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Entry tags:
dating historical photographs
+ Women: easy. You almost always know exactly what decade they're in by the silhouette of their clothes. If you're still somehow unsure, hairstyles usually help you pin it down. Figuring out the decade is fun, actually.
[Caveat: the richer the woman, the easier it is to tell her decade. Really poor women are harder to date, though still easier than men.]
+ Men: middling. The hair/facial hair helps more than the clothes sometimes, as does any props (canes, hats, etc.) they might be holding. Also men's styles are in general much more boring, so it's not nearly as fun.
+ Children: difficult. If the clothes are closely modeled on adult fashion, dating girls is relatively easy. If they're wearing a basic white dress with a sash, it's a lot harder. Boys are always harder to date, especially if they're wearing a little suit. Aggravating.
+ Babies: IMPOSSIBLE. All babies between the invention of photography and the 1920s wore frilly little white nightgowns literally how am I supposed to even guess what decade this photograph was taken????? *headdesk headdesk headdesk*
[Caveat: the richer the woman, the easier it is to tell her decade. Really poor women are harder to date, though still easier than men.]
+ Men: middling. The hair/facial hair helps more than the clothes sometimes, as does any props (canes, hats, etc.) they might be holding. Also men's styles are in general much more boring, so it's not nearly as fun.
+ Children: difficult. If the clothes are closely modeled on adult fashion, dating girls is relatively easy. If they're wearing a basic white dress with a sash, it's a lot harder. Boys are always harder to date, especially if they're wearing a little suit. Aggravating.
+ Babies: IMPOSSIBLE. All babies between the invention of photography and the 1920s wore frilly little white nightgowns literally how am I supposed to even guess what decade this photograph was taken????? *headdesk headdesk headdesk*
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This tracks so much with like, real life :P
Also men's styles are in general much more boring, so it's not nearly as fun.
Their fashion used to have so much panache! Like, pre-19th century. Oh well.
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It's heartbreaking that it got boring before the invention of photography. I looooove 19th century fancy-dress photographs because seeing those Victorian dudes dressed up as, like, Casanova is so fun!
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XD I think the weirdest thing about old baby photos is that many feature ghost/hidden mothers, which is a bit creepy but at least they let us narrow down the date a bit!?
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...I have not heard of this before! What is it?
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