Ancestry Magazine

Whether your ancestors were childhood photographers or favored subjects in snapshots, you’ll learn lots from the childhood photos in your family’s collections.

When an online photographic magazine asked its subscribers to relate their early experiences with photography, one woman remembered lying on the sidewalk and taking a picture of a snow-covered rose in May. Anthony Dean remembered how his father always gave him the camera whenever there was a special occasion. His father would say, “Go take pictures of everyone and be sneaky about it.”

Photography provides children with an outlet for creativity. As one thirteen-year-old explained, “If you are not good at drawing you can still express yourself through pictures.” Eleven-year-old Greg likes “being able to freeze time,” and fifteen-year-old Karina likes that she can “capture an important moment in your life and remember it and the people there forever.” Perhaps fourteen-year-old David says it best: “You look back on [photographs] and go, `Wow, that was great.’”

Children and photography are a natural combination. Taking pictures enriches children’s lives by empowering them through self-expression, at the same time enriching your family photograph albums and histories. Photography helps children develop a heightened sense of the world around them and the resulting photos will surprise and delight you with an open window into the perceptions and feelings of these budding photographers.

Historically, children were involved in photography in much the same way they are today-—as subjects and as photographers. Children not only sat for family and school portraits, they participated in the history of photography with handmade cameras and took pictures with manufactured models marketed to them.

A Brownie for a Dollar
Generations of kids have documented their lives by taking pictures of pets, loved ones, and friends for as far back as the first amateur cameras of the 1880s. In the first half-century of the development of photography, heavy cameras, dangerous chemicals, and complicated instructions kept children in front of the camera rather than behind the viewfinder. But the appeal of photography was too great, and kids were destined to become some of its biggest advocates.

Inventive children began to experiment with the new medium, making pinhole cameras (a simple box device with a hole and light-sensitive paper) and trying out contact printing (sun pictures). Children’s magazines and publications like the Handy Book for Boys offered instructions on building handmade cameras.

When George Eastman introduced the first Kodak camera in 1888, kids were given the practical opportunity they needed. The slogan “You Press the Button, We Do the Rest!” said it all. Picture-taking was now a simple click of the shutter. When they were first introduced, these cameras came loaded with film that could be reloaded only when the cameras were sent back to the factory for processing and film development. Nevertheless, these early Kodak cameras were a huge success.

In 1900, the introduction of the Kodak Brownie, which remained in production for eighty years, further inspired generations of children to follow their dreams of photography—taking candid photographs of their everyday lives. A revolution had begun.

The Brownie was a mass-market marvel and almost a quarter million of them sold in the first year. Kodak reached out to the untapped youth market in the United States and elsewhere, advertising a camera that “any school age boy and girl could easily operate.” It was especially suitable for children because of its simplicity, size, and price. It sold for a dollar, well within the means of any frugal child. The camera had a six-exposure film cartridge that could be loaded in daylight. Other snapshot cameras were available, but the Brownie’s price tag made it an instant success.

With the Brownie, children found a new creative outlet. They selected their subjects and props, and arranged their own photographic albums. Youngsters enthusiastically took the opportunity to photograph their world.

Twelve-year-old Ansel Adams was given a Brownie by his parents as a birthday present; the camera was used to take his first pictures of Half Dome in Yosemite. Kodak representatives taught the children of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia how to use the camera. Seventeen-year-old Bernice Palmer, a passenger on the Carpathia, captured the sinking of the Titanic with her Brownie. And child actors like Jane Withers, who starred in films in the 1930s and 40s, took their Brownies to the set to candidly photograph their famous co-stars.

Children in other countries were also taking pictures. In France, seven-year-old Jacques-Henri Lartique received a Gaumont camera in 1902 from his father. Later, Jacques wrote in his diary that “photography is something you learn to love very quickly.” H is childhood photographs were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City when he was seventy years old.

Early in the 1900s, educators grasped the importance of photography and began to use it in their classrooms. The September 1916 issue of School Arts Magazine featured an account of a photography project by eighth-grade students for a commencement-day presentation. The project, “Harmonies and Discords in Provo,” involved students from art and English classes who critically examined their neighborhood in a pictorial study. The usual graduation-day ceremony became a public meeting attended by local officials who gazed upon the photographic evidence of billboards and graffiti that marred the landscape of the community. Attendees listened to a student presentation on ways to improve conditions in the area. The success of the project led to the formation of the Kodak Club for pupils in grades 4—8, which was advised by teachers and professional photographers in the area.

Today, kids begin taking pictures at a young age—often with a digital camera. Digital photography is attractive to children because of its direct connection to computer technology, at which so many of them are naturally adept. Working with digital images, children have the capability to easily share and manipulate their creations.

Few classrooms are without a camera or two for documenting daily activities, science projects, and special trips. Most schools now incorporate pictures taken by students into their weekly newsletters.

In England, a cooperative venture led by the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, the University of Birmingham, and Kodak is exploring the pictures children take and how they use cameras. The “Children as Photographers” website features photographs taken by 180 children from five European countries. It shows the students’ comments about their photogra phs, and provides links for teachers. Visitors can search the selections by children’s age, country, subject matter, or gender. The website is a fascinating study of how children view their world.

Treasures in Snapshots
Illustrated genealogies often contain images of adults, but how many represent ancestral childhoods? If you look closely, you may find pictures taken by children in your collection that will enliven your family history. The challenge is to find these treasures among your own photographic collections, or among the collections of your relatives. You’ll find that formal portraits taken by professional photographers visually illustrate genealogical detail, but images taken by children capture the energy, excitement, spontaneity, and innocence of childhood.

Whether they snapped pictures playing with friends or took pictures for a class assignment, you’ll want to locate their efforts. These pictures are all part of your family history and will enrich it visually. Not every picture taken by a child will be in focus, but they will allow you to view family history through a child’s eyes.

Start by taking out your family photograph collection and re-examining each image for signs that they may have been taken by a child. Photographs taken by children have subtle differences such as camera angle (due to height), choice of subject, and photographic ability. Children (like adults) photograph the things in their lives that are important to them, such as other children in the neighborhood, their toys and belongings, their parents, and their pets.

You’ll also want to search the photographic collections of relatives and ask for their assistance in identifying your photos, when needed. When visiting relatives, bring copies of your family photos with you rather than originals to prevent loss or damage. Copies are easy to make by visiting a photo kiosk available in photo stores across the country. Leave the duplicates with your relatives to thank them for their time. Who knows? They might contact you later with some additional details they recalled when gazing at the picture a second time.

Ask older relatives to tell you about their first cameras. They’ll probably relate the story of the Brownie they received as a gift for a birthday or holiday. Then ask about the whereabouts of the photos they took as children. Your relatives might surprise you by pulling out a black paper album full of snapshots. If you can find these photos, you’ll be well on your way to unravelling whole new chapters of your family’s past—simply by using their photographs to jog memories of childhood events and people.

Turn this picture-hunting occasion into a family history opportunity by recording your elderly relatives’ reminiscences of their childhoods. Use oral history interviewing techniques to uncover the stories behind as many childhood pictures as possible.

As you would with any oral history interview, prepare by bringing recording equipment, such as a tape recorder or a video camera so that you’ll have a record of everything the interviewee says. If the photographs are owned by the relative you’re interviewing, you may even want to bring a digital or traditional film camera with a close-up lens so that you can make copies of the pictures to include in your family history and to consult later when you replay your recording.

As your relatives view their pictures, seek out answers to questions, such as:

Who is depicted in the image? You are looking for as much information as possible on each person depicted—names and nicknames as well as dates. This data will help with later research but will also give you context for many of the other photos you view. You will undoubtedly see many of the same individuals throughout the photo collection.

What do you know about this person/place/thing? Try to learn more about the individuals in the photographs. If you’re looking at a picture of a neighborhood, ask questions relevant to the image such as where it was taken. Images of playthings will generate different inquiries revolving around the importance of that object in their childhood.

Where did they live? This may seem like an obvious question, but it can encourage relatives to give details such as how the family shown in the photo once lived next door but then moved across country searching for work during the Depression years. You’ll end up with the full story of those people instead of a single statement.

How are they related to you? You’ll want to know how the individuals in the photographs are related to the person you’re interviewing or if they were just family friends. Regardless of who the individuals are, each story will add more context and breadth to the possibly sketchy details you have of your ancestors’ childhoods.

When and where was this picture taken? Few people can remember the exact year of a picture, but the image will likely trigger a memory of an event that happened before or after the photograph was taken. You’ll be surprised by the recollections sparked by a single picture. A relative could volunteer that he or she remembers taking a particular image when the family was on vacation, at a wedding, or just walking around the neighborhood. You may also hear details of the wedding or learn that the family always stopped off for ice cream during Sunday afternoon walks. In any case, one memory will lead to another and that information will provide the details you are seeking—and perhaps yield clues to a formidable brick wall in your family history.

Head Braces for Squirmy Children
During the early years of photography, taking a picture of a squirmy child was not easy, and with slow shutter speeds the r esult was often a blurry image.

Photographers often advertised their expertise at photographing children. Special devices such as head and waist braces kept children in their seat for the required amount of time, but many photographers also employed props such as toys to distract their young customers. Studios attracted business with ads that included “customer satisfaction guaranteed.”

Studios also published guides on how to take a good portrait. Among the parental instructions suggested by Coleman & Remington of Providence, Rhode Island, were to “avoid giving or mentioning sweets” to their children as well as to refrain from playing or fussing with their kids in the studio. Parental involvement was discouraged with the advice that “a child will sit best if left entirely to the (camera) operator.”

While your relatives are talking about the snapshots from their childhoods, ask them about the professional childhood portraits in the family albums as well. Their recollections of those moments will undoubtedly add to your collection of family history stories. For instance, one woman brought a group photograph with her when she visited her great-aunt just in case the woman could tell her who was in the picture. Imagine her surprise when the aunt remarked that she knew everyone in the image because they were her family! The aunt not only identified each of her siblings, but she recounted the whole story behind the picture as well. Her father had insisted that all the children dress up for a trip into the city for a family photograph. The aunt remembered that she was so excited about the photographer’s studio that she couldn’t sit still or look directly at the camera, which resulted in a less than ideal pose. In the portrait, she is looking up rather than forward.

Don’t overlook your own childhood contributions. If you have photographs you took as a child stored away, pull them out and study them. Write down your memor ies of the events and individuals represented and label the images with names and dates. Record your own childhood memories by asking yourself the same questions you used with relatives.

Encourage your children and grandchildren to become involved in photographing their family history. Photography is a fun and easy hobby that few people will hesitate to get involved in. And the past hundred years have proved that children and cameras are a natural match. Cameras introduce kids to the concept of the world around them, provide them with a chance to explore their lives, and allow them to document everyday family activities. They are a great introduction to the history of their family.

Books for Your Reference Library
Learn more about ancestral childhoods through portraits with America’s Children: Picturing Childhood from Early America to the Present by Kathleen Thompson and Hilary MacAustin (W. W. Norton, 2003). The authors explore the history of childhood through images and text. Robert Coles presents another historical overview in When They Were Young: A Photographic Retrospective of Childhood from the Library of Congress (Kales Press, 2002).

Maureen A. Taylor writes “Saving Family Treasures,” a monthly column that appears in the Ancestry Daily News, and is the author of Scrapbooking Your Family History (Betterway 2003) and Preserving Family Photographs (Betterway 2002).