1898 Gobbitt wedding in rural Suffolk, England

[Wiggy]

Now you mention the matter . . . .  I think you are both right. (not quite observant enough)  I hadn't thought of a veil.

Thank heavens for the poor woman!

[gobbitt]

There's a good photograph of a later American veil or face-net (which looks as though it would keep the hat on in a gale) at http://www.shorpy.com/node/10489.

I learn from the Cunningtons' Handbook of English Costume in the Nineteenth Century (3rd ed., 1970, pp. 564-5) that veils were worn with hats and bonnets throughout the 1890s: "The veil covered the face and was twisted under the chin. Made of net or chenille, often dotted with a pattern such as spiders' webs or plain with a fancy border."

Although it contains no photographs, that book is copiously illustrated and (unlike many recent publications) augmented by a comprehensive index. But, for those of us who don't have a photographic memory, even the best printed reference works will always be more cumbersome than an online photo library with a dedicated search facility through which appropriately tagged images could be retrieved in seconds.

I may be a dreamer, but I hope I'm not the only one to "think outside the books" and envisage such an application in the public domain, developed and sustained by the goodwill of an online community very much like RootsChat!

David

[Gadget]

One of our past members did start something like that but I can't find the ref to it at the moment.
I think it started as part of the resources section and then moved as it was getting rather large.

Gadget

Added - the Roger Vaughan pages were very good but moved from blueyonder to a Rootsweb hosted site and is still down.

[Gadget]

Had a thought, gobbitt ~

Over the 11 or so years that I've been here, there have been a vast number of photographs for dating. Now if someone were to go through all of them and sort them into a date order or such like, that would probably meet your needs.

 

[gobbitt]

Thanks for your thoughts, Gadget.

If someone with the requisite skills and time could identify or create a suitable framework or app (with multiple search options - not just lists of hyperlinks or thumbnails!) I think that would satisfy a great many of us.

Under the RC model, where images are submitted by members, I suppose the moderator(s) would have to check the search tags very carefully, unless everyone were allowed to add and amend them. The accuracy of dating would obviously be an important factor, perhaps requiring a system of grading dates, whether known exactly (e.g. wedding days) or within a particular year, or estimated (and on what basis). My preference would be to omit the latter category and focus on definite years.

Until that volunteer or team comes forward, we can still access Roger Vaughan's older work, no longer at blueyonder, but at least partially via his discontinued 2012 index page. Some of the last pages he uploaded before his death in 2015 ("the 2015 Main Site") have been captured by the Internet Archive, although many of the links are invalid, even when URLs are copied and pasted directly into the Wayback Machine.

Sadly, Prue's? RootsChat Collection of Victorian and Edwardian Portrait Photography is another casualty of RootsWeb's current security issue.

David

[Treetotal]

We are but a bunch of willing volunteers who over years of researching, restoring old photos and helping with online dating, we  have acquired a measure of knowledge based on information gathered either from our own or others dated photos, or online resources. As a Collector of old postcards, Carte de Visites and Cabinet cards I have, in common with others. Gained some knowledge, albeit it limited, on dating photos within a couple of years.
As dating photos is not an exact science, there will always be anomalies and room for error. Older people didn't keep up with fashion so dating by clothing can be hit and miss. Children often wore altered or handed down clothing will also create difficulties when trying to date a photo with any accuracy. Card stock too can be misleading as they are often still in use long after their sell by date.
Many people misguidedly believe that if a photo is in a family album, then it must be a family member, this misconception  is easy to understand, but people swapped and collected photos to add to their collection. I have a rhyme in a book that supports this theory which I will post at a later date.
All we can offer is a best guess on date of photo and age of sitters give or take a couple of years based on what we know of the fashion of the day which can, in most cases lead to posters being able to identify possible candidates.
Carol