Photo Detective with Maureen A. Taylor - Pets

The Photo Detective Has Flown the Coop

Maureen — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:26:48 GMT

I'm happy to report I'm in London at the Who Do You Think You Are? Live family history show. I'll be presenting a class on “More Than Scraps and Paste: Scrapbooks and Family History,” and I’ll be back next week with photos and details from this incredible three-day event.

Don’t forget to mark your calendar for the March 5 premiere date of the US version of the television show "Who Do You Think You Are?"

Thank you to Kathleen Conway for this bird photo! See our video For more readers' pictures of ancestral family pets.

Pets in the Family on YouTube

Maureen — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:13:17 GMT

It's not hard to believe that the three installments of this blog on ancestors' adorable pets were among the most read. After all, it's family history from a different perspective—pets in the family. Since this week is the Westminster Dog Show, I thought I'd try a different presentation method for the photos.

I've received a few more pictures for this album, but instead of posting them individually, I incorporated them into a video.

I'm going to tweak it some more and see if I can boost the quality. I produced it in high definition but uploading it to YouTube compressed the files resulting in some blurring.

Just in case you missed the series:

Pets in Pictures

An Album of Ancestors' Family Pets

Pet Photos: Our Ancestors Loved Their Dogs, Too!

I'd like to thank everyone who sent in pictures!

(For more genealogy videos, see the Family Tree Magazine YouTube channel.)

BTW—I have a new e-newsletter that lists my speaking schedule,and contains a link to the Photo Detective video podcast. It's absolutely free. Sign up is on my Web site.

Pets in Pictures

Maureen — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 19:07:59 GMT

For weeks the media have been focused on which breed of dog our new First Family would pick for their family pet. Turns out only two presidents have never had pets in the White House.

You can read all about famous presidential pets in this article on the Mental Floss blog, from Calvin Coolidge's pygmy hippo (no joke!) to Franklin Roosevelt's adorable terrier named Fala.

I'm bringing this series of pet photos to an end with these final three pictures. The two previous installments can be viewed on this blog: An Album of Ancestor's Pets and Pet Photos: Our Ancestor's Loved Their Dogs Too.

Carol Norwood sent in one of her favorite family pictures. It was taken in Gottingen, Germany in 1892 and shows the Agricola family. Agnes Agricola and Hermann Simon (Carol's great-grandparents) are seated in the center of the front row.

Claudia submitted a picture of her mother tending geese. She told me that her mother always said they would chase and bite her. She estimates this picture was taken circa 1933-1935.

One other reader sent an image for posting here. It depicts her grandfather's older sister Margaretha Petersen, known to the family as Maggie, with their pet dog. The dog's name wasn't recorded. Maggie was born in 1888. According to the submission, Maggie was the family "pet" herself, the only daughter until her sister was born in 1899.

The red discoloration is due to dye transferring from a paper sleeve to the image.

Anyone have a clue about the breed of this last dog?

Thank you for sharing all these pictures.

An Album of Ancestors' Family Pets

Maureen — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:46:12 GMT

Thank you to everyone who sent a photo of a pet in the family! This week, I'd like to share what was e-mailed to me. I'm so glad that each picture came with a story, too. This was a lot of fun!

Jim Musso wrote "First, this is my mom with her family's pet pig, Spud. Mom grew up on a farm in Sheboygan, Wis.; she was born in 1925, so this photo must be from the early 1930s."

He continued, "according to Mom, Spud would only eat from the hands of family members, and preferred standing on a chair with his front hooves while being fed. She recalls Spud walking under the kitchen table and carrying the table on his back as he walked away. My grandparents, Vincent and Hattie Fee, obviously liked animals.

In the foreground is the family's dog, Jigs, no doubt waiting for a morsel to fall his way. Jigs preferred travelling in a wheelbarrow, as can be seen in the second photo."

Bethany Klus wrote that the photo below is "a cabinet card-style photo from an album of photos taken in Alpena, Michigan from the late 1800s. Most of the photos are unlabeled, including the one I'm sending to you. The dog in my photo could be siblings with the one in the blog photo, they look that similar."

I have to agree that it definitely is a Terrier, possibly a Cairn Terrier although they tend to have darker fur (I'm a veterinarian when I'm not a genealogist!).

"The second photo," she added, "is my great-grandfather Royal Frederick Flock who was born in 1892 in Edenville, Mich. It was probably taken in the early 1920s when he lived in Detroit. With him is the pet cat."

Not all the pet pictures submitted show a real, live pet. Kathy Amoroso wrote that the photo below is, "my grandmother and her family. She's the one on the fake pig. They are in Germany in 1913 and this is from one of those postcard photos."

I'll be back next column with a couple more!

Pet Photos: Our Ancestors Loved Their Dogs, Too!

Maureen — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:22:29 GMT

This photo belongs to Lorie Zirbes. On the back is a simple caption, “Maude’s dog.” That signifies this charming pooch belonged to her great-aunt Maude Houser, who never had children. Houser married twice, was widowed young and died in 1902, when she was only 22.

Lorie asked, “Was it unusual to take a dog to a studio to be photographed?” The answer is no. The desire to have a lasting remembrance of the family pet is nothing new. It dates back all the way to the daguerreotypes of the early 1840s.

In the early 20th century, around the time Houser took her pooch to the studio, photographic magazines frequently published articles on how to photograph dogs.

For instance, photographer George Oliver advised studio owners that “in certain sporting or training districts the photographing of animals should prove as important an adjunct to the business as does the photographing of students in some college towns.”

Oliver spoke of his own business, “For a long time I have made quite a specialty of dogs, being rather fortunately situated in a district where there are not only many bird dogs, but where, in addition, many lady summer visitors bring their pet dogs." He added, "In studio work of the first class I find ladies the easiest to take, but the hardest to please."

Oliver’s technique for photographing dogs with their owners was to use a noiseless shutter, and enough light to reduce the exposure to a fraction of a second. For pet portraits without owners, he posed the dog on a table and used a treat to get it to stay still. This is likely the method used for the photo of Houser’s dog. It's alert, with mouth open and tongue out waiting for its reward.

Any photographer who wants to photograph a dog should follow Oliver’s advice, “Right here let me say that it is no use trying to photograph dogs unless you were born a friend of them. If you think that dogs are just ugly brutes, you will have about as much success as a surly misanthrope would have if he tried to photograph children—dogs know.”

You can read the rest of Oliver’s article “Photographing Dogs” in Wilson’s Photographic Magazine (volume L), 1913. It’s full of interesting tips that are still useful today.

A small volume, The Dog Album: Studio Portraits of Dogs and Their People (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $14.95) by Gary E. Eichhorn and Scott B. Jones is a fun collection of 19th century pictures of folks and their dogs. The authors say it’s difficult to tell the breed of dog in old photos due to the more generalized categories of dogs at teh time, rather than the specialized breeds common today. The American Kennel Club only dates back to 1884.

Anyone want to guess on the breed of dog in this picture? Post in the Comments section.

Do you have a picture of an ancestor's pet? E-mail it to me. I’d love to see it and feature it here next week. I think it’s too bad no one in the family included the name of Houser’s dog in the note on the back of the photo.