Basics on photos and images
Photographs can be a useful addition to illustrate any family history. They firstly need to be correctly identified, dated and described.
The means of capturing images have developed considerably over the past 160 years. A photo's appearance often allows the process used to be identified, which can indicate the period in which it was likely to have been taken. A film negative can also be useful, since its size can identify the type of film roll and even the type of camera, which can often narrow the range of likely dates.
Fashions also change, so a study of the clothing style of the persons in a photo can also be an aid to dating it. So, too, can the style of pose, studio backdrop and furniture etc play a part.
How SAG can help
Library
SAG's library contains several standard reference books concerned with the description of photographic images and the ways in which researchers can date them. For example:
- Dating family photos, 1850-1920 by Lenore Frost [SAG ref: A3/35/5]explores how to date photographs, firstly by the type of photo and secondly by the costume and poses of the subjects and the backgrounds against which they're photographed.
- The mechanical eye in Australia: photography 1841-1900 by Alan Davies and Peter Stanbury [SAG ref: A3/35/3] reproduces many images of significant Australian photographs and identifies the photo, the location, date, the subject and its source as well as providing background detail about it.
The latter also provides guidance on dating photographs based on the type of photograph and the costume. It also helpfully includes an alphabetical list of Australian professional photographers to 1900 and amateur photographers to 1880 which will help to date a photo if it carries the name of the photographer or studio.
Similar titles relating to photography overseas are also held in the SAG collection at 2/379 Kent, along with a number of books on fashion which may help date family photos. Search our online library catalogue for details of these.
Photo collections
SAG has an extensive collection of photographs, held within our Primary Records collection, including the Houison collection of lantern slides and glass plates. We also hold a microfiche index to the older negatives of the Sydney photographic studio Freeman & Co, which has operated in Sydney since the 1850s. The negatives themselves are held at Sydney's Mitchell Library.
Web-based resources
Picture Australia, which is operated by the National Library of Australia on behalf of archives, libraries and other repositories throughout Australia is an excellent place to start - you can search its online catalogue of over 1 million photographs by name, place or subject, and see digitised images of them.