Being a detective in photo dating means looking at more then the clothes people 
are wearing. Circumstances may dictate wearing wearing clothes longer then a stylish period. The same is true for hair styles and automobiles. You need to delve deeper! A good photo detective looks past the obvious.
Here is my wife’s Great Grandfather, Joe. On a lunch break. It’s a cabinet card so it could have been taken anytime from the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s. We need to pin it down more closely. Joe is wearing an apron saying Royal Lumber Company.
Knowing where Joe lived, a regional search showed only one Royal Lumber Company within a reasonable distance to his home. The company was formed in 1900.On the chair in front of Joe were two Blatz beer bottles. With research, I found these particular glass top stopper bottles were only used for a couple of years, 1904 to 1906. Joe was thirty two in 1905 so I feel confident in dating this photo between 1904 and 1906.
Looking at another example, there are lots of clues here. The ladies’ attire is early to mid-twenties. The automobile is a late-twenties style. The oldest the photo could be is from 1928 
or 1929. Digging deeper, we look at the license plate. The plate is an Iowa plate from 1929. In Iowa at this time the first two numbers signified the county. Seventeen meant from Chickasaw County.
The logo on the tire cover says Morf Motor Company, Fredericksburg, Ia. Research show Morf Motors was a local Fredericksburg company from the mid-1920s until the very early thirties. While the license plate dates the photo to be 1929 it is always nice to have additional facts that may not be obvious at first sight.
This photo is from a 5×7 inch glass negative I digitized. I know that this was taken by a woman in the late 1890’s or early 1900’s. Clues include early 1900’s styles. Also, electricity was installed around 1902. The telling clues are the entertainment in the shows. San Francisco’s Disaster was the earthquake of 1906 and the play The Roof Garden Tragedy refers to a murder that also took place in 1906. I added a year to take into account the time it would take to put these shows together, and I came up with 1908 as the year of this photo.
Look for little clues. The more clues you can confirm, the closer you will come to the actual date of the photo. Playing detective is part of the fun!
