Dating Found Pictures

Sat, 08/06/2005 - 09:33 — deadprogrammer

Last weekend me and my wife were walking by Central Park when she spotted a small dirty paper rectangle on the ground. It was a picture of an infant with a dog. The picture could have been very old, circa late 19th century, but could have been as early as 60s or 70s.

We found another 6 photos, and they helped me date them a little bit. Here we have a Victorian grandma. I have a book called "Dating Old Photographs", and in it there are a few pictures of women wearing almost exactly the same dress around 1890-1900. Seeing how this is a paper photograph, and grandmas usually don't follow latest fashion, this is probably 1910s or 20s.

I like the composition and dynamics of this photo, which is rather rare in this genre of "grandma holding a baby in front of a house" pictures. Other pictures also hinted at the fact that the house in front of which the pictures were taken is a moderately sized Queen Anne style mansion.

The next picture also tells me that this is not the seventies.

I wonder how these pictures came about to be discarded on the New York City pavement. My guess is that the pictures fell out of the window of one of the highrises that line Central Park.

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