Start with the whole photograph
A group photograph with no names still gives you somewhere to start. Look at the back, its page in the album and the pictures beside it. Keep any envelope, letter or loose note with it. Give the photo a reference number and record who supplied it, where the original is and who might recognise the people.
Photograph the album page as well as the print. Capture the reverse if you can do so safely; leave a firmly attached photograph in place. The US National Archives recommends a clean workspace and gloves for handling photographs and negatives to prevent fingerprint stains.[1]
If you have only a picture sent by a relative, ask whether it was cropped and whether they can photograph the edges and reverse. Note “front only; reverse not examined” rather than assuming there is no writing.
Separate what you see from what you suspect
Describe the scene in plain terms: how many people there are, who is seated, what is written on the doorway and which objects appear in the background. The Library of Congress uses observation, reflection and questions as prompts for looking at photographs.[2]
“Three people at a doorway” describes something you can point to. “Three brothers reunited at the family home” adds a relationship, place and occasion. Keep both kinds of note, but label the second as a possibility and explain why you think it fits.
Leave an unreadable word unresolved. A blurred shop sign should not become a furniture shop simply because that is what you are searching for. Save any enlarged detail alongside the full image so its position remains clear.
Ask who wrote the caption
“Grandma” on the back raises a question: whose grandma? Find out whether anyone recognises the handwriting and when it might have been added. If nobody knows, transcribe it as “Unsigned note on reverse: Grandma.” That is useful evidence without being a confirmed identity.
A date may refer to the sitting, printing, gift or a later album arrangement. A studio stamp may suggest a place, but its address needs checking against the studio’s history. Transcribe different hands separately when you cannot establish their order.
Keep crossed-out names too. They may record an earlier identification. If the front and back seem inconsistent, look for another photograph from the same batch or someone who knows the writer.
Use date clues to narrow a range
Clothes, hairstyles, cars and furniture can suggest a period, but a single detail rarely fixes a year. People kept wearing old clothes, furniture lasted and prints could be copied. Write down the range a clue might support and your reason for proposing it.
A shop sign, for example, gives you a business to look up in directories or newspaper advertisements. Finding it at an address in two years establishes those appearances, not that the shop existed for only two years. Keep track of the years you have checked.
For an unfamiliar uniform or photographic process, use a museum or archive description rather than an unlabelled lookalike online. Three details copied from one later caption still come from one source.
Worked example: who is holding the baby?
The people and documents in this example are fictional. A group portrait is captioned “A-Zhen’s first month.” Two relatives disagree about which aunt is holding the baby. Record both identifications, who offered each one and their reasons.
Holding a child does not establish motherhood. A second picture labelled “Second Aunt with A-Zhen” gives you a comparison, though its caption also needs an author. A letter sent with the photographs mentioning “my elder sister holding the baby” would add another clue to examine.
If the identity remains uncertain, say so: “A-Zhen’s first-month celebration; the person holding her has two possible identifications.” The occasion can be recorded while the name stays open.
Keep the original and a useful caption
Save an uncropped, unretouched file and make separate copies for viewing. The US National Archives advises keeping the physical original after digitisation and backing up digital files.[3] Note brightness or contrast adjustments. Reconstructed faces and added colour cannot establish what the missing details really looked like.
Use a stable number, such as Photo 023, with front and back files. Put names in the description so a changed identification does not require renaming every copy. When asking relatives, show the original image and describe positions from the viewer’s left.
A useful caption gives the scene, any identified people, a date or range, the person who supplied it and remaining questions. Add a supported detail, such as the photograph being sent with a letter, without inventing thoughts or dialogue. Keep that caption with both sides of the image.
Sources
Explore these institutions’ guidance and check collection coverage and original records.
- National Archives: Handling Family Papers and Photographswww.archives.gov
- Library of Congress: Analyzing Photographs and Printswww.loc.gov
- National Archives: Digitizing Family Papers and Photographswww.archives.gov