weekends where people would be selling everything you can imagine, but his eye was focused on negatives. One day about 10 years ago after cleaning up his photo studio Ray decided to start to retouch & restore tho
Sun, July 04, 2021
Stitch by Stitch: Saving Historic Clothing a Piece at a Time
A few years ago, I gave a presentation at The Varnum Armory a medieval-style building in East Greenwich Rhode Island. After the talk, members took me behind the scenes. Built in 1913, it is the headquarters for Varnum’s Regiment, a chartered unit of the RI colonial militia. Flags, banners, uniforms, artifacts, and weaponry in the collection date from the colonial period through the twentieth century. Since I’ve worked on the Last Muster series of books of images of individuals who lived during the American Revolution and into the age of photography, seeing all those collections preserved was fascinating. Later I learned that there was a conservator working on the textile collections and I had to meet her. Well…Covid intervened but we did manage to chat via Zoom. By the way, one of the items she’s worked on is now known as the oldest colonial American flag in existence. If you’ve ever wondered about the color of the uniform worn by your ancestor pre-color photography or how to save the textiles in your family collection, then you’ll love this episode. Related Episodes: Episode 127: Beautiful but Deadly: Toxic Fashion and Criminal Dress with Dr. Alison Matthews David Episode 88: Ancestral Tours of Battlefields and Bonefields Links: Royal Conservation and Exhibition Oldest Colonial Flag in America Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Maria Vasquez is a textile conservator with a Masters Degree in Textile Conservation and sixteen years of sewing and patterning experience, including two Master Seamstress Certificates. She owns her business, <a
Sun, June 27, 2021
Unlocking the Shoebox--Digitize, Identify, and Organize Your Family Photos
At Rootstech 2021 myself, Nancy and Christopher Desmond of MemoryWeb.me presented a three-part class on unlocking the shoebox of photos. I love partnering with those two. They have a passion for genealogy and photography. Thousands of people watched our class and asked questions about the topic. There were so many queries we decided to do a dedicated Q & A webinar. This is a recording of that event. By the way…the class is still live and will be until 2022. We offered a show special that is still live as well. An opportunity to watch Getting Started with Digital Photo Organizing and subscribe to MemoryWeb. The Links are in the show notes. Recap of Unlocking the Shoebox. Would you rather have me scan the actual eight by 10 photo or the negative of that photo? How to scan slides What should we do with black paper albums? How can I tell cased images apart? How can I research a photographer? I have multiple backups of my photos organized and stored on my computer and external drives. Why would I put these on the cloud? What’s the best way to digitize and include metadata? What type of portable, external hard drive would you recommend for a Mac book pro Related Episodes: Episode 69: Digital Photo Organizing with MemoryWeb Episode 92: What You Need to Know About Metadata with Christopher Desmond Links: Unlocking the Shoebox: The Class Unlocking the Shoebox Digital Photo Organizing Special Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Nancy and Christopher Desmond are the founders and creators of MemoryWeb.me a digital photo organizer
Sun, June 20, 2021
Loving: A History of Men in Love 1850-1950
Included are ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, glass negatives, tin types, cabinet cards, photo postcards, photo strips, photomatics, and snapshots – over 100 years of social history and the development of photography. Related Episodes: Episode 116: America and the Tintype with Steven Kasher Episode 99: Finding Photographs on the Smithsonian Learning Lab Links: Interview with Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell are the authors of LOVING A Photographic History and the owners of the Nini-Treadwell Collection which consists of over 3000 photographs of men in love. The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, CNN, and Vogue featured reviews of their book. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website, and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles, and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at <a href='https
Sun, June 13, 2021
The Wedding Detectives Charlotte Sibtain and Cole Moreton
Take one wedding photo, add some research and you’ll end up with quite the story. That’s the premise behind The Wedding Detectives on BBC Radio 4. Charlotte Sibtain was on The Photo Detective back in episode 44 vintage Wedding Photos. I discovered Charlotte’s Instagram feed and so did reporter Cole Moreton. Together they uncover the tales behind what on the surface look like ordinary wedding images. Murder and mayhem are just one of the stories they found. You don’t have to live in the UK to listen to their program. My fingers are crossed the series gets expanded. Let’s help them by tuning in via the web. Link in the show notes. Related Episodes: Episode 44: Vintage Wedding Photos Episode 98: Collect Photo Stories with StoryGlory Links: The Wedding Detectives Vintage Wedding Photos on Instagram Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Charlotte Sibtain is a London-based social researcher who collects vintage wedding photos and then reunites them where possible with the families. She is also the co-host of the popular BBC Radio 4 series, ‘The Wedding Detectives’. Cole Moreton is a writer and broadcaster exploring who we are and what we believe in. His BBC Radio 4 series The Boy Who Gave His Heart Away won Audio Moment of the Year at the Arias and Best Writing at the World’s Best Radio Awards in New York. He also contributes to Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2. Cole was named as Interviewer of the Year at the Press Awards for his work with the Mail on Sunday and also writes for other titles including The Guardian and the i. He is the author of five books including Hungry for Home, which was shortlisted alongside Zadie Smith’s White Teeth for the prestigious John Llewelyn Rhys Prize for firs
Sun, June 06, 2021
Visualizing Equality: African American Rights in Photographs and Drawings with Dr. Aston Gonzalez
The fight for racial equality in the nineteenth century played out not only in marches and political conventions but also in the print and visual culture created and disseminated throughout the United States by African Americans. Producing printed and photographic images for activists that advanced their campaigns for black rights. Related Episodes: Episode 101: Rediscovering an American Community of Color Episode 120: Good Pictures: Amateur Photography and Our Family with Art Historian Kim Beil Links: African American Visual Culture in the 19th Century: An Online Lecture for the New York Historical Society Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Dr. Aston Gonzalez is a historian of African American culture and politics during the long nineteenth century. He is an associate professor of History at Salisbury University. Before teaching in Maryland, he completed a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship through the Library Company of Philadelphia’s Program in African American History and a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship. The University of North Carolina Press published his first book, Visualizing Equality: African American Rights and Visual Culture in the Nineteenth Century, in September 2020. He has published articles about African American portraiture during the Early Republic, picturing Black citizenship during the Civil War, the creation of African American archives, the visual representations of escaped slaves, and the visual production of free Black abolitionists. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical soc
Sun, May 30, 2021
Ask Maureen: May 2021
Each month Maureen answers questions from listeners. When scanning cabinet cards, do you only do one scan of the entire front of the card which would include the border & photographer logo, or do you also make a 2nd scan of just the photo itself? Carol asked: I have a picture of my GG grandmother (1829-1901). She is elderly in the picture & wearing small hoop earrings. It appears that her ears are pierced. Was it common in the 1800s for an older woman to have pierced ears? Did they go out of fashion in the twentieth century? Does MyHeritage own my photos when I upload them? What archival safe pen/pencils do you recommend for labeling heritage images? It’s important to download documents or sync them to your tree when you locate them online. What’s on a genealogy site today doesn’t mean it will be there tomorrow. Do Ambrotypes fade when exposed to light? Karen asks: My great-grandmother in a professional photo with her husband and oldest child has rings on her left middle finger. Was that common in 1910? It’s important to download documents or sync them to your tree when you locate them online. What’s on a genealogy site today doesn’t mean it will be there tomorrow? Thank goodness I saved what I needed. I’ve been working on my family tree again. My Dad’s line. Two cousins are asking me to write up what I know. So to do that I’m creating a timeline of what I know for branches of the family..adding images and putting unsolved questions in the document in red. It becomes a research log as well. Do Ambrotypes fade when exposed to light? Related Episodes: Episode 125: Ask Maureen April 2021 Episode 117: Ask Maureen February 2021 Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo id
Sun, May 23, 2021
Using Photos to Create Heirlooms with GenerationStory
Two and a half years ago, Shannon Uschold of Generation Story app was a guest on this podcast. Listeners rocketed it to one of the top ten episodes where it stayed for a couple of years. I know you have heirlooms you don’t know what to do with and items you’d like to share. Two years ago, Shannon had a dream and worked tirelessly to find solutions. She did it. Generation Story app gives us a way to preserve the stories of heirlooms large and small as well as providing a way for us to share our history by creating new items from pillows to wall coverings. Related Episodes: Episode 19: GenerationStory App Episode 86: Every Thing Tells a Story Links: Generation Story Save 40% with PD40 Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Shannon Uschold is the Founder & CEO of GenerationStory, a free app that provides anyone a quick and easy way to archive, and tell the story of your most treasured family keepsakes and heirlooms. In addition to the app, GenerationStory has a Shopify site offering on-demand, customizable products using images of your most treasured items. The mission is to capture memories before they are lost and to help people organize and share their family story. For Shannon, Every object has a story. Like many things, GS had a history even before it was created. Compelled by childhood memories, objects, and family stories that surrounded her – Shannon was inspired to create a solution for organizing and capturing memories before they were lost. Each time she visited her grandmother’s house, she could be found sitting on a carpet in front of a bookcase full of old family treasures. Her grandmother would tell little stories about the strips of paper that were rolled inside or attached to the back of an item. Coming from a long line of family preserv
Sun, May 16, 2021
National Photography Month Activities
May became National Photography Month in 1987 when Congress recognized the role photography plays in modern society. The American Photographers Association one of the primary backers and supporters of Photography Month. There are activities, exhibits, and sales all month. Here are some fun ways to participate. With the advent of digital imaging interest decreased but then returned in 2007. National Photography Month Activities Photograph everyday moments Make a plan to document your life for your descendants. Think of topics like grandma in the kitchen. Toys. cars. Perhaps you already document your life. There are Covid themed archives around the world now. Ordinary people and archivists are collecting images, audio, and video (plus more) so that future folk will have the material context to understand the time in which we live. Is there one in your area? Ask a local history librarian or a Reference person, they are bound to know. Make a photobook. It doesn’t matter if you use a word processing program or something more sophisticated like Shutterfly or Snapfish. Chatbooks turn social media into browseable books with little effort. Send a photo card With Felt a new app. Old photo or new There is a new app I can’t wait to try. It’s called Felt and it helps you create cards with digital images and then mails them. Oooh. Do I know a few folks that need a family history pick me up. Bet you do too. Your pet. Set up an Instagram account for your pet or feature them on Tik Tok. Dogs and cats are often internet sensations and videos/photos of them go viral. Try it and see. Pet not really of interest then start an instagram account for your family photos. Watermark each one before uploading using umarkonline.com Merge Your Family photos and genealogical information together into a book your descendants will love to look at. There is nothing like the storytelling potential when you merge images and information. It’s hard for genealogists to accept sometimes that their family isn’t always interested in the tree you’ve built but add in some photos and tell some stories and they’ll be hooked. Virtually Visit a photo gallery or museum. During this pandemic, many museums began offering virtual programming. Some through Facebook, others through YouTube, and some through their website. What’s your favorite museum? The Museum of the American Revolution’s Facebook page offers short presentations by conservators and artisans. You can take a virtual tour at The Tenement Museum in New York There are so many options. Become the family photographer. Smartphone or digital SLR, just start snapping and Enroll in a photography course. It doesn’t matter whether it’s at a local college, online, at a local hobby store. it’s a skill you won’t regret acquiring. </u
Sun, May 09, 2021
Beautiful but Deadly: Toxic Fashion and Criminal Dress with Dr. Allison Matthews David
Death by outfit isn’t something featured in the game of Clue but it could be. Our ancestors lured to the new bright colors of the nineteenth century wore garments poisoned with arsenic and mercury, perhaps hurrying along their deaths. Not that you’re likely to see that as a cause on a death certificate. These garments continue to be harmful to curators today with long lasting toxins. You’ve probably never thought about fashion history as a dangerous profession, but this episode will change your mind. My guest is a fashion historian who studies toxic fashion and now clothing adaptations worn by a criminal element. Both topics are fascinating glimpses into what our ancestors wore, why they wore them, and the effects of doing so. Related Episodes: Episode 72: Wearing the Past: A Modern Woman’s Fascination with Period Dress Episode 106: French Fashion, World War I and Your Ancestors Links: Fashion Studies Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Dr. Alison Matthews David is an Associate Professor in the School of Fashion and the Graduate Program Director, MA Fashion , at Ryerson University. She has a PhD from Stanford University, has published on nineteenth-century dress and material culture, and launched the open-access journal Fashion Studies with Dr. Ben Barry in 2018. Her most recent research project, Fashion Victims , looked at how clothing physically harmed the health of its makers and wearers. It was published as a book in 2015, was a co-curated exhibition at the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, and
Sun, May 02, 2021
Passed and Present: Keeping Memories of Loved One's Alive with Allison Gilbert
My guest offers tips on preserving the memories of loved ones we’ve lost. Photographs are a key part of remembering. We can see their faces and it triggers a range of emotions in us. Family history offers us the way to continue to keep our loved ones a part of our everyday lives. Allison Gilbert’s ideas for honoring the ones we love are not just for adults. Children will be able to participate in these activities as well. Related Episodes: Episode 103: Collect, Preserve, and Share with Collectionaire.com Episode 86: Everything Tells a Story with Martie McNabb Links: Allison Gilbert’s website Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Allison Gilbert is an Emmy award-winning journalist and one of the most thought-provoking and influential writers on grief and resilience. The author of numerous books including the groundbreaking, Passed and Present: Keeping Memories of Loved Ones Alive , her stirring work reveals the most uplifting and empowering strategies for remembering the family and friends we never want to forget. She serves on the Board of Directors for the National Alliance for Grieving Children and the Advisory Board for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, the preeminent national organization providing grief support to families of America’s fallen heroes. Allison’s other books include Parentless Parents: How the Loss of Our Mothers and Fathers Impacts the Way We Raise Our Children and Always Too Soon: Voices of Support for Those Who Have Lost Both Parents . She is also co-editor of Covering Catastrophe: Broadcast Journalists Report September 11 , the definitive historical record of how broadcast journalists covered that tragic day. The landmark book was turned into a documenta
Sun, April 25, 2021
Ask Maureen: April 2021
At the end of every month, I answer questions from listeners. How do I safely remove photos from a spiral-bound album? The kind with the sticky page covered with a sheet of cellophane Celia, that’s called a magnetic album and they were really, really popular and you can still buy them today. There are so many family tree sites. How do we know which one might be best for us? Well, it depends because they’re all a little bit different. What is the best way to scan pictures from a yearbook? You can photograph the entire page with your smartphone. If you have a smartphone or you can lay that book down on a scanner, just be careful, you don’t break the binding and then scan the image that you want from the yearbook. Do I have any experience with a Photo Stick or Album Saver? A photo stick or albums saver. These are both USB storage devices and I actually do not recommend using a USB storage device. They don’t last very long. If you want to use one of those temporarily, just to share all your images with someone else then fine, but then upload them to another hard drive or computer. I had somebody write to me this week and say that their great aunt gave them 76 photo albums and what they should do with them. And it was a long email, but we came up with a solution which is, you know, scan and upload and share and, you know, caption and all of that. This person whose name, I didn’t get said that their great aunt gave them a large collection of family photos shortly before she died, but she had no idea of who most of the people were. Where is the best place to store digital pictures? So I have several different methods. I use MemoryWeb, of course. And I love that it’s a photo organizer for genealogists. I use it because it also acts as a backup when my computer crashed and I had to have it taken back to factory settings. I also have a portable SSD drive. It is a solid drive, so they tend to last longer, but these will all have to be replaced. The drives will have to be replaced. They don’t last forever. And then I use iCloud because I’m on a Mac. So I have multiple backups and there’s even one collection that I have backed up on Dropbox as well, because. I don’t know what I would do if I lost that. It’s all the photographs scanned by a particular organization and I feel a great deal of responsibility to keep them for everyone. Where are my photos that used to be in Picasa? Google hasn’t supported the program for a number of years. Now, there are some articles online that you can read to try to help you find your online photos, which supposedly were transferred into Google photos, but not all. How can I watch a class that I purchased at MaureenTaylor.com? When you go to Maureen taylor.com in the upper right-hand corner, there
Sun, April 18, 2021
The Shot Heard Round the World at The Concord Museum
It doesn’t take hindsight to realize you’re living in historic times. This last year has taught us that. This week’s guest told me that residents of Lexington and Concord immediately recognized the significance of April 19, 1775, and saved pieces to document that day. A few years ago, the Concord Museum in Concord, Massachusetts assembled a temporary exhibit called The Shot Heard Round the World. It was an amazing display of ordinary and extraordinary bits of history. Now they’ve created a permanent exhibit of the same name. It’s one of my favorite museums but don’t worry if you can’t travel to see it. Their website is worth exploring. Concord Museum was the first cultural institution to be officially recognized by the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission for this “Shot Heard Round the World” microsite We’ve plenty of time before the 250th celebration in 2026. Related Episodes: Episode 49: Women Patriots with Mary Tedesco Episode 79: The American Revolution and Abraham Lincoln Links: Concord Museum A Revolutionary Trio Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: David F. Wood has been Curator at the Concord Museum since 1985. He has published The Concord Museum: Decorative Arts from a New England Collection and An Observant Eye: The Thoreau Collection at the Concord Museum, which won the American Association of State and Local History Leadership in History Award and the Historic New England Honor Book award for 2007. He has also published a variety of other articles regarding cabinetmaking and clock-making in Concord, Massachusetts About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at
Sun, April 11, 2021
America's Pandemic Pastime: Making Photo Reunions Happen
Every time I see another news story on a photo reunion that’s happened through crowdsourcing images online I chuckle. I have a closet full of mysteries and not much luck reuniting images with living people. Yet, just in the last few months, there are images being shared online that are within a short time being reunited. It’s clearly the world’s new Pandemic pastime. There is a Victoria Johnson, a professor at Hunter College who’s the author of American Eden: David Hosack Botany and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2019. 15 years ago she found a snapshot of a family in a used book she bought in New York City. This year she posted it to Twitter and it lit up the Twitterverse 80 comments, 684 shares, 1.9 Million likes Yowza. And the family was identified. You can view the image and thread in the Links. In 2008, Jennifer Skupin, a designer who lives in the Netherlands, found a box of 200 slides at a Dutch flea market of people in Alaska circa 1960. She tried to identify the people but couldn’t. Recently she put the images in a Google Drive folder where people can comment. Bingo! Many of the images have been commented on and identified. You can view them in the Google Drive link in the show notes These are only two of the photo-related stories I’ve read about recently. Both of these covered on CNN. com There are other photos in the news. Paul Moar was in the right place and time to find images of the Shetland Islands being discarded at the recycling center. He saved them and is using a Facebook page, Shared Shetland Memories, to share the images and gather information. Paul was on The Photo Detective podcast in a bonus episode There are other photo reunion episodes being worked on for the podcast so stay tuned. Let’s look at the history of this Orphan photo/photo rescue movement. Decades ago, reuniting images with family wasn’t very popular. Then genealogist Marge Rice began collecting images with names on them from the Chicago area. Marge, we miss you! And in 1998 Joe Bott started DeadFred.com, a website where folks can post mystery images or identified ones looking for family connections. It was what we had prior to social media. By the way, Marge left her collection to him. I caught up with him in episode 32. Reconnecting families with lost images and mementos was the stuff that genealogists did. Not journalists. How did this happen? The huge genealogy databases of Ancestry.com, MyHeritage.com, and others changed all that. Anyone can go into an antique shop, purchase an image with a name, and start searching. Then facilitate a reunion. Keep in mind the following: Not all images have living family members. Not all images are wanted by family. The question in my mind is which family member should have the picture. Debra Clifford of Ancestorville Genealogy offers digital copies or originals f
Sun, April 04, 2021
Reproducing History and Protecting the Past: One Cased Image at a Time
Over the years, clients have asked, “Where can I purchase a replacement case for my daguerreotype (or other cased images)? I finally have an answer for that. My guest takes molds of historic cases and creates reproductions. Not only can you purchase a variety of designs for old photos. Some of his clients use them for modern-day pictures creating a place where the past meets the present. Museum seeking to display copies of valuable images contact Steve Hane too. You may have seen his work and not known it. His photo cases have been sold to and appeared in a number of television and film projects including HBO’s True Blood, Netflix’s OBX, the feature film Harriet, and Showtime’s The Good Lord Bird. Now I wonder if one of my February guests knows Steve. Rob Gibson in a bonus episode, Tintypes in the Movies and Television. It appears Rob took tintypes for Harriet and Steve supplied the cases. A cool coincidence. A Related Episodes: Bonus Episode: Tintypes Made for Television and the Movies Episode 96: Photo Fakes with Mike Medhurst Links: Modern Day Antique Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Steve Hane has been a professional photographer since 2005 when he started his aerial photography business, a MetroAir Photo LLC in Maryland. Prior to that he has been interested in history all his life and has been a Civil War reenactor since 1997 participating in hundreds of events from small living histories to the largest reenactments in the country. He has been doing wet plate photography since taking John Coffer’s class in 2015 and later that year he took Michael Rhodes phoenix case-making class. Two years later, in 2017, he purchased Michael’s company, Modern Day Antique and he has been continuing the work of creating repro
Sun, March 28, 2021
Ask Maureen: March 2021 Edition
In this monthly podcast, Maureen shares questions received via email and through social media. Can you tell us about changing exposure times for photographic portraits and why people didn’t smile for pictures? Do you have a good resource for looking up photographer names by location and years they were active? Is there a good resource for dating children’s clothing styles? How can I preserve a rusty tintype? Can you determine the financial status of a person in a portrait? What can you do with deteriorating Polaroids? Related Episodes: Episode 117: Ask Maureen February 2021 Episode 113: Ask Maureen January 2021 Links: Reunions Magazine Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Please <a hr
Sun, March 21, 2021
Good Pictures: Amateur Photography and Our Family with Art Historian Kim Beil
How did you and your ancestors learn how to take “Good Pictures?” It’s likely they read Kodak’s guide for amateur photographers, How to Make Good Pictures published from 1912 to 1995. New cameras and new technology influenced how we took photographs and what they photographed. My guest studied those popular guides to photography to compile a new type of history…one that focuses on average folks and their cameras. Arranged topically within time frames you’ll learn that photographing your tv was a thing and that folks needed advice about the same things we might struggle with today from capturing good stills of wildlife to taking pictures at night. It’s a new way of looking at the pictures we took. No history of photography would be complete unless it covers the beginnings of it all beginning with the daguerreotype. This volume now sits on my personal reference shelf to be browsed and studied. Related Episodes: Episode 101: Rediscovering an American Community of Color Episode 99: Finding Photographs on the Smithsonian Learning Lab with Curator Shannon Perich Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Kim Beil is an art historian who teaches at Stanford University. Her writing on art and culture has appeared in The Atlantic, Artforum, Art in America, Literary Hub, and Photograph Magazine, among many other publications. Her book, Good Pictures: A History of Popular Photography, was published in June 2020 by Stanford University Press. You can find her on Instagram: @kim.beil About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and Cana
Sun, March 14, 2021
Dressing for the Camera: Rules Our Foremothers Followed (and Sometimes Broke)
In amateur snapshots and selfies we don’t take care with our fashion. We pose in what we decided to wear that day. Now think about when you go to a photo studio. That’s entirely different. We dress up and our ancestors did too. They wore their best dress and perhaps a new hat to look their finest, the epitome of the fashion they could afford. Women’s magazines told them how to capture a good image and rules often came down to color, fashion, and the skill of the photographer. Related Episodes: Episode 72: A Modern Woman’s Fascination with Period Dress Episode 85: Pin Up Photos and Modern Women Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Please <a href='https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-photo-detective/id1255965884?mt=2&mc_cid=67037096ee&mc_eid=[UNIQID]' t
Sun, March 07, 2021
Eliza Hamilton Revealed with author Susan Holloway Scott
If you thought that you knew Eliza Hamilton because you watched the Broadway musical, well…you need to read Susan Holloway Scott’s book, I Eliza . What makes good theater isn’t necessarily accurate. There is a whole lot more to the Alexander/ Eliza story. Susan is a master storyteller weaving fact with fiction to weave a tale that’s compelling. In this beautifully written novel of historical fiction, bestselling author Susan Holloway Scott tells the story of Alexander Hamilton’s wife, Eliza—a fascinating, strong-willed heroine in her own right and a key figure in one of the most gripping periods in American history. It begins with Eliza first meeting her future husband and follows them until his death. My guest does exhaustive research to get the period details right. Susan was on the podcast back in episode 62. The link is in the show notes. You made it one of my top ten episodes. Now she’s back talking about how she came to write about Eliza and shares a lot of details about the family. I’ve looked for an image of Eliza and so has Susan. She’d be a great addition to my Last Muster project of individuals who lived through the American Revolution into the age of photography. If you’re looking to escape the present for the past, pick up I, Eliza, and transport yourself to the eighteenth century. Related Episodes: Episode 62: The Secret Wife of Aaron Burr with Susan Holloway Scott Links: Susan’s Blog Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Susan Holloway Scott is the author of over fifty historical novels and novellas written under several pen names. Her bestselling books have received numerous awards and honors, and with more than three million copies of her books in print, she has been published in nineteen foreign countries around the world. Susan is a graduate of Brown University and lives with h
Sun, February 28, 2021
Ask Maureen: February 2021 Edition
In this episode, I answer your photo questions submitted through my social media accounts and via email. I have dozens of large photo albums that were put together by my grandfather and father from the 1980s to the present. Do I take all the photos out of the pages (4/page) or scan the whole page? I am trying to identify people in a large group photo. What is a good procedure for “blowing up” individual faces and comparing them to other photos of possibly the same person? How many backups of digital photos are a good idea? When did hand-coloring of photos become popular? Are records available of any of the old photo studios? How do I scan glass negatives? What number or type of pencil is best for writing labels? Related Episodes: Episode 113: Ask Maureen. January 2021 Links: Scanning Glass Negatives Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at <a href='https://maur
Wed, February 24, 2021
Tintypes Made for Movies and Television
I think that 19th-century tintype photographers would be amazed to see that their medium is still thriving in the age of digital photography. Their spirit exists in my guest for this bonus episode. Rob Gibson travels around the country with a motorcycle and a portable studio, similar to his itinerant predecessors who used wagons. He calls his set up the World’s Fastest Darkroom. From being a machinist participating in Civil War reenactments as a passion which landed him a movie role to his becoming a tintype artist it’s been quite a career. It’s likely you’ve seen his work in a wide range of movies and television shows. Related Episodes: Episode 114: Modern Tintypes Made With History Episode 96: Photo Fakes with Michael Medhurst Links: Backroad Heroes Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Rob Gibson is a master of the wet plate tintype process. Gibson’s photographs had been featured in magazines, television, and motion pictures, including Gods and Generals, Cold Mountain, National Treasure, and the more recent Harriet. His demonstrations have been seen by thousands at renowned locations such as the Smithsonian, the National Archives, and the White House Press Corps. A lover of the mechanical age Gibson travels, the country creating images that are right out of the past. In his new project, back road heroes, Gibson, and his partner, Lindsay Halstad, explore and photograph abandoned America. Their videos can be found on YouTube and on Facebook. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London, and
Sun, February 21, 2021
America and the Tintype with Steven Kasher
Collecting images is something that I’m familiar with. There are thousands of images in my research collection. It’s hard to stop purchasing interesting pictures because each one is a little different. My own collection features a variety of image formats including tintypes of men fishing off a prop boat with lines and fake fish. Women standing in front of fences and painted backdrops. Children posed in cute outfits in chairs designed for the purpose. The range of props, backdrops, and poses is amazing. My guest has been collecting tintypes for decades as well. In this conversation we chat about his book on the topic and a wide range of topics that cover the history of this popular image format. Related Episodes: Episode 102: Recreate Victorian Decor Using Photo Clues Episode 101: Rediscovering an American Community of Color Links: Steven Kasher Gallery Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Steven Kasher is a gallery owner, writer, curator, and publisher. His gallery specializes in (but is not limited to) social, historical, and art photography from the 1950s through the 1980s. He is the author of Abbeville’s The Civil Rights Movement: A Photographic History, 1954-68 (1996) and has curated exhibitions about the Movement for more than 20 institutions worldwide. He has made numerous critically acclaimed books with Steidl, among them Mike Disfarmer: Original Disfarmer Photographs (2005), Least Wanted: A Century of American Mugshots (2006), A Maysles Scrapbook: Photographs/Cinemagraphs/Documents (2007), and Chauncey Hare: Protest Photographs (2008). About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family hist
Wed, February 17, 2021
Lost History Rediscovered (in the Recycling)
When I saw coverage in The New York Times of a cache of slides and the attempts to identify the who, what, where, and when of them, I had to talk with the man who made this serendipitous discovery. Not all slides belong to be discarded some as my guest called it are “gold dust.” They document past local history and are cherished for that reason. Paul Moar is still stunned by the worldwide public interest in a bag or two of slides. It’s a feel-good story in a year of negative news. You’ll see what I mean. As a huge fan of the Ann Cleeves series set in Shetland and the inspiration for a television series of the same name, I couldn’t resist tracking down this guest and getting his perspective on his find and the islands. If you have Shetland connections, listen for details he shared about a special DNA study. Related Episodes: Episode 101: Rediscovering an American Community of Color Episode 55: Photos of our Mill-Working Ancestors Links: Paul Moar on the BBC Shared Shetland Memories on Facebook Promote Shetland Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Paul Moar works at the Recycling Center in Lerwick, Shetland Islands, Scotland, and is a local historian. He’s passionate about life in the Islands and suggested any interested travelers sign up for Promote Shetland on Facebook. He reminded me that residents don’t actually consider themselves Scottish because of their Nordic history and heritage. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and
Sun, February 14, 2021
Identifying and Caring for Tintypes
Those inexpensive metal images of our ancestors appear in antique shops and online auctions in cases, paper sleeves, and without any protective covering. Durable enough to be mailed during the Civil War they were common throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century and persisted into the twentieth. Anyone could afford to pose for one. They came in a variety of sizes and shapes. Tiny thumbnail gems had lovely palm-size albums so that you could collect images of family and friends. They could appear in jewelry too. Their plate sizes mimicked the dimensions of daguerreotype plates from a ninth plate of 2 x 21/2 inches to a whole plate of 6.5 x 8.5. My family collection only contains a single tintype but when I asked audiences about the types of images in their collections, most of the room raises their hands when I mention tintypes. The word tin is a misnomer for this image format patented in 1856. They aren’t tin at all but iron. Originally known as melainotypes or ferrotypes but tintype is the term that stuck. In the American Tintype by Floyd and Marion Rinhart and Robert Wagner, a common expression ‘Not on your tintype connotated a negative and persisted in popular writings until the early 1960s! Early motion pictures were referred to as galloping tintypes. While art historians tend to mention that tintypes reached their peak during the Civil War, that’s not my experience. If anything I’ve seen more of them from the late nineteenth century. Here’s a compilation of some common inquiries about these metal images. Were there itinerant tintypists? Absolutely. Mathew Brady had a portable studio during the Civil War. If customers could get to the studio then photographers traveled to them with wagons, photographic train cars. Watch for tintypes with a draped sheet as a backdrop. Sometimes you can spot the log cabin beneath it. I have a flaking tintype how should I care for it? While it’s best to place tintypes in protective polyester sleeves, a flaking tintype should be stored in an acid and lignin-free envelope instead. Tintypes scratch and rust so polyester sleeves can prevent abrasion. My tintype is very dark, is there anything that I can do? The good news is you can use a program like Vivid-Pix Restore to improve the quality of the image. Scan it at a high resolution of at least 600 dpi Tiff and upload it to your Vivid-Pix Restore program. You can play with the various settings in the program to make your pictures go from dark to brilliant. There is no information on my tintype, how can I date it? When there is no sleeve or case, you’ll have to rely on clothing clues and background props for details. Clothing will help you place the image in a time frame. Related Episodes: <a href='https://m
Sun, February 07, 2021
Modern Tintypes Made With History
If you thought tintypes were only from the olden days, you may be surprised to learn that the tintypes are still being produced today. Those dark tin images in your family collection don’t begin to show off the beauty of a tintype. Modern tintypes are amazing. The subtle colors let us imagine what those varnished ones of our ancestors must have looked like once. Suddenly the allure of a tin photo is clear. They are gorgeous portraits, ones that our relatives once relished. My guest uses a historic camera to take tintypes today using historical processes. The results are stunning. There is depth, character, and shades of milky tones in his pictures. It’s no wonder he is in demand as a portraitist. There is a revival of historic processes from daguerreotypes and more. Josh Wool is part of it. You can view his work on his website. Of course the links are in the show notes. Related Episodes: Episode 105: Women in the Dark: Female Photographers in the U.S. 1850-1900. Episode 85: Pinup Photos and the Modern Woman Links: Josh Wool Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Josh Wool is a portrait photographer. His work spans the advertising, editorial, music, and entertainment worlds. But photography wasn’t his first profession. He only found photography in his early thirties after more than a decade as a chef and restaurateur. He was raised in the Low Country of South Carolina and he currently resides with his wife and creative partner, Monique, in Brooklyn, NY. Modern Alchemy, his first monograph, was published in 2015. The book is the culmination of his work from the Artist’s Initiative Grant awarded through VSCO. Josh was selected for the Photo District News 30 New and Emerging Photographers Award, 2014. About Mauree
Sun, January 31, 2021
Ask Maureen: January 2021 Edition
In this new series, you ask the questions and Maureen answers. You can email her questions at photodetective@maureentaylor.com In this edition she talks about an interesting Spanish-American War image, a type of skirt worn by women in the 1920s, and how to resize images. It’s a potpourri of photo related inquires. Related Episodes: Episode 80: Photo Fun While Stuck in the House Links: View the Spanish American War image. Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts . I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your famil
Sun, January 24, 2021
Love History? You Can Go to History Camp
Why let kids have all the fun at camp? For folks that love history see if there is a History Camp in your area and join in by presenting or participating. As they advertise: At History Camp, everyone is welcome. Anyone can attend. And anyone can present. Topics may range from local history to ancient times While Covid has shut down in-person events, this group has done a great job of pivoting with the times with weekly Thursday presentations on their Facebook page with recordings later on their website historycamp.org. I was featured back in September talking about my Last Muster Project locating images of individuals who lived during the American Revolution but lived into the age of photography. Last summer they offered America’s Summer Road Trip, a virtual tour in a year when leaving home hasn’t been an option. History Camp® is a casual conference for adults designed to bring together history lovers from all walks of life for dozens of sessions, tables from authors and history organizations, and historical re-enactors. It’s a place where ideas can be exchanged, and connections made. If you’re a history buff, History Camp is for you! Come see why we say, “spend a Saturday with some of the most interesting people in history.” Related Episodes: Episode 99: Finding Photos on the Smithsonian Learning Lab with Curator Shannon Perich Episode 88: Ancestral Tours of Battlefields and Boneyards Links: History Camp America’s Summer Roadtrip Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Carrie Lund founded History Camp Colorado in 2016 and was instrumental in the expansion of History Camp Boston and the founding of History Camp Virginia. In 2019, she co-fo
Sun, January 17, 2021
Dating Cased Images with Sean William Nolan
I’ve mentioned before how the history of photography needs dedicated individuals to compile and collect bits of the story. There are so many details not covered in traditional history of photography publications. My guest this week uses digital collections and images in his own collection to study and date cased images like daguerrotypes and ambrotypes from the case styles to the mats. It’s an amazing project. Related Episodes: Episode 101 Rediscovering an African American Community Episode 24: Civil War Photo Sleuth Links: Fixed In Time Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Sean William Nolan is a photo-historian and for nearly 50 years an daguerreotype collector. His background in Art History and computer programming gave him the skills and incentive to objectively date early photographic housings based on extant dated examples. He is plays the baroque flute, composes for the recorder, and is a big fan of silent movies and 1930s hard-boiled detective fiction. In short, if it is obsolete, Sean is into it. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently
Sun, January 10, 2021
Best Practices for Photo Organizing
It’s the beginning of the year. A good time to review the ways we approach our photos. Best practices vary based on what you are trying to accomplish. There is no setlist of what should be done in which order. For instance, Identifying photo best practices are not the same as the tasks relating to planning a virtual reunion. The same is true for photo organizing. The approach varies based on what you are trying to organize and whether it’s real or digital. Let’s start with the real stuff. First question: What do you have? Your ancestral images. Your parents. Your own. Each one may take a different approach to organizing. Your ancestral images are likely a mix of various photographic types some of which will require special storage. Daguerreotypes and slides for instance. Shiny reflective daguerreotypes and other types of cased images fit nicely in acid and lignin-free microfilm boxes. Slides may still be fine in the carousel's in which they are stored. Prints can be sorted by generation and name of the person. Your parent’s images probably contain images from before your time in their lives and images with you as a subject. You might be able to sort them by year especially if they are still in the envelopes from the processor. Now let’s talk about your pictures. Do you have that digital divide that happens in photo collections? Its that moment when you transition to digital-only never to use film again. That’s what I mean by a digital divide. The shift in technology happens in most families. Do you scan everything? It’s one of those should’s that can be difficult to accomplish. You could send them out to be scanned at a service such as Scan my photos.com Once you’ve scanned the pictures you’ll need a way to find them. Metadata is key. There are a lot of photo organizers out there. Evaluate them based on whether or not they embed the metadata in the photo. Related Episodes: Episode 64 Save Your Photos with The Right Stuff Episode 50: Scan Your Photos with Mitch Goldstone Links: Digital Photo Organizing: A Three Part LIVE Master Class Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the <a href='https://ma
Sun, January 03, 2021
Portable Photo Preservation
Family history doesn’t always come in a size and shape made for scanning. Pictures can be oversize. Albums don’t lie flat. Artifacts come with the mix. What’s a family historian to do? Invest in a Shotbox, a portable studio that’s simple to use. Debuted at Rootstech a few years ago and now is available at Michael’s, the craft megastore. My guest is Aaron Johnson. He combined a passion for preserving family history with design know-how to produce something that’s a must-have for anyone with a desire to photograph family history mementos that don’t measure up for a traditional scanner. Related Episodes: Episode 19 : GenerationStory App Episode 98: Collect Photo Stories with StoryGlory Links: Shotbox Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Aaron began his entrepreneurial career in his teen years mowing lawns, groundskeeping, and illustration freelancing. He took the leap in his early twenties, forming his first full-time company called Stratus Design. Stratus focused on digitizing artwork and fonts for artists in the craft/scrapbooking industry including Dianne Hook of DJ Inkers. This business evolved into pcCrafter, Inc and a long-term alliance with Provo Craft and Robert Workman, where he focused on retail art and font CD’s for over 50 artists and developed a successful online subscription club. Out of this relationship came the opportunity to lead the invention of the Cricut Electronic Cutter. This product did phenomenally well and eventually led to a buyout by Sorenson Capital. He then worked on the SHOTBOX concept a number of years and launched that product in 2015. It has since grossed nearly $1.5M and is making a profound impact in many people’s lives on many fronts. including the ability to finally digitize important memories, histories, and heirlooms. Ab
Sun, December 20, 2020
Researching the Ships of Our Ancestors
Ships passenger lists contain the name of the vessel that transported our ancestors from their homelands to the United States or travelers crossing the ocean. But do you know how to research those vessels to find information and images? This week’s guest can help. She’s with the Steamship Historical Society of America. Their mission is to record, preserve, and share the history of engine-powered vessels. In 1935 a group of historians and collectors passionate about steamships formed the Steamship Historical Society of America as a means of bringing together amateur and professional historians interested in the history and development of steam navigation, past, and present. Their knowledge, as well as photographs, research, and writings, formed the nucleus of the society’s collections. Today their collection contains hundreds of thousands of images, artifacts, ephemera, memorabilia, and artwork, as well as a 20 thousand plus volume maritime reference library. My guest loves receiving research requests about their collections. Perhaps one of your ancestors traveled or worked on an engine-powered vessel. In this episode, their curator, Astrid Drew, explains how to search their online portal and talks about the types of items in the collections. They recently launched an online free educational site called Steaming into the Future. You can find the links in the show notes. Related Episodes: Episode 99: Finding Photos on the Smithsonian Learning Lab with Curator Shannon Perich Links: STEAMing Into The Future Steamship Historical Society of America Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Astrid M. Drew is the archivist at the Steamship Historical Society of America, where she manages and organizes collections, and assists re
Sun, December 13, 2020
Holiday Photos and Caption Clues
Every Fall I start mumbling about the “highway to the holidays,” that hectic time of year that consumes any leftover moments of the day with preparations. The rituals, cooking, and cleaning are part of the holiday season regardless of what event you celebrate and how many people are in attendance. This year is a different kind of year for all of us. A once in a century event. It doesn’t mean I’m not decorating or sharing cooking with family though. I’ll be delivering confections to doorsteps instead of trying to find extra room at the table or setting up a second one. So what are the traditions in your family (and do you have photographs of them)? A general search like “holiday history” turns up a few hits but if you want specific details look for material using a particular one using the name of the holiday, symbol, or food. For instance, every Christmas my mother-in-law used to put out a little Santa Claus like figure called the Belsnickel. I discovered that he’s a Pennsylvania German character that traveled farm to farm on either December 6th or Christmas Eve. The Belsnickel could be a man or a woman, and it’s possible that Santa descends from this personality. However, instead of a red suit and black shiny boots, the Belsnickel wore “rags, masks or cast-off clothing” and carried either a whip or sticks. A misbehaving child was as likely to be hit as receive a treat. His presence in my in-law’s house now makes a lot of sense. My father-in-law’s family lived in York County Pennsylvania in the early nineteenth century and had German roots. This little guy is now part of my holiday decor and I love it Of course, if your family still remembers who began the holiday traditions and their geographic origins you won’t have to look online or visit the library, all you’ll need to do is sit around a family feast and share the memories. Record them for posterity using a camera to preserve this piece of your family history. What About Captions? Let’s take a deep dive into Captions on photos. If you’ve heard me lecture about photo identification then you know that I’ll caution you to make sure you verify the caption on the image. Did you watch Genealogy QuickStart (link in show notes)? We talked about the 4 points of captions: Who Wrote It Did They Know the Person in the Image How did they write it? Is it True? Followed by If it’s not them then who? That’s where my signature 5 comes in: The who, what, where, when, and why of an image. It’s a series of questions that help you get to know your pictures better. Who is it, what are they wearing, when was it taken, and if you’re lucky you might be able to figure out the why. Hattie Lavinia Henry’s family not only labeled the front of her photo but wrote an extended family history including her parent’s names, who she married, and where her children and their spouses. I bought t
Sun, December 06, 2020
French Fashion, World War One, and Your Ancestors
A number of years ago I attended a conference in Kansas City Missouri. With a free afternoon, I decided to visit the National World War I museum. The National World WWI Museum and Memorial is America’s leading institution dedicated to remembering, interpreting, and understanding the Great War and its enduring impact on the global community. The Museum and Memorial holds the most comprehensive collection of World War I objects and documents in the world and is the second-oldest public museum dedicated to preserving the objects, history, and experiences of the war. It was designated by Congress as America’s official World War I Museum and Memorial. There is a sense of wonder and discovery when visiting a museum for the first time. What artifacts will be on display? What new information will be passed on through the interpretative exhibits? And for me, what photos might be there. There were no stories passed down in the family of men who served in the Great War or of women who aided the war effort. Exhibits inspire thought, dialogue, and learning to make the experience of the Great War (because no one thought there would be another) relevant to present and future generations. The National World War I museum is now among my favorites. As the Photo Detective, I’ve seen my share of images taken during the war years including men and women in uniform as well as everyday dress. Those photos show how fashion evolved during the Great War. There were new styles introduced influenced by the conflict such as trench coats and wristwatches for instance. There is a new exhibit currently on display and online at the National World War I Museum: Silk and Steel: French Fashion, Women and WWI explores the role of the French fashion industry and how those changes to dress occurred. Related Episodes: Episode 93: 1918 Pandemic Fashion and Tips for Analyzing Clothing Clues Episode 75: One Man’s World War One Journey Episode 31 A World War One Resource Links: National World War 1 Museum and Memorial Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the <a href='https://maureentaylor.com/store/photo-organizin
Sun, November 22, 2020
Women in the Dark: Female Photographers in the U.S. 1850-1900
Every so often I’ll turn over an image and I’ll see a woman’s name as the photographer. Now I know that there were many female photographers from the daguerreotype era onward, but rarely are they featured in histories of photography or their work on display in an exhibit. My guest today is on a mission to change that her new book women in the dark focuses on female photographers from 1850 to 1900, the volume includes in-depth profiles of some women photographers. Revealing how they worked in a male dominated field. But as you know, tracking down the life details of women can be a challenge. Their lives are often hidden by the men in their lives, fathers and brothers and husbands. They marry and change their names. It took a decade for the author to find the material and the images to compile this book. Turn over your card photographs, and you might reveal a bit of unstudied history, perhaps even one of your female relatives, posed customers for likenesses. Do you know of a woman photographer who worked in the United States before 1900? Email me@photodetectiveatmaureentaylor.com. We’d love to hear about them. Related Episodes: Episode 77: Interviewing Relatives with Personal Biographer, Francie King Links: Katherine Manthorne’s website Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Katherine Manthorne writes about landscape art across the Americas and the contribution of women to 19th century art and culture. Currently an art history professor at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, she has been a visiting professor in Venice, Copenhagen, and Berlin. Her publications include Home on the Hudson Women and Men Painting Landscape, 1825-1875 and Restless Enterprise: The Art and LIfe of Eliza Pratt Greatorex About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation,
Sun, November 15, 2020
Clues in Group Portraits and Photo Albums
I’ve been delving into my family history a little more than usual and perhaps you are too. I’m also taking another look at my pictures. Examining them more closely and trying to tell the story of them. Even I have a photo mystery, one that’s bothered me for years. I’ve managed to tease out a few new identifications but the problem persists. It could be a group of friends mixed with some of my family. The issue is the number of images in my family collection. I don’t own many images of this side of my family and neither do my relatives. Comparing images to each other could result in an identification. I believe that persistence will pay off. I’ll be using crowdsourcing as well. If someone can identify the place where this group of men and boys posed it might help. A long time ago I dated that image. That’s the first step in any photo mystery. I’ve named a few folks but who are the rest? I know that you know this dilemma: big group portraits are a mystery for many people. I’ve developed techniques to help you figure out who’s who. These images are perfect for a single photo consult. See the show notes for the link. A New Workshop In a few weeks, I’ll be announcing a special class. It’s an interactive live workshop on Reading Clues in Photo Albums. I LOVE working on photo albums telling the family story visible in those pages and teaching you how to do it too. This small class is for those with photo albums who want to know more. It’s either going to be a long workshop or a series of classes where we can talk about your albums and find out more about them. It will be limited to 25. With albums, it’s all about that first photo. Who is it? Why are they there? My signature five approach of who, what, where, when and why applied to albums often reveals hidden relationships of family and friends of your ancestors. I hope you’ll be able to join me. Can’t wait to see who and what are in your albums. Everyone is unique. Sure there are similarities with format and size, but the contents are special to your family. Someone put those pages together with intent and purpose. Doesn’t matter if it’s a tiny tintype album or an oversize black paper one or even one of those toxic magnetic ones, each and every one tells a story and I’d love to help you reveal it. Your family will love you for it. Stay tuned. Subscribers to my newsletter will get the first chance to sign up. If you’re not on my list, you can sign up on my website. What will I do in 2021? I’m planning a series of webinars and workshops to deepen your understanding of photographs. Wait and see! New Things on Social I’ll be wrapping up my around the world in 80 photos social media campaign. Hope you’ve been watching on Facebook and Instagram. I thought it was timely for this year. We really aren’t traveling, but our photographs can take us around the world. Thank you for
Sun, November 08, 2020
Organize, Preserve, and Share with Collectionaire.com
Your family history data, images, and movies might be on the web in a variety of places from genealogy sites to movie hosting platforms. Now imagine that you can create an online collection that gives you all those links in one place. Then write a family narrative within that site and be able to share as well as collaborate with other family. In one place you’ll have links to Uncle Jim’s pictures of the last family reunion in Google Photos, Aunt Sue’s family history project, Ancestry.com pages, and young Jimmy’s home movies on YouTube and so much more. That’s the concept behind Collectionaire, a two-year-old brilliant solution that lets us gather all our web links to family in one place. Collectionaire is a simple but smart cloud app for building a curated digital collection of a family’s best photo albums, home movies, audio recordings, journals, etc… anything that can be digitized for future viewing. Users can add photos, recitals, and art projects to a child’s collection; create a legacy tribute to a lost parent; or assemble the best of a family’s vacations, holidays, and special events together. It’s not a photo storage site, but a “hub” that’s used with photo and video cloud sites like Apple Photos, Google Photos, Vimeo, and others, and aggregates all your media into one elegant, easy to navigate family site. Each person and each family has a “collection page”, and viewers link to each via their family tree. So now even your parents can find your family’s best memories and view them on any computer, tablet or mobile device. I’m So glad that my guest Stan Kinsey had this idea and developed it into a new way of thinking about your family history-past and present. Use coupon code PDCOLLECT to receive 50% off either standard or pro subscription for two years. Offer good through December 31, 2020. Related Episodes: Episode 58: Organizing Your Photos with Christopher Desmond of MemoryWeb.me Links: Collectionaire.com Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need
Sun, November 01, 2020
Recreate Victorian Decor with Photo Clues
I’m pretty lucky to live walking distance from a National Historic Landmark. The Lippitt House is a property of Preserve Rhode Island and it is Providence Rhode Island’s premiere Victorian house museum. Once inside this 1865 house you’ll understand it’s landmark status. It has one of the best preserved interiors in America, allowing visitors to experience exceptional Victorian design and American craftsmanship. My guest shares how an 1893 photo of the house allowed them to recreate pieces of the Victorian decor. It is definitely not a stuffy old house. Following the Lippitt family’s example of public service, the museum’s cultural programming promotes civic engagement, the arts, and history of Providence. Related Episodes: Episode 72: Wearing the Past: A Modern Woman’s Fascination with Period Dress Links: Lippitt House Museum Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Carrie Taylor came to Providence’s Lippitt House Museum to be its first director in 2013. Prior to leading Lippitt House, Carrie was Registrar and then Collections Manager at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home outside of Charlottesville, Virginia for 15 years. Before moving to Virginia she worked in the Curatorial Department at the Atlanta History Center. She was elected Phi Beta Kappa and graduated cum laude from the University of Georgia with a bachelor’s degree in History. She then earned a master’s degree in Public History with a Museums Studies concentration from the University of South Carolina where she held a graduate assistantship at McKissick Museum in Columbia. She serves on the Board of the Friends of the Brown University Library and is a graduate of the Seminar for Historical Administration. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph pre
Sun, October 18, 2020
Rediscovering an American Community of Color
Most photo collectors dream about stumbling upon a significant collection that changes our understanding of photo history. For Frank Morrill, it was a series of connections that led to his purchasing a huge collection of glass negatives. Years later his granddaughter held one up and asked him about them. That second look led to a collaboration with a historian at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, an exhibit and an award winner catalog for the show. Those negatives documented the African American community in that city, a group of individuals studied by Janette Greenwood for a project on migrations. She never thought she’d see the faces of those individuals nor did the descendants of many of the people in the photographers. It was a case of photographic kismet. Related Episodes: Episode 65: Lost Films Needs Your Help Links: Rediscovering an American Community of Color Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guests: Frank J. Morrill is a lifelong educator. He received his graduate degree from the University of Buffalo and taught science, history and law at Millbury, Massachusetts High School. In retirement he has written several local history books and co-authored three with his granddaughter Hannah Morrill. He has always had a strong interest in historical documents and photographs and has collected them for more than 50 years. This interest led to the acquisition, in 2003, of the collection of William S. Bullard’s 5,400 glass negatives taken primarily in Worcester County. Janette Thomas Greenwood is Professor of History at Clark University. She teaches a variety of courses in U.S. history including Race and Ethnicity in American History, Reconstruction, The Gilded Age, Public History, and History of the American South. She is the author of several books and articles including First Fruits of Freedom: The Migration of Former Slaves and Their
Sun, October 11, 2020
The 100th Episode Celebration
It’s the 100th episode of The Photo Detective podcast and we’re celebrating in a big way. From a scary first Facebook Live episode to the current audio only format, this show all about pictures. Guests from around the world shared their picture projects and photo stories. It’s the Photo Detective so topics are mostly photo related but watch out I’m a fan of historical fiction so authors talk about writing too. The show is a combination of my two loves–history and photography. Dear friend and colleague, Marian Pierre Louis of the Genealogy Professional Podcast interviewed me for this episode. Questions came from you (and a few from Marian). Thank you for asking. Are you a listener? Take The Photo Detective trivia contest for fun. Don’t forget to enter your name in our giveaway. Prizes include books, classes, family tree charts and scanning packages. My previous guests are helping me celebrate. Links: Take The Photo Detective Trivia quiz Enter to win great prizes Genealogy Professional Podcast Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Marian Pierre-Louis, host of the Genealogy Professional Podcast is a professional genealogist and house historian who shares her love of Northeastern history through her research , blogs and social media ( Facebook , Twitter and Google+ ). She is also the host of Fieldstone Common , a weekly history and genealogy podcast focused on author interviews. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, ph
Sun, October 04, 2020
The Nation's Photo Collection with Curator Shannon Perich
Stuck at home during this pandemic looking for something fun to do? Look no further than the National Museum of American History’s Photographic History Collection and the Smithsonian Learning Lab. The Photographic History Collection (PHC) represents the history of the medium of photography from the daguerreotype era to the present. In numbers that adds up to over 2000 identified photographers and studios, about 200,000 photographs, and about 15,000 cameras, pieces of apparatus, studio equipment. You can search, share and save items you find. It’s a research rabbit hole. I spent hours looking for items the first time I went on the site. One of my favorites is an early daguerreotype of a group standing on the banks of Niagara Falls without safety precautions. My guest has spent the last several months organizing digitized images into virtual collections with the Smithsonian Learning Lab, an online resource. It’s possible to create your own “collection” of images for research. Teachers can create modules their students can use too. The last time I searched the Smithsonian collection it was overwhelming. Thanks to Shannon, I can find what I need and save it for next time. Here’s one really cool thing. Each image has a unique permanent URL meaning you can use it and locate the image later. If you’ve seen a photo exhibit at the National Museum of American History then likely Shannon had something to do with it. Related Episodes: Episode 48: Finding Photos of Your Ancestors Links: Smithsonian Learning Lab Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Shannon Thomas Perich is the Curator in the Photographic History Collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History where she has worked for over twenty years. Recently published as a co-author of When the Circus Came to Town! An American Tradition in Photographs (Smithsonia
Wed, September 23, 2020
Collect Photo Stories with Storyglory
Have you ever wished that you could verbally tell the story of a photo and connect it to the image? Suppose you could do that through an app or a phone call. And it was FREE. There is a company that offers a way to save those photo stories by putting pictures and words together. It’s pretty amazing. It’s called Storyglory.me On a visit home to Minneapolis one holiday, my guest found a box of old photos in the closet, spread them out on the kitchen table, and started scanning them with his phone. The process inspired him to found Storyglory.me Storyglory.me helps families capture these emotional moments present in photographs in an elegant, heartfelt way with voice, photos, and video. Built from the ground up with privacy in mind, Storyglory enables family storytelling and sharing that would be uncomfortable on public and advertising-supported social media. Brad Nemer (CEO) founded the company in 2015 in San Francisco and is joined in leadership by co-founder Graham Myhre (CTO). Related Episodes: Episode 82: Every Thing Tells a Story Episode 77: Interviewing Relatives: A Conversation with Personal Biographer Francie King Links: Storyglory.me Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Brad is the founder and CEO of Storyglory. He has led product design and management at large companies such as Motorola, CASIO, and Asurion (mobile insurance provider for the world’s largest carriers), as well as at startups such as Wikia and Linden Lab. Brad earned his undergraduate degree in Political Science at Washington University in Saint Louis, and pioneered the industry’s first MBA + Design dual masters program at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Institute of Design. Brad has taught graduate-level design and business at the Institute of Design, and at the Stanford d.school. <stro
Wed, September 16, 2020
So You Have a Mystery Photo? And Timeline Help
Perhaps you have a mystery photo and you’re wondering what a photo consult is like. During the course of a photo consultation, I look at your photos and discuss what you know about the pictures in question. It’s often a deep dive into your family history.Together we discover and discuss the clues in the photograph and look at connections to your family history. Frankly, I never know where a photo consult is going to go. It depends on the pictures. The pictures drive the inquiry. The clues of who, what, when and where direct our research. It’s possible that the answers to those questions add up to a reveal about why your ancestors posed for that picture. As a former curator and a photo focused genealogist there are people I’ve met who might have that one bit of information you need to answer a question. As a family historian and former reference librarian that works on photos from all over the world it’s necessary for me to know how to dig up data. A colleague once called me a creative problem solver. There are three consultation options: a single photo consult, one for three photos, or if you want to discuss all of your mystery photos in one extended session you can take advantage of a volume discount. How Does it Work First select the option you want–one, three, or many. If it is 1 to 6 images you’ll be prompted to upload images and to add what you know about the picture/s. Single image consults are conducted via phone on Wednesday mornings ET Three or more image consults are either via phone or video chat. You choose when you sign up. Friday mornings are for these consults ET. On video calls, I share your images on my screen. If you have a high-resolution digital scan that’s best, that way I can see all the details. But if all you have is a scan of a photocopy you can upload that. I have tools that can sometimes enhance images to make them more visible. Next add what you know about the image referring to them as image 1, 2, or 3. If you have an online family tree it’s helpful to invite me to see it by sending me an email invitation to view it through the site you use. There are usually instructions on the major genealogy sites about how to share links. Once I receive your images, I’ll start on the research using my entire library of resources plus my 40years of experience. I like to see the back of the image as well if there is additional information on it. The front and back of the same image count as one picture. It’s best if you email the scans of the back to me directly rather than use the uploader. Once you’ve signed up for a slot, uploaded your images, and paid you will receive a confirmation email for the consultation. Check your spam/junk folders if you do not receive a confirmation. The confirmation email will have call-in details for telephone consults. Video links are sent separately. . As part o
Wed, September 09, 2020
Photo Fakes with Michael Medhurst of the Daguerreian Society
There are unscrupulous folks in every field. Even in historical photography. Imagine going to the effort of learning historical photographic methods, buying appropriate materials all to dupe a buyer. It’s unfortunately true. When I heard my guest at a conference, my mouth fell open in disbelief. Spotting the fakes requires sharp eyes and a knowledge of historic images. I’ve seen some at Brimfield, the huge antique market in Massachusetts. In this age of electronic purchases and auctions it really is buyer beware. If you love early images like I do you might want to join the Daguerreian Society. It’s a group of individuals passionate about daguerreotypes and nineteenth century photography. This year they’ve gone virtual with a program of outstanding lectures by experts in the field. Related Episodes: Episode 60: Finding Pictures of Your Civil War Ancestor Links: Mike Medhurst & Co. Daguerreian Society Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Mike Medhurst has been actively buying and selling antique photography for more than 30 years. He is currently the President of the Daguerreian Society and an avid collector. Graduating with a B.S. from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, he was soon dealing in historic photography, documents and autographs of the 19th century. Mike later completed his M.S. from Southern Illinois University and by the early 1990’s the business had become more keenly focused on 19th century photography. Mike buys and sells images at numerous national Civil War and photography shows each year. His business entity, Medhurst & Co., has the largest inventory of daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and tintypes in the Midwest and is well known for selling high quality images of every variety. These can be found on his website <a href='https:
Wed, September 02, 2020
How to Save Your Family Archive with Permanent.org
Imagine being able to save your digital family archive without spending a lot of money. And being able to share it too. That’s the premise behind Permanent.org. I’m not sure how I missed my guest at two RootsTech conferences but I did. Thank you to Nancy Desmond of MemoryWeb for reminding of of their service. I have to admit I still didn’t believe it was real. An archive for genealogists? How could that be possible? Well it is and as a former curator it’s a dream come true. It’s even better than you can imagine. In this digital age, we worry about changing technology but with Permanent that’s not a concern. If the photo formats change, your material will be migrated. Be sure to listen to the end. My guest has a special offer for you that you don’t want to miss. It's 3 GB of permanent storage for FREE Related Episodes: Episode 86: Every Thing Tells a Story Links: Permanent.org Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Dr. Robert Friedman has over a decade of experience in the non-profit sector focused on developing an inclusive and ethical digital community. As the Executive Director of the Permanent Legacy Foundation, Dr. Friedman is building a nonprofit, historical trust to guarantee secure digital preservation for all people. Previously, Dr. Friedman led the Mozilla Foundation Internet Health agenda in Texas, working with Austin community leaders to advance digital inclusion, internet decentralization, open innovation, online privacy and security, and web literacy. As a community organizer and educator in Chicago, Dr. Friedman worked with museums, cultural institutions, community-based organizations, and schools to advance equitable access to digital learning opportunities for young people. His nonprofit career began at the Adler Planetarium, where he established a STEM program for young adults at a world renowned museum. Dr. Friedman holds a Ph
Wed, August 19, 2020
Dead Still: A Postmortem Photography and Crime Fiction Program
Postmortem images can cause quite a stir and for some it’s a fascination due to the disturbing subject. These photographs chronicle a family loss in a graphic manner. Often taken as a last attempt to capture an image of a loved one. There were photographers that specialized in the medium making the deceased as life-like as possible. These types of images were particularly popular during the Victorian period. Now imagine one of those photographers as a central character in a television series set in 1880s Dublin. I’ve watched the series Dead Still on Acorn TV. Over six episodes the characters –a postmortem photographer, his assistant and niece as well as a police detective (interested in photos of crime scenes) track down a mysterious and gruesome photo album. There are plenty of adventures and misdirections. Viewer beware. There is one episode not suitable for younger viewers. I liked it enough to hope for a second season. I had to find out the why and how of the show. What inspired the screenwriter to pick this topic for his script. For that I reached out to John Morton, one of the creators of the show. Related Episodes: Episode 61: Mourning Jewelry: Fact or Fiction Links: Dead Still on Acorn TV Dead or Alive: Mourning, Memorials, Spirit Photos and the Un-Dead Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: John is an actor, writer and filmmaker. He has written and directed a number of short films as well as the television series Dead Still. For the stage he has written the plays Taboo, War Of Attrition, Scratcher, Smitten and Heart Shaped Vinyl and co-wrote the historical plays The Hellfire Squad and The Roaring Banshees with Peter McGann. He also wrote the adaptation of Thomas Kilroy’s Booker prize nominated novel The Big Ch
Wed, August 12, 2020
1918 Pandemic Fashion and Tips for Analyzing Clothing Clues
Fashion clues in pictures can document trends over a decade, but specific details can sometimes pinpoint an exact year or two. Like the puffy large crown hats of circa 1910 or the Paul Poiret tapered narrow skirts of the circa 1912, supposedly influenced by bi-plane rides. Or the Garibaldi shirt style popular in the early 1860s. In 1864, walking skirts that belled out above the ankles were the rage in Paris. it was a winter of dresses drawn up over colored skirts with plaid edging. There are fashion repeats like the balloon like Gigot sleeves of the 1830s reappearing in the 1890s. In episode 91 Dress and the Vote, Emily Boisvert spoke about generations of women who bonded over their desire for the vote by wearing certain style clothes in particular colors. Have you spotted any of these trends in your family photos? Fashion trends can be influenced by politics, wars, people (Garibaldi), technology (think the smokey eye of the silent film era for instance) and even pandemics. Pandemic mask wearers had a wide variety to choose from including character themed ones. If you have a photo of an ancestor wearing a mask from that era, I’d love to see it. Fashion clues can be difficult to read. In this episode you’ll find tips to help you decide when and where an image was taken. Related Episodes: Episode 91: Dress and the Vote Links: The Flu Pandemic Rethinking Fashion in the midst of a Pandemic, a Radio Boston podcast How the Spanish Flu of 1918 Affected Fashion by Booth Moore. (Subscription required) Mask-Wearing Rules in the 1918 Pandemic faced resistance. Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for
Wed, August 05, 2020
What You Need to Know About Metadata
All those little details of a photo such as the who, what, where, when, and why can be embedded in your pictures with metadata. Imagine never losing that data. Today metadata isn’t always transferable from product to product or website to website. There is room for improvement. Now there is a project called the Family History Metadata Working Group that is trying to standardize the way this information is represented in your pictures (and make it easier to understand). Fingers crossed that this will happen soon. Believe me when I say that this will change our research lives. Related Episodes: Episode 23: Memory Web for Your Desktop Episode 15: Memory Web: The Photo Organizer for Genealogists Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Christopher Desmond is an entrepreneur with a background in global business economics. His keen interest in family history and photography inspired him to co-found MemoryWeb, a photo organizer built for genealogists. Chris loves helping family historians harness the power of metadata so the story behind their stories will stay intact for all the generations to come. An award-winning presenter, Chris has spoken at a wide variety of venues, including a TEDx event. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top
Wed, July 22, 2020
Suffragists and Suffragettes: Fashion and the Vote
Our nineteenth and early twentieth century female ancestors couldn’t vote but that doesn’t mean they didn’t want to. In the mid-nineteenth century a group of female activists tied together dress reform, political activism and abolition using dress to broadcast their beliefs and their daughters and granddaughters followed in their footsteps. After listening to my guest’s description of what women wore when and why, you’ll be reaching for the family photograph albums to see if you can spot these clues. Great great grandmother might have been involved in getting women the vote. Her fashion choices and color selections might tell you about her beliefs. Related Episodes: Episode 72: Wearing the Past: A Modern Woman’s Fascination with Period Dress Links: Votes for Women Tour Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Emily C. M. Boisvert has been a visitor guide at the U.S. Capitol for almost 12 years. During that time, she has been instrumental in the creation and establishment of a variety of educational programs and specialty tours for the Capitol Visitor Center. Throughout her 20-year career, she has worked at museums and historic sites in New England and Washington, DC and was a lecturer in museum studies at Regis College in Weston, MA. She has a M.A. in American History from the University of New Hampshire and an A.L.M. in Museum Studies from Harvard University. The Votes for Women Tour podcast is now available for listening. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada.
Wed, July 15, 2020
Ancestral Swimwear and a Passion for Pictures
All this hot humid weather has me thinking about how our ancestors coped in the heat. Long dresses and undergarments in light weight cotton seemed like a sweltering combination. One of my podcast guests loves dressing in period attire. She claims that the outfit is cool, but I’m not convinced. Hot summer weather makes me think about swimming. But what did our ancestors wear and when. Of course it varied by generation with each successive generation of the twentieth century wearing less fabric than their mothers. It’s a generation gap of sorts. Those itsy, bitsy, tweeny weenie bikini’s in the song would have shocked our ancestors. In Sanditon, Jane Austen’s unfinished novel now featured in a mini-series on PBS, the female characters don full swimming costumes and enter the sea via a horse drawn changing pavilion. This made me think about swimsuits in general including one given to me by a friend. It was a khaki colored jersey maillot from the 1920s. An outrageous outfit too but It was a long way from the head to toe coverage of the 1817 era. For generations women’s bathing costumes had caps, bloomer type coverings and stockings. There were lace up beach shoes as well. In the early twentieth century those bloomer costumes covered women to the knee and multiple layers of stockings took over from there. They were so heavy when wet that some women drowned. Ropes from shore to a pole in the water encouraged women to wade while holding on. Of course, their menfolk folicked in the water. While most women didn’t go swimming there were a few daring women who did. Eliza Bennet and Agnes Beckwith wore outfits inspired by dress reformer Amelia Bloomer Bennet swam the Hudson River in 1877 and Beckwith swam from London Bridge to Greenwich in 1875. It wasn’t until the 1890s that their “Princess” suits became more popular. They were scandalous resembling form-fitting lingerie. By the early twentieth century, a female swimmer Annette Kellerman of Australia, appeared in silent films in 1910 and 1911. It isn’t common to see pictures of nineteenth century women in bathing costumes. I haven’t actually seen an photograph of a woman dressed for the water before 1900 but I haven’t spent a lot of time looking either. Do you have images of your female ancestors in bathing outfits? I’d love to see them. You can share them on my Photo Detective Facebook Page. How I Became the Photo Detective I’ve always loved history. When I was a kid, one of our neighbors took me to a library and showed me the reference department. He explained how to find information. Can you say hooked! From that moment on, I’ve loved the smell of books and the fun in hunting new information. Today we have libraries at our fingertips. Think of a question and Google probably has an answer. But not everything is online and published. There is a lot of photo history that’s been lost. From photographer archives to details about backdro
Wed, July 08, 2020
Is Family History Part of Your Personality?
It’s likely that if you listen to the Photo Detective podcast that you love family history from the stuff to the stories, but do you love all the parts of collecting, preserving, and sharing your family history? I bet there are pieces that appeal more than others. According to my guest, genealogy might be part of your personality. That’s right. If you’ve ever felt a need to find facts, tell tales, or write it all down, then that family history pursuit could be a part of you. Imagine finding collaborative partners within your own family to work together to pass all that history onto descendants. If you’re fond of tests that reveal more about you then you’ll love what Teresa McCloy has to say. It’s clear from my test results that working with photographs is part of my personality. The test score proved it. Links: Learn more at the Realife Process ® Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Teresa McCloy is the creator of the REALIFE Process®, ACC Executive Coach, Accredited Enneagram Professional, Podcaster, and Keynote Speaker. Through training, coaching, and consulting she serves her clients to move from living with their hair on fire to discovering clarity about the life they want to live each day and the business they want to lead. Partnering together her own signature REALIFE Process® and tools such as the Enneagram Typology Profile, Teresa guides clients to a fresh way of intentional living! . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in T
Wed, July 01, 2020
Ancestral Tours of Battlefields and Bonefields
Forget the luxuries of early 21st century travel, early 19th century tourists who visited wartime sites usually dealt with bad roads and shoddy lodgings. Instead of the romantic visions of history depicted in paintings and writings, they found sites littered with discarded armaments and bodies of the fallen. Veterans greeted these tourists with reminiscences of their wartime memories. Historian Thomas Chambers shares how battlefield tourism enabled wealthy educated ancestral travelers to make the connection between place and memory. Instead of going to Europe they took the weeks long American tour to see where history was made. They wanted the real experience of people and places to form their sense of the past. His book, Memories of War: Visiting Battlegrounds and Bonefields in the Early Republic (Cornell 2012, 2018) is a fascinating study of the history of tourism. Related Episodes: Episode 49: Women Patriots with Mary Tedesco Episode 46: Benson Lossing, Revolutionary Traveler Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Thomas A. Chambers joined Canisius College as Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences in 2019. He currently serves on the Niagara Frontier State Park, Recreation, and Historic Preservation Commission, the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area Board of Directors, and helped lead statewide public history projects related to the War of 1812 Bicentennial and Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Path Through History Task Force. In 2016 Chambers was elected to the New York Academy of History. At Niagara University he earned tenure and promotion to Professor in the History Department, and served for periods as NU’s Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, History Department Chair, Graduate Studies Strategic Enrollment Director, Director of the Master’s program in Interdis
Wed, June 17, 2020
Our Ancestors at Work
Scratching your head over what your ancestor did for work? The answer is usually in a census or city directory, but it also might be in a photo. The late 19th century saw an interest in capturing people at work and businessmen in formal portraits. Such images hold clues to the kind of business in the tools and attire shown. In your own collection there are probably images of individuals wearing clothing that puzzles you. Some may be recognizable as work outfits while others remain mysterious. You might have an occupational portrait and not know it because you don’t associate the clothing worn in the picture with a particular job. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, men (and women) dressed for their job with particular head to toe choices from shoes to hats. What do you know about the work patterns in your own family? If you don’t know your ancestors employment history it might be fun to investigate. You could find out that you have more in common with your ancestors than genes—an occupation. Whether the answer is nothing or a lot it’s still worth searching for more information. You could uncover some fun facts that to use in a family reunion trivia game. Links: Online City Directories The Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums ArchiveGrid Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journ
Wed, June 10, 2020
Every "Thing" Tells a Story with Show and Tales Martie McNabb
Everything has a story. That hat your grandmother wore at her wedding. The china passed down for generations. A photograph perhaps. Or maybe you have inherited something else. It might be something that’s special to you from your lifetime. Sharing the story of the “things” in our lives can help us share the past with our family. That’s where my guest comes in. Martie McNabb is a story facilitator. She does this through her business Show and Tales. On the show we talk about themes for her events and brainstorm an idea for one in my home city of Providence, RI. Related Episodes: Episode 77: Interviewing Relatives: A Conversation with Personal Biographer Francie King Links: Show and Tale: Every Thing has a Story Allison Gilbert, Past and Present Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Haunted by all the life stories that get stuck in a box, bag, or a suitcase or, worse, get surrendered to a flea market or auction, Martie McNabb created her business: Memories Out of the Box. For over ten years, she’s been writing life stories with her clients’ photo, document and memorabilia archives, turning these souvenirs into the visual narrative of its owner’s life. She hosts object-inspired story-sharing events called Show & Tale. Like elementary school, minus the gerbils (she hopes.) She invites everybody to bring an object and tell its story or simply look & listen. With her 2nd business Show & Tales, she teaches small business owners how to use the above story-sharing events as a way to get to be known, liked, trusted and remembered. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s th
Wed, June 03, 2020
Pinup Photos and the Modern Woman
Pinup photos usually feature young barely dressed women, at least that’s what’s popularized by Sports Illustrated but suppose I told you they don’t have to be. That you could pose in period dress and look like a glamorous turn of the century, Evelyn Nesbit or like a silver screen star ala Gloria Swanson. Pick a period. Choose clothing and have your make-up done in the style of the era. Smoky eyes of the silent movies or the red lips of the 1950s. It’s up to you. My guest specializes in a photographic method that encourages women to embrace their glamorous side regardless of age. Krzystyna Caldarone knows what she’s doing. A student of classic pinups, she admires photographers such as Alfred Cheney Johnson, known for photographing the Ziegfeld Follies. She’s studied the photography of Bunny Yeager, a former pinup model. Links are in the show notes. Krzystyna attends historically themed events such as the Newport Art Deco Weekend, the NYC Jazz Age Lawn Party, Boston’s Swing’s Roaring Twenties Lawn Party and even Rockabilly Events. She’s easy to spot…with a converted snapshot camera around her neck. Related Episodes: Episode 72: Wearing the Past: A Modern Woman’s Obsession With Period Dress Links: Vintage Girl Studios Biography of Bunny Yeager Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Krzystyna Caldarone is a professional photographer who started working in film at age fifteen. She learned her craft at the iconic film- processing lab, Ferranti-Dege, located in Harvard Square, Boston. Krzystyna has owned and managed, Kryzstyna Harber Photography (www.kharberphoto.com), for eighteen years where she transitioned to digital photography and honed her post-production editing skills through her work in wedding photograp
Wed, May 20, 2020
U.S. Naval Photo Collections: Online Resources You Can Use
I have three uncles and a great uncle that served in the Navy during World War II. While aware of resources for images for Army service, I didn’t realize that the U.S. Navy had a museum and a photo archive. Well. They do and a lot of their material is online thanks to my next guest. Robert Hanshew served with the United STates Navy and his interest in history led him to a career in archives. He wrote a popular Facebook column for the Navy that regularly got a million views. He shares what’s online, where you can view the images, and what to do if you think you see a relative in one of those pictures. Oh…and if you have pictures of naval service, the museum might be interested. I have some research to do about my family and likely you will too. I’m going to give a shout-out to my colleague Jennifer Holik and the World War II Research and Writing Center. The link is in the show notes. Links: National Museum of the U.S. Navy Online Photo Exhibits World War II Research Center Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Robert Hanshew has had a career with the U.S. Navy for the past thirty-one years, twenty-one of those as a museum curator with the specialty of photographs. A former Sailor and an employee of the Naval History and Heritage Command, he relocated to the National Museum of the U.S. Navy in 2012 to expand on the current and future exhibits utilizing his research skills at the various repositories in the D.C. area. In that time, due to the hundreds of pages posted on the site, he is sought out worldwide for advice on U.S. Navy photographic history. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and fa
Wed, May 13, 2020
Your Favorite Photos and Mine
A few weeks ago I was in the kitchen of a cousin on my Dad’s side scanning her photos and recording her thoughts on them. All of a sudden she leaned over and pointed at an image. “That’s my favorite photo,” she said. “ I don’t know why. There is nothing special about it.” The color snapshot from the 1960s showed her mother stuffing a turkey getting ready for Thanksgiving. It wasn’t the best image of her mother. Jeanette couldn’t remember who took the candid. The event took place in the kitchen in which I was standing. Her parents bought the house and Jeanette still lived there with her sister. The turkey in the image was on the very table on which I had my scanner. Over the years I’ve wondered what makes some photos stand out from all the others. How my clients select the three images for their consultations. Why those? Amongst all the unidentified images in their collections why are those the most important? They call us to solve the riddle. I have a few favorites of my own. Those that date from my lifetime and those that predate my life. Perhaps you have a favorite or two as well. Reflect on what makes that image special Perhaps it’s the occasion or the person that’s depicted. In Jeanette’s case the image captured a holiday memory. I’m not a psychologist so I can’t delve into her thoughts about that time. She eats off the same table that her parents did. The kitchen virtually unchanged since the photo. The image and the house are a time capsule. One that pays homage to her family. When you examine a photo consider what it means to you in terms of time, place and people. One of my favorite snapshots depicts my family on the steps of my mother’s sister’s house. We’re all decked out for Easter. My Mom wears the most amazing dress with a puffy net slip. She holds my sister who’s only a few months old. I’m in a hat. Things were good for us then. Within a year, my father would be seriously ill and times became tough. He survived but life was never quite like the moment captured in that image. There is another image in my family that I treasure and I don’t own it. In 2012 I visited a first cousin in New York. She’d recently inherited several boxes of family stuff–documents and photographs. I was happy to help. In that jumble we found pictures of her father, my paternal uncle. A man I only met once. He lived on one coast and we lived on the other. He and my Dad looked alike. Shirlee and I swapped stories all day long. And in that box was a tiny image. A colorized photo booth picture of our grandmother, Eliza. Taken I believe around 1943. On her head is a wonderful white straw summer hat. She’s smiling. In the image she’s younger than I am today. Every image is special. At least to me. The images in my albums, the ones in your shoeboxes, and those that are abandoned to become instant ancestors. Th
Wed, May 06, 2020
Building An Archive For Our Time
These are very interesting times in which we’re living. I feel the need to leave a record of this behind for my descendants and maybe you do too. Thankfully my two guests are busy collecting and documenting our experiences in a project for the State of Rhode Island. If you live here you can participate. Anyone of any age can add material to the new RI Covid-19 archive. Pictures, stories and video are all being collected. Link is in the show notes. In this episode we talk about the roots of this type of digital archive. There is a term for it–Rapid Response archive and one that saves our lived experiences. It’s not new. There have been other rapid response archives for events that have happened in the last several years. You might have a Covid-19 archive in your area. These digital archives are being built by libraries and archives all over the world. Links: Rhode Island Covid-19 archive Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guests: Kate Wells has served as the Curator of Rhode Island Collections at the Providence Public Library since 2013 after over a decade as an archivist and librarian in university libraries, municipal record collections, and state historical societies across the country. She holds a Master of Arts in History and Master of Library and Information Science from Simmons College. In her current role, she focuses on demystifying the experience of collecting and accessing historic materials through supporting community archives, outreach for creative use of archival collections and utilizing metadata and semantics in access models. Her mission is to facilitate communication, inclusion, and connections to history in order to catalyze social justice and empowerment in communities and cultural heritage organizations. Becca Bender is the Film Archivist & Curator of Recorded Media at the Rhode Island Historical Society. She holds a master’s degree from NYU’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program, and studied Fi
Wed, April 22, 2020
The Genealogy Show in England
Family historians in the United States are likely familiar with our genealogical conferences–NGS, FGS, Regional Conferences and of course the mega conference that’s Rootstech, but there are other conferences held around the world. MyHeritage offered an international conference in Norway, then the Netherlands and this year its being held in Israel. In the United Kingdom, I attended the Who Do You Think You Are LIVE conference for several years running. It offered me an opportunity to explore resources to learn more about my UK ancestors, consult with professional genealogists that specialize in that geographic speciality and a chance to meet a lot of interesting people. Now there’s a relatively new conference on the circuit. It’s the Genealogy Show coordinated by Kirsty Gray. In full disclosure…I’m one of the keynote speakers in 2020. If you’re looking for a different conference experience, think about attending the Genealogy Show. It’s held in Birmingham, England and has a packed schedule. There are forty-eight different talks over the two days. The exhibition hall provides a great way to explore, network, and shop. I’ll let Kirsty tell you the rest. Links: The Genealogy Show Family Wise Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Kirsty Gray, Director of The Genealogy Show, has over 15 years research experience and has her foot in many genealogical doors around the world. She took up genealogy professionally while training to be a teacher in 2002. Running Family Wise Limited, Kirsty has conducted research for private individuals, solicitors, academics and companies worldwide. As an author, Kirsty has written for many international publications on various topics for beginners to more advanced levels and her first book, Tracing Your West Country Ancestors, was published in March 2013 by Pen and Sword. She has appeared on Qui-Etes Vous? (Who Do You Think
Fri, April 17, 2020
Photo Fun While Stuck in the House
It’s a great time to work on your photographs. I’ve been working on some photo-related distractions. On the Photo Detective Facebook page there is a photo reunion challenge. Thirty days of identified photographs from my collection. These are images I’ve picked up here and there over the years. Help me find them a home! If you spot one of your relatives send me an email with how you’re related to them. On Instagram folks are putting together alphabets of topics. My inspiration is the alphabet of architecture started by the Providence Preservation Society. So…on the Photo Detective Instagram page @photodetective you’ll find the A-Z Alphabet of Photography. Posts twice a week until the first week of July. If you’re interested in Providence, RI history, you’ll love the A-Z Alphabet of Oldpvd @oldpvd. These post twice a week until early July as well. Shaina Weintraub of the Providence City Archives is joining me with a related project. She’s working on Tinder profiles of Providence historical figures. Tinder is a modern dating app that Shaina has tweaked for teaching history. They are hysterical. I love Instagram. It’s pictures all the time. What’s not to love? A local antique shop is now posting on this social media platform items for sale. Recently I saw something and had to have it. It’s a little brass bird from the 1880s. I’ll share it in my newsletter so you can see it. The little tail moves and so does the beak. It’s a photographer’s prop. “Watch the birdie.” Since the dealer lives in the neighborhood he dropped it off on my porch. It’s April. The month I usually devote to The Last Muster and the American Revolution because of the April 19th, “Shot Heard Round the World.” Last year at this time I was at the Museum of the American Museum in Philadelphia and the Concord Museum in Concord, Massachusetts with the folks from Verissima Productions about our films, A Revolutionary Trio. Revolutionary Voices explores three stories, including those of a soldier whose discharge papers were signed by George Washington; a Quaker woman torn between the pacifist views of her religion and her attraction to the republican ideals of George Washington; and a free man of color who served 6 years as a soldier in the Continental Army. In addition, each segment sheds light on the world of early photography, and reveals new information about how those photographs were created and preserved. We made the decision to make the films available free. You can watch and share them on my website Maureen Taylor.com under projects, A Revolutionary Trio. This month I researched an image in my collection. It’s a carte de visite from E. M. Worth’s American Museum claiming to depict General Washington’s Camp Lantern, Knife and Fork, used during the Revolutionary War, by Washington, 1776. It was likely sold as a souvenir whe
Wed, April 08, 2020
The American Revolution and Abraham Lincoln
For two decades I’ve searched for images of the Revolutionary War Generation. The individuals who lived during the war who lived long enough to be photographed. Often there is a name but no image. Not everyone sat for a likeness even far into the nineteenth century. It’s possible that some folks did, but the images were lost, misplaced, or destroyed. It happens. In volume two of my Last Muster series I featured. Deacon John Phillips (1760–1865) At the time the only image of him appeared in Harpers Weekly (December 10, 1864) Imagine my surprise when John Beatty of the Allen County Public Library contacted me to say that not one but two photographs of him had turned up in a collection of President Abraham Lincoln material. Emily Rapoza of The Lincoln Collection joins me to talk about the image, Phillips connection to Lincoln and how there is a market for photo fakes. Did you know that many of the men, women and children that experienced the Revolutionary War first hand lived into the age of photography (1839)? If an image in your photo collection fits the following criteria, it might depict a member of the Revolutionary War generation. The Subjects Are the people in your pictures old enough to be part of the Revolutionary War generation? Patriots, soldiers and loyalist adults: Anyone who was an adult during the American Revolution would have been at least 80 years old by the advent of photography. Children: Anyone who was a child during the American Revolution would have been in his late 50s or older when he had his picture taken. Wives and widows: The last surviving widow of a Revolutionary soldier died in 1906! Esther Sumner married Noah Damon when she was 21 and he was 75. Finding pictures of wives and widows means looking at pictures taken anywhere from 1840 to the early 1900s. Related Episodes: Episode 49: Women Patriots with Mary Tedesco Episode 38: The Last Muster Journey Links: Lincoln Foundation Collection Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the <a href='https://maureentaylor.com/st
Wed, April 01, 2020
A Grandmother's Gift
It doesn’t matter where you live. There are constants in a search for genealogical facts and details that transcend geography. For instance, we know that family gifts can spur an interest in family history. This week’s guest is proof positive of that. As a teenager his grandmother sent him a box of images and those pictures gave him the gift of discovering his family’s past. Good record keeping in his home country took him part of the way on that journey. The pictures proved that for decades the relatives in Chile kept in touch with their relatives in Europe and then the communication stopped. A DNA test brought them back together. You may have read his story in the MyHeritage blog , but in this episode Gonzalo Luengo shares how it all happened. Links: Story in the MyHeritage blog Blog http://genesdefamilia.blogspot.com/ YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTbHE4IeNglrfsiRnpwqczw Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Gonzalo Luengo is a Chilean teacher and professional genealogist. Member of the Chilean Institute of Genealogical Research and the Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research of Ñuble. A volunteer consultant at the Chilean Stake Family History Center since 2008, Gonzalo is the author of Genes de familia ( http://genesdefamilia.blogspot.com ) a blog dedicated to sharing tutorials archives and resources for Chilean genealogy. His YouTube videos also include interviews with genealogists and family history enthusiasts. He has participated in
Wed, March 18, 2020
Interviewing Relatives: A Conversation with Personal Biographer Francie King
Have you ever thought you’d love to interview a member of your family about their life? In this episode, personal biographer Francie King shares tips on how to get individuals to talk and the importance of listening as you record. As a former journalist she knows how to refine a story and gather the facts. We chat about ghost writing, the process of putting it all together and the power of hearing our relatives voices. She’s a master at the art of gently encouraging individuals to share their past. I love her passion for the topic as expressed in this quote “Personal history and biography,” she says, “are always larger than a single finished book. The story of an individual, or a family, is the story of us, part of our shared history, always worth preserving, always deeply valuable for the next generations. Whenever that history remains untold, then it is lost to us forever.” Links: Contact Francie King at HistoryKeep.com Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Francie King has worked for more than 40 years as a journalist, writer, and editor, and as a director of nonprofit publications strategic planning and management. Her workplaces include more than a half dozen major universities and colleges in New England, as well as the Museum of Fine Arts and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. She fell in love with personal biography and memoir around 2007 while editing a book about her father, a world-renowned nuclear physicist. In 2009, after finding inspiration in a community of supportive, like-minded writers, she turned her longtime writing consultancy into a memoir and personal/family biography business, HistoryKeep , based in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Building on a love of biography and family stories and with long experience as an interviewer, Francie has written or edited more than 20 bespoke books, and often teams with other pers
Wed, March 11, 2020
Who's That Baby? Tips for Solving Snapshot Mysteries
In this episode I’m sharing tips on dealing with twentieth century baby photos and news from Rootstech. You’re probably thinking I wish I was the Photo Detective. I bet she doesn’t have any unidentified photos. Well...that’s not quite true. I have some. Most folks do. I’m working through the few I have by studying the clues and my family history. One of them is a group portrait. My Dad identified his father and grandfather. The rest are up to me. It’s likely a community group gathered for a summer outing. That’s the hard part. More about this photo in a future episode of The Photo Detective. In a recent blog post I shared details about a photo buying trip with my daughter. She knows the sentimental value of photos and was appalled to see the piles of baby pictures in baskets and boxes. Discarded and unloved. It struck a chord with us both. For some reason baby pictures seem to end up without names. At least that’s my experience viewing client photo collections. Those unidentified infant snapshots nag me to solve their mystery. So I took another look at the ones in my collection. I’m lucky. My Mom is still with us and her memory is pretty good for 90. We’ve gone through the photos and she’s identified most of them. She gets stuck on the baby photos. I mean who doesn’t. We think we’re going to write the names on the back, but why would we. We know the identity of that cherubic face. Therein lies the problem. Fast forward a few decades and you find you have more than a few photos of infants. I do. I bet you do too. I was working through my images adding metadata in MemoryWeb when I kept finding baby pictures with no names on the backs. It’s like they sprouted from the collection when I wasn’t looking. It’s one of those moments when you think, HOW could I have overlooked that?! So what’s a family photo detective to do? Here are some suggestions. Ask a Relative So first I asked Mom. Problem was, every baby was my cousin Lou. That can’t be right I thought. I won’t tell you WHY she thought they were all him. It’s one of those family things. Do you have a relative you can ask either a DNA match or through a genealogy database like Ancestry, Family Search, or MyHeritage? MyHeritage Instant Discoveries might help connect you to a cousin. Listen to episode # to learn more about how Instant Discoveries works Research the Photographer While All of my mystery baby pictures are snapshots you might have some taken in a studio. I treat photographers like members of the family and research them using city directories, census records, AND by googling the name. Work dates for the studios might help put the photo in a time frame. Lay out the images. There is something about seeing all your mystery photos laid out in view. You can spot things you’ve missed. It’s all about getting a new perspective on the image. I’ll often look at the real photos but als
Wed, March 04, 2020
One Man's World War One Journey
Imagine working on your family history and suddenly you’re sidetracked by a bit of information. That’s what happened to my guest, James Castellan. His pursuit of one man’s story led to a new understanding of World War I and to his becoming a film scholar on American cinematographers in Germany. He won a writing award fromThe International Society of Family History Writers and Editors for his article The Memoir of Eleanor Castellan: The Years in the Pacific Northwest, 1910-1919. Edited by James W. Castellan and Norman H. Clark Pacific Northwest Quarterly Volume 91 Number 1 (Winter 1999/2000) Along the way, he located a lost film and Together with other scholars they researched the film and reconstructed it. Links are in the show notes. It’s proof that you never know where a love of family history can take you. Related Episodes: Episode 65: Lost Films Needs Your Help Links: The restored 1915 Wilbur H. Durborough film On the Firing Line With the Germans was posted online by the Library of Congress. You can view it via Ron van Dopperen’s WWI film blog . The short article in the Journal of Film Preservation documents the institutions, events, and individuals that enabled this lost film to be reconstructed. Read it here. Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Researching his Schuette family relations immediately after retiring in 2001, James Castellan began regularly "commuting" to the Library of Congress to capture Oswald F. Schuette's WWI bylined dispatches from Berlin. Schuette covered the Central Powers for the Chicago Daily News. He noticed a headline praising Schuette as a great reporter by cinematographer Wilbur H. Durborough just back from Germany where he had filmed On the Firing Line With the Germans . <
Wed, February 19, 2020
Big News For Family Photos on MyHeritage.com
It’s been a couple of years since I’ve checked in with Daniel Horowitz, of My Heritage.com. We talked about instant discoveries, what happens when information is uploaded in a different language, and how you can use watermarks on your images. Daniel shares a big announcement about family photographs. The new tool developed out of a company-wide hackathon to develop new features. For a demonstration of how to use instant discoveries, click the link in the show notes for Episode 11 https://maureentaylor.com/ask-maureen-episode-11-heritage-photo-discoveries/ Need help with your photographs, contact me for a photo consult. I’d love to help. By the way, I offer discounts for larger batches of images. Let’s save some family photographs together. Save $10. by using the coupon code PODCAST when signing up for a consult. Related Episodes: Episode 11: Instant Discoveries with MyHeritage.com Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Daniel Horowitz is the Genealogy Expert at MyHeritage, providing, key contributions liaising with genealogy societies, bloggers and media, as well as lecturing, and attending conferences around the world . Dedicated to Genealogy since 1986, he was the teacher and the study guide editor of the family history project "Searching for My Roots" in Venezuela for 15 years. Daniel is involved in several crowdsource digitization and transcription projects and holds a board-level position at the Israel Genealogy Research Association (IGRA) . He offers a variety of <a href='http://www.searchingformyroots.com/Lectures_and_Workshops.ht
Wed, February 12, 2020
What I Learned Using a Digital Photo Organizer
Working on the MasterClass on Digital Photo Organizing with MemoryWeb has taught me a few things. It’s reinforced my love for using a digital photo organizer because it makes it so easy to find the exact image I’m looking for when it’s needed. But it also helped me see my research deficits. In the process of “cataloging” all my images I found some long lost images. The steps in the process made me realize what I have and what I’m missing in the way of family history information for some of the images. The goal of my research for a long time was to focus on discovering my paternal grandmother’s family history from her back. Unfortunately, that means that I didn’t collect all the details for more recent generations. It’s easy to think of the past and not the present. Now, all that research on her family did result in me becoming a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. But as I tagged photos of her siblings I wondered about them? AND why I didn’t have photos of all of them. It was the rediscovery of images of her sisters and my grandmother’s obituary with the names of her pallbearers that woke me up. Visualize me hitting my hand on my forehead here. I realized that some of her sibling’s descendants might still be living. Since I live in the area that’s home to many of them I’ve been working at lightning speed trying to find those folks. Hope I’m not too late. It’s the organizer that made me see the holes in the story. Mystery Photo of the Month: A New Feature The Glassmire Brothers. Read the full story on my blog . Related Episodes: Episode 67: Solving Photo Mysteries Sign up for the Wait List for the Next Digital Photo Organizing with Memory Web Master Class . Use this link for a 30% discount on Memory Web Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . <
Wed, February 05, 2020
Wearing the Past: A Modern Woman's Fascination with Period Dress
Our family photos reveal our ancestor's fashion choices and those clues can help date a picture. The collars, cuffs, hats, and shoes worn by our grandmothers teach us about the period in which they lived, but those details also tell us a bit of the story of their lives. Historical costume is on display in movies and television, but you can also find costumed historians at historic living history events. That’s where I spotted today’s guest. She was a guest at a local historic house party. She was draped in layers of fabric I couldn’t imagine wearing in July. Listen as we talk about her fascination with period dress, how she makes her attire, and how family historians can learn more about our ancestors through clothing. Quinn's website Quinn's blog Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest Quinn M. Burgess is a costume maker, costume historian, and educator with a passion for researching, patterning, and making historical clothing. To bring history to life, Quinn combines backgrounds in social, costume, and material history with the study, creation, and wearing of historical clothing. Quinn’s historical work uses meticulous historical construction methods and modern shortcuts, where appropriate, to create historical clothing for museums, institutions, and individuals, including Plimoth Plantation, Historic Northampton, and the U.S. National Park Service. In addition, she creates and consults on historical costumes for documentaries and short films. Quinn also shares her passion for historical clothing through presentations at historical institutions including, the Newport Historical Society and Rhode Island Historical Society. Her work has also been featured on WBUR, Boston’s largest National Public Radio station. About Maureen Taylor Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, confe
Wed, January 22, 2020
Colorizing the Past with The Photo Alchemist
Way back when colorizing photographs was a controversial topic. Should they or shouldn’t they be colorized? Now there is wide public support for the process. It’s done digitally, not like our ancestors adding color with artist materials. You can find whole collections of images of historical events looking like they were taken yesterday in eye-popping full color. The techniques and tints used today or nothing like what was used a decade or more ago. Photo colorists match the authenticity of the shades they used with actual examples of clothing dyes from the period in which the image dates. My guest, Claudia D’Souza is a U.K. based photo restoration professional. Related Episodes: Episode 37: What's New with Vivid-Pix Restore Links: The Photo Alchemist Save 20% on MemoryWeb.me digital organizer Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: In 2009, Claudia d’Souza started researching her family history. Soon she was diving into the fortunes and misfortunes of my ancestors. Claudia marveled at the explorer life of her German great grandfather Frederick, whose father was a founding member of the now-extinct German Club in Burma, and who was forced to flee to India, and leave all his wealth behind, following the invasion of the Japanese; She unraveled the tragic life of British great-grandma Jayne who, by the age of 23, had already buried three husbands. She’s trying to discover the mysterious origins of her Portuguese Grandfather Candido, who was abandoned on the doorstep of a rich doctor, on a cold Christmas Eve. Photographs became a huge part of her newly found obsession. However, she was saddened to find that photos were scarce, and often in very bad condition. I searched for restoration services, but they all required her to part with the originals. So, combining her advanced
Wed, January 15, 2020
Preservation Hacks
What are your plans for 2020? I have a few. From reviewing my podcast episodes from last year to expanding educational offerings, this year is going to be full of chances to chat with me at conferences and connect through Masterclasses. In this episode, I review the most popular podcast episodes of 2019. Photo scanning, finding photos, women patriots, and family reunion planning top the list. The links are below just in case you missed one. . Have you signed up for my new three-part Masterclass on digital photo organizing and MemoryWeb? It’s not too late. Use the coupon code newyear2020 to save $10 until January 16th. Related Episodes: Episode 49: Women Patriots with Mary Tedesco Episode 48: Finding Photos of Your Ancestors Episode 50: Scanning Photos with Mitch Goldstone Episode 51: Family Reunion Planning with Edith Wagne r Links: Masterclass on Digital Photo Organizing Gaylord.com Save 10% and free shipping with code PD10 Story Scan and Flip-Pal Album Walk from Family Tree Maker Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances inclu
Wed, January 08, 2020
Masterclass: Digital Photo Organizing with Memory Web
In the old days, we’d print our photos and hopefully write identifying information on the back. Some folks would add them to albums. Then print photos became old-fashioned and digital images became popular. We took thousands of new photos and scanned the old. Our hard drives and cell phones are full of photos with no data. Finding what we want is often like a horror movie. Convenient to carry all of them around but if we can locate the exact image we want, then we’re in trouble. There is a solution. You’ve heard about MemoryWeb on The Photo Detective Podcast now learn how digital organizing works and how MemoryWeb can help. It’s the digital photo organizer created by genealogists for genealogists. In this episode, I announce a three-part Masterclass on Digital Photo Organizing using MemoryWeb*. In preparation for the Digital Photo Organizing, I share tips on how to weed your digital files, snapshots, and slides. It’s not horrible to discard certain pictures, but there should be a plan. And it’s important to have some criteria before tossing for tossing sake. *Purchasing MemoryWeb helps support this podcast. Related Episodes: Episode 23: MemoryWeb for your desktop Links: Memoryweb discount Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s
Wed, January 01, 2020
52 Weeks of Ancestors with Amy Johnson Crow
Have you ever wished you had time to write your family history? My guest today has a way of encouraging you to tell your family story in manageable bites. It’s her popular 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks program. She supplies the prompts and you write, blog, scrapbook, or Instagram something about an ancestor each week. There’s no pressure to participate every week. I guarantee at the end of the year you’ll have made progress on that family history. We chat monthly on our Heritage and History FB Live and chat about what’s happening in the field or in the news. On this podcast, Amy and I chat about the 52 weeks of genealogy and how she got started. Here’s the thing. You can use Amy Johnson Crow’s system to work on your pictures too. Pick a photo related to her theme and dig into the story of that picture. You can do it. I’m happy to help Related Episodes: Episode 39: Finding Identity and Connection in Family Photos Links: Sign up for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest : Amy holds a Masters Degree in Library and Information Science from Kent State University. She has held a Certified Genealogist® credential since 1995. Amy has worked at Ancestry.com , served as the series editor for the National Genealogical Society Guides, published by Rutledge Hill Press, and was the co-author of Online Roots in that series. Amy is the author of 31 Days to Better Genealogy, a resource guide filled with practical tips you can put into practice right away, as well as more than 40 articles in various genealogical publications. She has presented at genealogy’s top events, including RootsTech. Amy has never turned down an offer to go visit a cemetery. Watch my Photo Detective Facebook page for announcements about our Heritage and History FB Live. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at histo
Wed, December 18, 2019
Solving Photo Mysteries
On stormy winter afternoons, my Mom would drag out the boxes of family photos and would reminisce about fifty years of family history. My sister and I would pick photos out of the box and ask her to tell us about the people in them. One thing would lead to another. It wasn’t about the pictures. They were the inspiration for her stories. Since then, I’ve developed a signature approach to identifying photographs. I’ve used my technique on thousands of photographs over the years. There are simple answers to the who what when where and why of an image but there are deeper inquiries that require us to look out of the frame. Studying the clues is only part of the puzzle. Our family history adds a layer. So does local, state, national, and international history. It’s the intersection of all these things where the magic happens. Think about a photo in your family. It doesn’t have to be an old one. You’re probably wondering where to start? I can help with that. Related Episodes: Episode 39: Finding Identity and Connection in Family Photographs Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family histor
Wed, December 11, 2019
Family History Films You Can Make
I love a good movie. Maybe you do too. Could there be any better film than one that profiles a person or moment in your family history? There is more than one way to start a holiday discussion after the main course. Why not show a short family history related film. Animoto makes it easy. Upload your images. Pick a template. Start editing. Add a soundtrack and you’re done. Share it with family online or in person, but be sure to have a recorder nearby. You'll want to capture all those stories. A few years ago I met Beth Forester at a genealogy conference. We had a lot to chat about due to our similar interests in visual storytelling. In this episode, she shares tips on how to make your holiday season special by adding video to the menu. “A short video is better than no video”...Beth Forester Related Episodes: Episode 10: Fun Family History Videos Links: Sign up for a free trial of Animoto Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Beth Forester is a Product Marketing Manager for Animoto. She’s been a storyteller all her life. Before working for Animoto, Beth was a photographer for 20 years. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times .
Wed, December 04, 2019
Lost Films Need Your Help
I’m fascinated by re-discovered history be it photographs, places, or films. Motion Picture history is a lot more varied than many of us realize. In the early years of the movie industry, production studios were all over the country. Unfortunately, most of that history is now lost. The Library of Congress and museums and archives all over the world are trying to piece together that past. Today’s guest wants me to weigh in on some of these mysteries just like I do with your family photos. Links: Lost Films Nitrate Film Interest Group's Flickr Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Eli Savada is a copyright researcher by trade, as the owner of the Motion Picture Information Service, which has serviced over 1,500 clients since 1977. Using a vast knowledge of cinema history and keen intuitive skills, he’s been able to expand on a basic copyright report to include information not available in the Copyright Office files. Over the course of its existence, MPIS has compiled over 13,000 reports representing research on thousands of films, television programs, songs, books, etc. He also writes film reviews for Film International (filmint.nu). Not surprising, Eli is a genealogist too. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens,
Wed, November 20, 2019
Save Your Pictures with the Right Stuff
Caring for your photos and heirlooms just got easier. It used to be difficult to find the right supplies. The materials safe to use with your pictures. Well, guess what? Gaylord, the company that might just be the oldest archival supplier, launched a line of products for genealogists. Did I mention they have knowledgeable staff to help you buy the correct boxes, tissue, and card stock to preserve your photos (and all your other stuff too. ) I caught up with my guests at the New England Regional Conference and visited with them in their cozy booth there and at FGS in Washington, D.C. This week they talk about Gaylord and the company slogan. Preservation is personal! I love it. Stay until the end to hear about their special offer that includes free shipping. Related Episodes: Episode 50: Scan My Photos with Mitch Goldstone Episode 19: Generation Story App Links: Gaylord's Gift Guide for Genealogists Gaylord Preservation Resources Learn more about YourStory™ Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guests: Ariel Servadio has been working in the preservation industry for 10 years for Gaylord Archival, helping museums, archives and conservation professionals to preserve our cultural heritage. She developed YourStory™, a collection of the same archival-quality materials that professionals use, to make it simple for genealogists to preserve their own family history to share with future generations. She has exhibited and presented mini-sessions at the NERGC and FGS conferences. Ronda Buck (Product Manager) has been working in the preservation industry for 20 years for Gaylord Archival, helping museums, archives and conservation professionals to preserve our cultura
Wed, November 13, 2019
A Few Of My Favorite Photo Identification Tools
At this time of year, I’m busy making lists of ingredients for Thanksgiving but I’m also starting to think about the holiday season. I have a few gift suggestions for the family historians on your list. Some fit in a Christmas stocking, others are online. You might want to drop a few hints to the gift-givers you know. At the end of the podcast, I have an offer for those of you that have been putting off learning photo-identification techniques. Here in the northeast winter is coming, and I’ll find those snowy days a good time to work on my photo projects, maybe you will too. Related Episodes: Episode 19: GenerationStory app Episode 23: Memory Web for Your Desktop Links: Save $30. on Photo Identification courses with the code Holiday19 Sign up HERE Save 30% on MemoryWeb . Try Vivid-Pix for Free or purchase it. Shotbox Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage
Thu, October 31, 2019
The Secret Wife Of Aaron Burr with Susan Holloway Scott
November is National Novel Writing Month aka NaNoWriMo Have you ever thought about writing your family history? Well...now might be the time to start. My guest is an author who weaves fiction and non-fiction together into historical fiction. Real people live in her pages with a fictionalized context. Her stories are compelling reading. At our first meeting at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, she said she loved my Last Muster books of images of folks who lived during the American Revolution. I laughed looked at her and at almost the same time, we asked, Don’t you think that Eliza Hamilton would have had a picture taken? We agreed it was possible. Her book I, Eliza Hamilton and her new book, The Secret Wife of Aaron Burr take readers into the lives of these women. Susan shared her story writing history, how she picks the topics of her book and what she’s working on next. Related Episodes: Episode 22: A Murder Mystery with Paul Collins, The Literary Detective Links: Susan Holloway Scott's website NaNoWriMo Resources Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . About My Guest: Susan Holloway Scott is the author of over fifty historical novels and novellas written under several pen names. Her bestselling books have received numerous awards and honors, and with more than three million copies of her books in print, she has been published in nineteen foreign countries around the world. Susan is a graduate of Brown University, and lives with her family in a book-filled house outside of Philadelphia, PA. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books a
Wed, October 23, 2019
Mourning Jewelry: Fact or Fiction
If you’ve ever seen a piece of jewelry with hair in it, you’ve probably wondered what’s that about? While we associate hair jewelry with mourning, that’s not the whole story. My guest Sarah Nehama shared fascinating facts about mourning and memorial jewelry. A piece with her first name on it inspired her to start collecting these antiques. As a jewelry designerthese historical pieces influence the work she creates today. I hope you’ll be able to join me for my virtual Master Class: Dead or Alive: Mourning Memorials, Spirit Photos and the Un-Dead. There are a limited number of spots so secure your ticket at MaureenTaylor.com. Don’t worry if you can’t watch it live, you’ll have a week to view it. Related Episodes: Episode 21: The Gravestone Girls Links: Sarah Nehama's website Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Sarah Nehama has a degree in art history from Boston University and has been designing and creating one-of-a-kind precious metals jewelry for over 25 years. Her studio is in the Providence, RI area. Sarah has also been collecting antique mourning and sentimental jewelry since 2005, has co-curated an exhibit in Boston, MA of mourning jewelry and art, and authored a book on the subject. She enjoys sharing her knowlege through public lecture presentations and webinars. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall S
Wed, October 16, 2019
Finding Pictures of Your Civil War Ancestors
My mom gave me all the family photos. The earliest photo on my dad’s side dates to 1895. On her side, a cousin connected with me images from that time frame as well. All the pictures came from relatives. Now imagine a serendipitous family photo find. One that you didn’t expect. That’s what happened to me on an ordinary day no searching required. Photo historian William Darrah in his book Cartes de Visite mentioned that that every Civil War soldier was photographed. That statement isn’t as odd as it appears. There were approximately 3,000 photographers working during the war. Many of those soldiers visited studios to send home an image of themselves. Some posed before they left home. Mathew Brady’s photographers and many other photographers traveled with the troops. Do you have a photo of your Civil War ancestor? Until last week, I didn’t. A number of people wrote and asked if I could talk more about finding Civil War photos. Let me know if you locate the images you’re seeking. Don’t forget to download the pdf that goes with this episode. Related Episodes: Episode 24: Civil War Photo Sleuth Episode 32: The Man Behind Dead Fred Links: Links mentioned in this episode Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete fam
Wed, October 09, 2019
The Vivid-Pix Fix and a Contest
Vivid-pix Restore has a new tool for users. You can attach metatag to your images. If you haven’t tried Vivid-Pix Restore, you’re missing the Vivid-pix fix. Basically you select an image to add it to the program and in seconds you see nine versions of your image. Pick the fix that seems right to you and save it. Your original will stay as it is, but you’ll also have the restored version as well. Try it and see. Use vivid-pix.com/pd and try it for free. You can Improve the quality of your scanned pictures and documents. Metadata has a scary sound to it. It’s not quite as technical as you might think. Remember old fashioned library card catalogs? Where you could find what you wanted by looking things up by author, title, or subject. I think of metdata that way. You can enter names, places, or subjects all to help you locate what you’re looking for in your image file collection. I’ll let my guest explain how all this works. We have an announcement while on the call Rick and I cooked up a challenge. Here’s how it goes. The Vivid PixFix Challenge. I set up a Facebook post and encourage people to add theirbefore and after images. The one with the most likes wins a photo album from Vivid-pix. We’re celebrating Family History month with a give-away You’ll have until October 20th 11:59 to vote. Related Episodes: Episode 25: A Vivid-pix Redux Episode 37: What's New with Vivid-Pix Restore Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: With a few decades of doer and executive experience with Kodak and HP, Rick Voight and Randy Fredlund co-founded Vivid-Pix. Vivid-Pix designs, creates and delivers Fast, Easy and Affordable photo and document improvement software. Since launching in 2012, Vivid-Pix has advanced its product to earn the support of family historians, genealogists, photographers,
Wed, October 02, 2019
Organizing Photos with Memory Web
I have thousands of pictures on my desktop, my phone, and online. Finding exactly the right image to share with relatives was a nightmare. It could take days to scroll through all the pictures for just the right one. Then Christopher Desmond introduced me to MemoryWeb. I remember thinking how can one product do so much AND be designed for genealogists. MemoryWeb is one of my go- to tools. It’s a photo organizer that’s easy to use and that makes sharing/ collaborating a snap. Seriously. I can sync accounts automatically, share albums with relatives (who don’t have the product). Plus all the information I’ve added to the pictures stays with the pictures. That means I can export my photos from MW with location, date, names, and captions without losing a thing. A big thanks to Christopher and Nancy Desmond for being a sponsor of the The Photo Detective Podcast. They’ve created a photo tool that I love (and I don’t say that about every new product on the market.) In this episode, Christopher and I talk about organizing digital photos and how you can do that with MemoryWeb. He has a special offer for listeners. Related Episodes: Episode 23: Memory Web for Your Desktop https://maureentaylor.com/episode-23-memoryweb-for-your-desktop/ Episode 15: Memory Web: The Photo Organizer for Genealogists Links: Special Offer link: memoryweb.me/PD30 Unlock the Shoebox 1 -- DIGITIZING YOUR PHOTOS Unlock the Shoebox 2 -- ORGANIZING YOUR PHOTOS Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . <
Wed, September 18, 2019
Family Pictures USA with Producer Don Perry
You’re going to love my guest, Don Perry of the very successful new show on PBS, Family Pictures USA. It’s about people, places, photographs and the stories that connect them. Family Pictures USA travels across America showing us the connection between family photographs and family stories. Links: Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About My Guest: Don Perry is the Executive Producer of the show and is a creative partner with award-winning filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris. Don has been nominated for an Emmy and a Peabody award. He won an NAACP Image Award for a Documentary Film, for Through A Lens Darkly that focused on African American photographers. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts . I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These
Wed, September 11, 2019
Disaster Preparedness for the Family Photo Archive
As I watch the destruction caused by Hurricane Dorian, I’m worried about the next disaster. My mind is thinking about When Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast of the United States in 2012. It was not the powerhouse storm that Dorian is, but the effects were felt all the way into New England. On the New Jersey shore near Union Beach, family photographs started washing up on the beach. One woman took action and tried to rescue as many as possible partnering with the public library, enlisting the aid of conservation professionals and relying on volunteer time and donations of scanners and other supplies. I reached out to see what I could do. The amazing thing about that project was that Jeannette was able to reunite many photographs with family, but there were also a large number that went unclaimed. I’m not sure that having a disaster plan could help a community literally blown and washed away by a storm, but museums, libraries and archives have them. By taking steps we know what to do afterward and we’ll have the resources we’ll need. This special podcast focuses on Disaster preparedness for a family archive. Links: Download my free Disaster Preparedness Checklist. American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works Operation Photo Rescue Sign up for my newsletter. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Wed, September 04, 2019
Photos of Our Mill-Working Ancestors
In the early twentieth century child laborers worked in mills across America. Perhaps your ancestors did too. It’s possible. In 1900 more than 1.75 million children aged 10 to 15 were employed. A photo of your ancestor might exist. I'm a big fan of this week's guest, Joe Manning. He finds the photos and connects them with family. In 1908, the National Child Labor Committee hired a photographer named Lewis Hine. He spent more than a decade photographing child workers from New York to the Carolinas to Pittsburgh. He documented the horrific work conditions in which our ancestors labored. The NCLC was trying to end child labor using the images to raise awareness of the issue. Many of Lewis Hines photographs are at LIbrary of Congress. You can search them for free using the link in the show notes. If you had an ancestor who worked as a child, they might be depicted in a photo taken by Hine. In many cases the descriptions and captions that accompany these images are incomplete or don’t exist at all. That doesn’t deter my guest from piecing together the story and reuniting the past with the present. He’s on a mission to identify the children and reunite their descendants with these images. Joe Manning is an amazing photo investigator, but Every so often he asks for my opinion. You can follow his successes on his website, Mornings on Maple Street.com About My Guest: For the past thirteen years, Joe Manning has been identifying some of the more than 5,000 child laborers that were photographed in the early 1900s by Lewis Hine, and then tracking down and interviewing their descendants. So far, he has been successful at telling the stories of more than 300 children. Manning is an author, historian, freelance journalist, poet, and songwriter. He has published two books about the history of North Adams, Massachusetts, and a book of his poetry. A social worker for 30 years, he retired in 1999 to devote his time to his writing career. His Lewis Hine Project has been featured on CBS Evening News and National Public Radio. Manning lives in Florence, Massachusetts. His work can be seen at www.MorningsOnMapleStreet.com Related Episodes: Episode 48: Finding Photographs of Your Ancestors Mornings on Maple Street Search for photos on the [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/photos/) site. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos at https://www.facebook.com/MaureenPhotoDetective/ . Sign up for my newsletter. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the <a href='https://maureentaylor.com/stor
Wed, August 28, 2019
Family Reunion Photos: Sorting Out the Clues
In August, I dedicated all my podcast episodes to family reunion focused activities and guests. Since it’s Family Reunion season, that means we’re pretty likely to be posing for a group portrait. It’s part of most reunions...a visual gathering of everyone at the event. We have dozens of pictures of my husband’s family reunion attendees In Episode 51 , Edith Wagner of Reunions magazine shared a story about a reunion photo where they use flat bed trucks to help with the layout. A recent news story shared the tale of one reunion of 60 people who were going to reenact a family reunion photo from the 1890s. Perhaps you’re part of a reunion gathering for everyone of a particular surname. Perhaps it’s an event that’s taken place for decades if not a century and there are group portraits of those. I bet very few of them contain the names of the people in the image. There is a simple reason. If you know the names of everyone in the picture, you’re less likely to write identifications on them. The problem with that reasoning is that as time passes, so do the people who knew who was in the photo. Now the next generation has a photo mystery to solve. But how? That’s where I come in. As the photo detective I’ve developed methods to solving photo mysteries of all sizes from a picture of a single person to one that contains dozens. I love working with you to solve your photo puzzles. Did you know that every photo collection is unique. They are. I should know I look at thousands of images every year. I’m going to share 5 tips so you can get started. Start with the most recent photo. It’s a lot like the standard genealogy advice to begin with the present and work backwards. While looking at the photos, you’ll be time traveling in reverse. You’ll be watching people get younger instead of older. Try to match up the faces in these images. Bring all these big group portraits with you on your phone or tablet AND have an oversize copy made of the image for note taking. What you’re looking for are two things that anchor the pictures in a time frame. Who’s the oldest person in the photo? Who’s the youngest? Those two people can date a picture. They help identify the time frame and in some cases the specific year. Where are they standing? I don’t know about you, but I have a tendency to stand near my husband and children in the group portraits. Study the image and look for clusters. There are a lot of different cluster combinations in group portraits. All the older siblings in the center is one option. All the children in the front row is common too. But after that people with strong relationships tend to stand near each other. At this point think about all the family stories you’ve heard about who in the family had close ties. They are likely to be close together. No doubt about it, you’r
Wed, August 21, 2019
Our Cards.com: Playing with a Full Deck of Ancestors
No gathering of my mother’s relatives is complete without hours of card playing. My mother taught us to play card games from an early age. That’s why as soon as I saw OurCards at a genealogy conference I was intrigued. Forget Bicycle cards. They are lovely but nothing compares to seeing your ancestral photos in a deck. Imagine your great grandmother as the Queen of Hearts. At the next gathering I’m going to bring a set and watch everyone’s expressions. Priceless! About My Guest: Tim Crowley Tim Crowley has a background in banking and finance, but suddenly became interested in using cards as a device to tell family history. He founded OurCards in March of 2018 so he’s a relative newcomer to the genealogy market place (and to genealogy in general. OurCards is an online business that allows people to design their own customized deck of playing cards, with an interesting twist. The decks are standard decks of playing cards, so you can play any card game you like (Hearts, Go Fish, Gin, etc.), but on each card is a different family member. Initially designed for the genealogy marketplace, OurCards allows its clients to download their family tree from most any genealogy website (Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast, etc.), assign family members to cards and submit their order. Once printed (typically between 7 - 10 days) clients receive their own customized deck in the mail. There are a multitude of companies that support family research, but many genealogists are looking for a way to share their discoveries - OurCards was created just for them! Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos at https://www.facebook.com/MaureenPhotoDetective/ . Sign up for my newsletter. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs online course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched a
Wed, August 14, 2019
Our Picture-Taking Ancestors and Flea Market Finds
Our past is for sale. Our parent’s stuff and previous generations as well. You can find the most amazing things at flea markets. That’s what New Englander’s call these outdoor sales. I regularly visit two of these. In the summer months, the Providence Flea occupies a small space on the waterfront. If it’s there. I am too. It’s a mix of antique and collectible vendors as well as artist spaces. One of my favorite people to chat with is Peter Dumas of Picture This Antiques. He specializes in old cameras. I’ll let him tell his story. Oh...and the glass plate camera he mentions...well.. I couldn’t leave it there. It now sits on a shelf in my office along with other cameras he’s sold me. In addition to the Flea I make at least one visit to the Brimfield Antique Market. It’s held three times a year but for some reason my tradition is to go in July. Yes. In the 90 degrees sweltering heat and humidity. Think 100K people and vendors spread out on 12 fields. I’ve walked miles looking at stuff learning history as I go. And picked up some wonderful photos too. Here’s some of the things I’ve seen. My favorite is the last one. You really can find anything at Brimfield. Do you know what it is? I do, but let’s see if you can guess. **About My Guest: ** Peter Dumas is the owner of Picture This Antiques. A chance sale of a vintage camera led him to create a business that’s related to historic cameras. Links Picture This Antiques Brimfield Antique Fair Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos at https://www.facebook.com/MaureenPhotoDetective/. Sign up for my newsletter. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course. Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs online course. Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation. **About Maureen Taylor: ** Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Jo
Wed, August 07, 2019
Family Reunion Planning
Does your family get together for family reunions? My husband’s family does. Every other year the clan gathers and a key part of the planning revolves around activities. We usually have a set schedule of what happens when. It’s part tradition and part common sense planning. My guest today is one organized woman. She’s the editor of Reunions Magazine/ While genealogists think in terms of family reunions there are a whole lot of different types of reunions from class reunions to military gatherings. She’ll share tips and techniques to make your reunion a success. Use the links in the show notes to find resources to help you plan one for your group. **About My Guest:** Edith Wagner is founder, publisher and editor of Reunions magazine and reunionsmag.com. She is author of Reunions Workbook and The Family Reunion Sourcebook (1999, Lowell House/McGraw Hill, Los Angeles CA). She has been a speaker about the business of reunions for convention and visitors bureaus and about reunion planning for workshops and conventions. She also visits and writes about reunion destinations. She has been a national spokesperson for KFC, Hebrew National Foods, the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) and Lifetime Furniture Co. She spent many summers making media appearances talking about reunions, reunion trends and tips to motivate more people to think about and plan reunions. She has appeared on dozens of local TV and radio shows all over the country and on the Today Show, Later Today, CBS Morning, Good Morning America, Home and Garden, CNN, NPR, Heloise and Christian Radio. She has done web chats for AARP and the Washington Post and podcasts for others and on www.reunionsmag.com . Edith was a social worker for 18 years in Los Angeles, California, Kansas City, Missouri, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, followed by about 11 years doing specialty public relations and promotions for small businesses and non-profits. She lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,with two goofy cats and loves to walk, swim, read, cook (and eat, of course), travel, renovate houses and spend as much time as humanly possible with her six great grand niblings. Related Episodes: Episode 39 : Finding Identity and Connections in Family Photos Episode 28: Charting Your Family History Links Book a Photo Detective Roadshow Learn more about reunions at Reunions Magazine . How one reunion lines up for the group picture. Watch my <a href='http
Wed, July 31, 2019
Scan My Photos
Scanning photos can be tedious work especially when you're digitizing slides. Imagine that there was a service that could do it for you. I'm not advocating sending out your original 19th century photos for scanning but there no reason why you couldn't use a service for late 20th snapshots and for all those slides. That's where ScanMyPhotos.com comes in. My guest today is Mitch Goldstone. He is co-founder and CEO of ScanMyPhotos.com which has professionally preserved 600 million happy memories, family milestones, and special events for its customers since 1990. Mitch is a well-known leader in the photo imaging and tech industry who is regularly profiled by the national news media for his innovations and advocacy issues. We chatted about scanning. Everything from how it works to their super fast turnaround. Mitch and I had some photo related ideas for your family reunion. It's the perfect event for photo identification gathering. You can read a review of Scan My Photos here . Note: I do not have an affiliate relationship with Scan My Photos. Related Episode: Episode 34: Sharing Photos Online Links and Resources: Scan My Photos website. Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos at https://www.facebook.com/MaureenPhotoDetective/ . Sign up for my newsletter. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs online course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Jo
Wed, July 24, 2019
Women Patriots with Mary Tedesco of the Genealogy Roadshow
You probably know Mary Tedesco from The Genealogy Roadshow, a popular PBS genealogy based program that aired from 2013 to 2016. But did you know that Mary is also very involved with the Daughters of the American Revolution and is passionate to get more women patriots recognized by the organization. Women patriots? You’re probably wondering if that’s possible. It is. One woman, Elizabeth Caldwell Gillam of South Carolina Her photo appears in my Last Muster Series. I talked about her in episode 47 You'll find the link in the show notes. We discussed how our female ancestors can become recognized patriots. How to prove their contributions and how Mary was able to organize the Hannah Winthrop Chapter of the DAR. About My Guest: Mary Tedesco is a professional genealogist, speaker, author, and co-Host on the PBS television series “Genealogy Roadshow.” She is the Founder of ORIGINS ITALY, a genealogical reseating company specializing in Italian genealogy and heritage travel to Italy. Mary is a proud member of the Daughters of the America Revolution (DAR) and serves as the National Chair of the Service to America Committee, Massachusetts State Organizing Secretary, and Organizing Regent of the Hannah Winthrop Chapter in Boston, MA. Mary can be contacted at www.originsitaly.com. Related Episodes: Episode 47: Women of the Revolution Links and Resources: Information about becoming a DAR member The DAR's Genealogical Research System Diary Sheds Light On Deborah Sampson The Last Muster: Images of the American Revolution Watch my YouTube Channel Like the Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos. Sign up for my newsletter. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course. Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs online course. Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation. About Maureen Taylor:
Wed, July 17, 2019
Finding Images of Your Ancestors
Finding a Home for the Hollenbergs Internet Archive National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections Catalog of American Portraits The Art of Family Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos at https://www.facebook.com/MaureenPhotoDetective/ . Sign up for my newsletter. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs online course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . <a rel="
Wed, July 10, 2019
Women of the Revolution
What were your revolutionary era female ancestors doing during the war? Our foremothers played crucial roles during the Revolutionary War. They followed their men folk caring for them daily. They kept businesses solvent and farms functioning while their men were away. Most of their contributions are unknown because so many women didn’t speak of their service. Some even raised up the musket. There are 27 women included in The Last Muster series. I mention three in this podcast ...a recognized patriot, a woman who chose sides and one who married a veteran. Perhaps you can help me find more. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Related episode: The Last Muster Journey Learn more about the Revolutionary Trio films . Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos at https://www.facebook.com/MaureenPhotoDetective/ . Sign up for my newsletter. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs online course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to di
Wed, July 03, 2019
Benson Lossing - Revolutionary Traveler
This episode is about one of my historical heroes.--Benson Lossing, who wrote a travelogue of the American Revolution, 75 years after the Battle of Lexington and Concord. It’s possible to follow in his footsteps even today. I did it and you can too. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Want to follow in Benson Lossing's footsteps you can read his book here . Learn more about the Revolutionary Trio films . Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos at https://www.facebook.com/MaureenPhotoDetective/ . Sign up for my newsletter Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs online course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . <a rel="payment" href="https://www.patreon.com/photodete
Wed, June 26, 2019
Vintage Wedding Planning & Photo Clues
Today's brides wanting a vintage wedding piece together historical details for every aspect of the wedding ceremony and reception. Their inspiration might be a family photo or a family story. In this episode, I discuss wedding planning tips and how they might just help you read the clues in your older family photos. The history of weddings can lead you to uncover a new family story. One picture at a time. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living, Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel, American Spirit, and The New York Times. Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com Watch how Vivid-Pix Restore turned my photos from dingy to fantastic. Click here . Want to make a Vintage Wedding Dress? You can find patterns on Past Patterns.com Research old-time wedding traditions on the Internet Archive Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos at https://www.facebook.com/MaureenPhotoDetective/. Sign up for my newsletter Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course. Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs online course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on <a href="https://m
Wed, June 19, 2019
Vintage Wedding Photos
I have trouble leaving wedding photos in antique shops and so does my guest, Charlotte Sibtain. I love meeting other people passionate about photos. Charlotte is a London based researcher who has a hobby—collecting twentieth-century wedding photos. Her Instagram #Vintageweddingphotos feed features some of the images she’s rediscovered. In this episode We talk about wedding photos, how she started collecting, a reunion that will make you teary and more. Watch a clip from 7 Brides for 7 Brothers Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos at https://www.facebook.com/MaureenPhotoDetective/ . Sign up for my newsletter Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs online course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Wed, June 12, 2019
Wedding Day Photo Clues
June is for weddings and graduations but sometimes the photo clues get mixed up. In this episode, I'm talking about wedding pictures and how to sort out the evidence. White dresses don't always signify a wedding sometimes it's a graduation dress and in other cases, it's just a summer dress. If the clues in the picture match what you know about an ancestral couple, you might have picture proof of their marriage even if you can't find the marriage record. Wedding dresses from 1900 to 1920 on Victoriana.com Amy Johnson Crow's article: Finding all your ancestor's marriage records. Related podcast: Episode 36: Visual Face Recognition.com Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos at https://www.facebook.com/MaureenPhotoDetective/ . Sign up for my newsletter Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs online course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Wed, June 05, 2019
Episode 42: Scott Fisher of Extreme Genes
Scott Fisher, host of Extreme Genes shares his search for a photo and how patience paid off. You won't believe the twists and turns in this story. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at https://maureentaylor.com . Learn more about Extreme Genes Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos at https://www.facebook.com/MaureenPhotoDetective/ . Sign up for my newsletter Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs online course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Wed, May 29, 2019
Episode 41: Revolution Place: Where Kids Learn History
The Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia has a new educational space. It mirrors the neighborhood that once occupied the spot where the museum stands. While at the Museum, I was given a tour of their new educational space, Revolution Place which is on the lower level of the museum. Curator Mark Turdo spoke with me about this exciting new space for children to learn about the Revolution and the hands-on experience incorporated there. He also told me stories of how children interact with the core exhibition space. Later that day, Adrienne Whaley Senior Manager of K-12 Education showed me one of the interactive computer displays. It depicts the neighborhood around the museum on a period map. One of my favorite parts of the Museum other than the memorial wall depicting images of Last Muster individuals is Washington’s tent. Mark shared some details. Learn more about the Museum of the American Revolution Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos at https://www.facebook.com/MaureenPhotoDetective/ . Sign up for my newsletter Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs online course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Tue, May 21, 2019
Episode 40: The Dead Pixels Society
Ever wonder where the business of photography is going? That's the premise of this podcast. Find out why genealogists and image makers are facing the same struggles with managing their pictures. It's a word that begins with an M. The Dead Pixels Society, formed in 2009, provides news and information to businesses in the photo imaging area. My guest, Gary Pageau, is principal of InfoCircle LLC, a marketing communications company for photo/imaging businesses. The Dead Pixels Society is one of his projects. About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living , Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel , American Spirit, and The New York Times . Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at https://maureentaylor.com . Learn more about The Dead Pixels Society Watch my YouTube Channel. Like the Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos at https://www.facebook.com/MaureenPhotoDetective/ . Sign up for my newsletter Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course . Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs online course . Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation . I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on <a href="https://maureentaylor.com/product/photo-consultation-
Wed, May 08, 2019
Finding Identity and Connection in Your Family Photographs
Today’s podcast is special. A year ago the folks at Rootstech asked me to present a Ted Style talk at the conference. Of course, I said yes. These short-form talks are very popular on YouTube and at Live Tedx events. Our photographs reveal so much about our ancestors and provide us with new insights into ourselves. I worked with an amazing coach to put it together. Carol Cox of Speaking Your Brand helps individuals refine their message. I LOVE her podcast. There is a link in the show notes. While on the podcast you can’t see me in action. You’ll be able to see my slides and hear my message on my Photo Detectove YouTube channel. It’s about how our photographs give us a sense of identity and connection. Really! If you want to know more about your family photographs, ask me. My personal photo consults reveal new and sometimes surprising information about your ancestors. I look at all the details in your pictures and in your family history. One of my clients now knows where her family photo was taken. Bavaria. She doesn’t know who they are yet, BUT there are clues in the family history. I give each of my clients homework. A task list of research avenues to explore. And you get a recording to listen to later. Click here https://maureentaylor.com/store/photo-consultation/to learn how we can work together. Find out more about Carol Cox at Speaking Your Brand.https://www.speakingyourbrand.com Watch my YouTube Channe l here. Like the Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos at https://www.facebook.com/MaureenPhotoDetective/. Sign up for my newsletter at https://maureentaylor.com/newsletter-signup/ Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course. https://maureentaylor.com/store/photo-organizing-essentials-video-course/ Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs online course. enter link description here https://maureentaylor.com/store/identifying-family-photographs/ Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation https://maureentaylor.com/store/photo-consultation/ I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Wed, April 24, 2019
The Last Muster Journey
This episode focuses on my Last Muster project. Almost two decades ago I started looking for images of individuals who lived during the American Revolution and into the age of photography after 1839. It’s been an amazing journey. Two volumes with a third in the works, two museum exhibits (one permanent at the Museum of the American Revolution) and three films. Thank you for joining me on this journey. It may seem surprising, many members of that generation survived into the age of photography, making it possible to look directly into the faces of individuals who lived that history. By searching through databases, museum holdings, and private collections, I have uncovered and authenticated over 200 photographs of men, women, and children of the Revolutionary era.” The hunt for images is ongoing. There are too few images of women who tended the home front, accompanied their men into war, or married these men later. I’m still hoping for portraits of tories and of men who were contracted to serve such as the Hessians. Surely a few pictures of British men who served in the Colonies exist someplace. I need your help. You might have an image of a Revolutionary War participant and not know it. Some of these individuals were famous in their communities for being the last living link to the war but others were barely recognized. Type of Photograph Look for these types of images: Daguerreotypes (1839 to 1860s): The first photographs, daguerreotypes have reflective surfaces. You must hold the photos at an angle to see their images. Daguerreotypes are often found in cases. Ambrotypes (invented in 1854): Often placed in cases because of their fragility, these glass images are backed with dark material. Tintypes or ferrotypes (invented in 1856): This third type of cased image is produced on thin sheets of iron. Cartes de visite (CDVs) (introduced in 1854): Inspired by 19th-century visiting cards, these small paper prints usually measured 2×4 inches. Age of Subject Are the people in your pictures old enough to be part of the Revolutionary War generation? Patriots, soldiers, and loyalist adults: Anyone who was an adult during the American Revolution would have been at least 80 years old by the advent of photography. Children : Anyone who was a child during the American Revolution would have been in his late 50s or older when he had his picture taken. Wives and widows : The last surviving widow of a Revolutionary soldier died in 1906! Esther Sumner married Noah Damon when she was 21 and he was 75. Finding pictures of wives and widows means looking at pictures taken between 1840 and the early 1900s. The Films Pam and I will be on the road for the next couple of
Wed, April 17, 2019
What's New With Vivid-Pix Restore?
The Vivid-Pix Restore fix just got even better. A new patented process makes their picture improvement add new depth to your pictures. Randy Fredlund is back on the show to talk about his most recent patent and how the whole patent process works. Sign up for my newsletter at https://maureentaylor.com/. Links: Get a free trial by clicking this link: https://vivid-pix.com/RESTORE?pop_code=3pdPix Related podcast: A Vivid-Pix Redux https://maureentaylor.com/a-vivid-pix-redux/ Like the Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos at https://www.facebook.com/MaureenPhotoDetective/. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course.https://maureentaylor.com/store/photo-organizing-essentials-video-course/ Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs online course. https://maureentaylor.com/store/identifying-family-photographs/ Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation. https://maureentaylor.com/store/photo-consultation/ Subscribe to the podcast and leave a review! I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Wed, April 10, 2019
Visual Face Recognition
Ever wish you could use facial recognition software to compare your photos? Bob Schmitt created Visual Face Recognition to compare images. It's cool! One of his first projects was helping Las Vegas casinos catch card-counting MIT students using facial recognition technology Links: Sign up for my newsletter:https://maureentaylor.com/newsletter-signup/ Like the Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos at https://www.facebook.com/MaureenPhotoDetective/. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course.https://maureentaylor.com/store/photo-organizing-essentials-video-course/ Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs online course. https://maureentaylor.com/store/identifying-family-photographs/ Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation. https://maureentaylor.com/store/photo-consultation/ Subscribe to the podcast and leave a review! I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Wed, April 03, 2019
My Family Resemblance
A single photo of her grandmother Fannie inspired Rachael Rifkin's work. She focuses on bridging the gap between generations, cultures, and backgrounds by concentrating on our similarities and listening to each other's stories. Sign up for my newsletter at https://maureentaylor.com/. Links: Show Notes: Learn more about Rachel's images https://www.huffpost.com/entry/family-resemblance_b_6466714 Rachel Rifkin's website https://www.rachaelrifkin.com Like the Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos at https://www.facebook.com/MaureenPhotoDetective/. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course.https://maureentaylor.com/store/photo-organizing-essentials-video-course/ Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs online course. https://maureentaylor.com/store/identifying-family-photographs/ Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation. https://maureentaylor.com/store/photo-consultation/ Don't miss out. My free newsletter is full of tips: https://maureentaylor.com/newsletter-signup/ Subscribe to the podcast and leave a review! I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Thu, March 28, 2019
Sharing Photos Online
In this episode, I'm talking about sharing your photos online. Old photos and new ones. You won't believe what's a "thing" on Instagram and how our photos figure into developments in facial recognition. Sign up for my newsletter at https://maureentaylor.com/. Links: Show notes at https://maureentaylor.com/spring-cleaning-your-photos/ Like the Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos at https://www.facebook.com/MaureenPhotoDetective/. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course.https://maureentaylor.com/store/photo-organizing-essentials-video-course/ Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs online course. https://maureentaylor.com/store/identifying-family-photographs/ Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation. https://maureentaylor.com/store/photo-consultation/ Don't miss out. My free newsletter is full of tips: https://maureentaylor.com/newsletter-signup/ Subscribe to the podcast and leave a review! I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Wed, March 20, 2019
Spring Cleaning Your Photos
Kondoizing is good for your clothes but not for your heirloom photos. But what is a person to do? This episode offers tips for tackling your images, from digital overload to ancestral images. What to do and how to share and store them. Sign up for my newsletter at https://maureentaylor.com/. Links: Show notes at https://maureentaylor.com/spring-cleaning-your-photos/ Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos at https://www.facebook.com/MaureenPhotoDetective/. Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course.https://maureentaylor.com/store/photo-organizing-essentials-video-course/ Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs online course. https://maureentaylor.com/store/identifying-family-photographs/ Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation. https://maureentaylor.com/store/photo-consultation/ Don't miss out. My free newsletter is full of tips: https://maureentaylor.com/newsletter-signup/ Subscribe to the podcast and leave a review! I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Fri, February 22, 2019
The Man Behind Dead Fred
Joe Bott is passionate about reuniting pictures with families. That’s the premise behind DeadFred, the oldest photo reunion site. We talk about when and why Joe started Dead Fred, and we find out if there is a real Fred. Ways you can use the site: You can search for missing family photos by surname or place You can upload images for others to find You can research photographers Each image file contains all the information that the submitter has about the picture. Have you found one of your family photos on the site? It may be sent to you. Joe has a favorite photo reunion story. It’s a big one. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Fri, February 22, 2019
A Word War I Resource
My guest is James Morley, a UK based photo historians who’s created a very cool World War 1 resource called A Street Near You. What is A Street Near You? It explores the local legacy of the First World War. Photos of individuals who died in the war are pinned to a map with data. We discuss how he created the site, and how users can make the most of it. There are currently five sources from which the information is pulled: Lives of the First World War, The Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery, Imperial War Museum Collections, War Memorials Register and the Bond of Sacrifice. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Thu, February 14, 2019
Wedding Clues, Rootstech Tips
Rootstech is the largest genealogy conference in the U.S. if not the world. Seriously! This is one conference you have to prepare for, so in this episode I share tips: What to Wear How to Plan (Hint: Use the app) Sign up for the Virtual Pass Don't miss the Keynotes (or my two lectures) Visit the Exhibit Hall for bargains. Since this episode taped on Valentine's Day it's appropriate to talk about clues in wedding photos. You'll learn what clues hint at marriage and how to find out more. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Tue, January 29, 2019
Old Providence - Time Travel At Your Desk
I love my city. It now shows. I have a new website: https://oldpvd.com. It runs on https://chronocharts.com, an interactive web platform developed by GeneaLabs, bringing historical maps and photos together. Images of buildings are pinned to a historical map based on their date of construction. Historical information is available. You can add your knowledge of a marker in the comments too. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Sun, January 20, 2019
Charting Your Family History
Family tree charts have come a long way from the ones our nineteenth-century ancestors framed. Janet Horvoka of Family Chartmasters joins me to chat about charts. I guarantee after listening you'll want one. I know I do. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Thu, December 20, 2018
DNA And Your Photos
Raise your hand if you've taken a DNA test or given one to a family member. Joining me this week is Diahan Southard, Your DNA Guide. She's among the industry leaders teaching us about how to use DNA for family history research. You won't forget one of Diahan's lectures! I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Tue, December 18, 2018
Making The Last Muster Movie
It's true. Three of the profiles in The Last Muster series are now short documentary films, called A Trio of Revolutionary Voices. Pamela Pacelli Cooper, President of Verissima Productions and her husband Rob Cooper helped make this dream a reality. Your support of our Kickstarter campaign did too. Don't miss this episode of how we turned a non-fiction work into a film. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Sat, December 01, 2018
A VividPix Redux
Randy Fredlund of Vivid-Pix joined me to talk about imaging and how Vivid-pix works. He's the co-founder of the company. It's a magical product. Upload an image and take your pick of the enhanced version you like. You can tweak it further too. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Mon, November 19, 2018
Civil War Photo Sleuth
You won't believe what Civil War historian, Kurt Luther, has created. Civil War Photo Sleuth is a gathering place for images and information. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Tue, October 30, 2018
MemoryWeb
Christopher Desmond of MemoryWeb joined me for another episode of my podcast to share their big news. MemoryWeb is now available for Android's and for your desktop. They'll be rolling out improvements to these versions so that functionality will eventually match what's available through their IOS app. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Wed, October 24, 2018
The Literary Detective
A few weeks ago, I interviewed author Paul Collins, The Literary Detective, about his new book, Blood and Ivy: The 1849 Murder that Scandalized Harvard. It has a connection to a photo I found. Really! I'm a huge fan of his. Listen in and find out why. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Wed, October 24, 2018
The Gravestone Girls
Brenda of the Gravestone Girls was on recently to talk about all things relating to gravestones and their preservation work. We also chat about postmortem images. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Tue, October 16, 2018
VividPix
If you’re like me, then you have photographs or scans of documents that can use a little touch-up. Vivid-Pix’s Restore software makes that easy. No more complicated solutions. Upload a picture to the software and quickly correct color, contrast, and brightness. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Tue, August 21, 2018
GenerationStory App
A trip to the local outdoor flea market taught me a few things about how non-genealogists feel about pictures. Today my guest is Shannon Uschold of GenerationStory, a free iOS and desktop app to help you save the stories of family artifacts. She released the GenerationStory app in 2015. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Thu, August 02, 2018
Found Photos & My Unexpected Discovery
A story about one woman's photo discovery at Goodwill made the news. It made me think about the photo terminology you see online. What's a found photo? What's an orphan photo? I gave these questions a lot of thought and came up with an opinion. Listen in and let me know if you agree. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Thu, June 21, 2018
Stop Trashing Photos
My daughter's teary eyes at discovering a tossed photo were the inspiration for a recent blog post, "Let's Stop Trashing Family Photos". It struck a nerve with my readers too. My inbox and FB page were flooded with responses. Listen to their emails in this edition of The Photo Detective. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Fri, May 18, 2018
Finding Family on Ebay
Just about anything can be listed on eBay. In this episode of The Photo Detective, you'll learn how to search for family materials and how to set up an alert so you'll never miss a "lost" family item. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Fri, April 20, 2018
MemoryWeb
If you've ever wondered how to connect all your family photos with your genealogy, then you need to listen to this episode of The Photo Detective Podcast. My guest is Christopher Desmond of Memory Web . Memory Web syncs to Google Drive, Dropbox, Instagram, FamilySearch, Facebook, and Flickr making it easy to transfer your photos to the sites you're using to connect. A new desktop version is about to be released, too. He answers all of these questions as well as how to gather, edit, navigate, and edit photos using the app. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Tue, April 03, 2018
Finding Family Photos
https://player.vimeo.com/video/261036540 A listener, Deborah Stock, asked me to talk about how to find family photos. There are photos everywhere from genealogical databases, to books. There is no quick way to search for photos online. It takes time and methodology. Tips Try making a list for each ancestor. Where they lived? Where they worked? Their activities. Then search for pictures based on their lives. Start big: Images.google.com For instance, search for historical images of the town they lived in. Look for images of your ancestors in genealogy sites like FamilySearch , MyHeritage and Ancestry.com . You’ll have to search for them individually, or if you have an account on MyHeritage.com their photo discovery feature will find them for you. Did you watch my interview with Daniel Horowitz of MyHeritage? We took their discovery feature for a test drive. You can also search older books for images. Archive.org partnered with Flicker.com to share images. Not only can you find images, you’ll be able to link to the exact page in the publication to see the picture in context. Who knows what you’ll find? Photo Stories Have you watched my video about a photo of my maternal grandmother and her siblings? As the Photo Detective I thought I’d already examined this image so what I found surprised me. I’m starting a new series called: Outside the Frame . Watch my newsletter and blog for new tales. You can sign up for my newsletter via Facebook or my website. The Last Muster RootsTech was exhausting as usual, BUT it’s also exhilarating. I met so many people, looked at a lot of photos. Caroline Miles stopped by my booth. She looked at The Last Muster books of images of people who lived during the Revolution but lived long enough to be photographed. Hmm…she wondered out loud if her great great great grandmother was in one of them. She was! The smile on her face said it all. It was the first time she’d seen a photo of Elizabeth Gillam. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Tue, March 06, 2018
Ancestry Search Tips
In this episode of The Photo Detective, Julianna Szucs of Ancestry.com explains how to search this mega genealogy site. She covers general search strategies, global searches, category searches as well as how to find what you need in individual collections. My personal favorite tip is how to use three different types of wildcard searches. I guarantee this episode will change how you use Ancestry.com. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Sat, January 13, 2018
RootsTech 2018
Tara Bergeson of FamilySearch.org joined me to talk about RootsTech 2018. They have an outstanding line-up of events including a Wednesday night opening of the Expo Hall, a celebration of the Greatest Generation, and "My Family, Mi Herencia", a Luz de Las Naciones production on Saturday evening. The deadline for the Photo & Story Competition is now January 19, 2018. Old photos or new, it doesn't matter as long as you tell the story and then post it online through a blog or a social media site. Full details are on the Rootstech website. I hope you'll stop by my booth at the conference to say hello. On Family Discovery Day, I'll have a special handout for children in my booth. Thank you to RootsTech for providing my listeners with a coupon code worth $100 off the regular RootsTech registration. Use 18PHOTO when registering on rootstech.org. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Fri, December 01, 2017
My Heritage Photo Discoveries
Daniel Horowitz of MyHeritage was my guest this month. We did a demo of one of the really cool features of their instant discoveries option. You upload photos to your MyHeritage.com family tree website and then the matching happens. It sounds complicated and technical but follow along as Daniel and I discuss how to get the most out of your Premium Plus or Complete MyHeritage.com subscription. I love how easy it is to find new family photos in the collections of others who share some of your ancestors. The website does all the matching work, but to maximize your results tag your photos and collaborate on identifying the unknown people. Daniel offered some tips to make the magic happen. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Thu, November 09, 2017
Interview With Beth Forester of Animoto
I had the opportunity to interview Beth Forester of https://animoto.com where we discussed the power of video and family history. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Thu, November 09, 2017
Animoto
In this episode we take a look at how I use Animoto to create family history and house history videos. I give a live photo consult on a picture submitted by a viewer, then I discuss scanning tintypes. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Tue, September 26, 2017
Family History Videos
In this episode of Ask Maureen, Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective, shares: What do you see in a photo? Photo Preservation Tips Next Month I have a big surprise. A new class. It's in response to the survey many of my readers participated in. Listen in on Extreme Genes to a discussion on houses in photos and on their new Patreon site for a discussion of Reverse Genealogy and Photographs. Thank you for listening. Resources Schedule a Photo Consult with Maureen. Join Maureen on Instagram for photo identification and preservation tips. Extreme Genes and their new Patreon site with exclusive content. Next Episode The next episode of Ask Maureen will be on Thursday, 19 October 2017 at 1:00pm ET . Submit your photo organizing, photo ID, and genealogy questions to ask Maureen. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Mon, August 21, 2017
Google’s "We Wear Culture!"
In this episode of Ask Maureen, Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, shares information about a new resource from Google, in partnership with museums around the world, called We Wear Culture. It is an amazing resource dedicated to 3,000 years of world fashion. Then, as we prepare for the upcoming solar eclipse, Maureen shares a glimpse back to a 1923 Solar Eclipse and gives a few helpful tips on photographing eclipse events. And finally, a peek behind the curtain into the clues you can use to date your photos. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Fri, July 14, 2017
Orphan Photos
In this episode Maureen unravels threads of a complex photo mystery that involves two orphan photos taken nearly 50 years apart and newspaper clippings spanning 16 years all discovered together in one frame. She also weighs in on the recent Amelia Earhart photo mystery. If you are curious how a photo consult works, this episode of Ask Maureen provides a glimpse behind the curtain to see what Maureen can help you to discover. Amelia Earhart: the photo mystery that recently surfaced and how checking the archives at the source is an important step in the process Maureen's recent mention of an orphan photo taken by George Parlow encouraged another orphan photo enthusiast to share her recent find that included a Parlow photo and much much more. Maureen delves into how they are working to unravel the photo mystery. How newspaper archives can both unravel and deepen your photo mysteries. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Tue, June 20, 2017
Photo Tips & Tricks
In this episode of Ask Maureen, Maureen gives some great tips and points the way to some great resources, including some recent podcast appearances. What do you do with that box of photos with no names? How do you scan originals vs. slide copies? How should you deal with old black paper photo albums? Plus, you are invited to help The Photo Detective by participating in a survey about photo ID problems. Can you help? Instagram ~ Join Maureen on this social media site for Photo Detective Tips Photo Detective Tips ~ Family and Friends in photographs, and looking at backgrounds Spring Cleaning your Photo Collection with Scott Fisher on Extreme Genes Episode How I became the Photo Detective on Genealogy Guys Episode My family took slides of the old family photos ~ Do I scan from originals or use their slides to make copies? Do you throw out a box of old family group photos with no names? What to do with all those negatives of photos you saved? Black Paper albums ~ 3 tips on how to deal with them. Survey on your photo identification resources ~ what do you need to help you solve your photo mysteries? I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Fri, May 26, 2017
MetaData & Online Posting
Lantern Slides ~ What are they and what were they used for? And an example of lantern slides. Metadata - What is metadata? How do we use it for photo organizing and preserving family history? Keep a list of keywords Electronic properties Best practices and good behavior for posting and sharing photos online Watermarking photos Ethical photo sharing I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Mon, April 03, 2017
The Last Muster
After a dozen years of searching, there are still new photographs popping up. These men and women experienced the Revolutionary War period and lived long enough to be photographed. Do you have one in your collection? Listen in to learn more about The Last Muster project. How did this project start? How many photographs have I found? Were there any surprises along the way? Why aren't there more pictures from certain parts of the country? What's next? I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Thu, March 23, 2017
Answering Listener’s Questions
Ask Maureen Facebook Live events are your chance to ask your photo related questions. Think about your number one concern. Is it unidentified images? Preserving photos? Organizing them for the next generation? Or maybe you want to know more about sharing pictures. Go ahead and ask. I'm listening. You can submit your question here. Here are this month's answers to questions from followers. What's the difference between conservation and restoration? When do I need a professional? What is a "Cabinet Card"? How do I care for a tintype? How to search for photos on FamilySearch.org How to share photos of non-family members so they can find a loving home. I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Thu, March 02, 2017
Ask Maureen
What to do if you don't have very many old photos of your family? How can you find more photos from your ancestors? Orphan Photos ~ instant ancestors and how to start identifying the photographs even though they are not your ancestors. Tin Types ~ What to do first to identify them? How to put photos on to Ancestry.com and link it to a specific person? Photos on Fabric Locating more information about old Photography Studios I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
Mon, January 30, 2017
How I Became The Photo Detective
I held my first Facebook Live event on January 26th. In this episode, I answered some questions submitted by my readers. How did I get started as the Photo Detective? How do I tell two people apart in photos? Is it possible to identify a geographic location (state/nation) (with reasonable accuracy) based on clothing? A reader wrote: "My grandmother was wearing the same clothes styles/clothes in the 1970's as she did in the 1930's and 40's. How could the date of her photos be determined based on her wardrobe? Photo Albums—How to Read the Story How to downsize your collection I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations . Support the show
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