Figure 1.--This is an early English snapshot. Notice the white border. It is undated, but was probably taken aroud 1900. Notice the younger boy's blouse kilt suit. This was a fashion going out of style after the turn-of-the 20th century.

Taking photographs all changed fundamentally with the Kodak Brownie (1900). Of course that was in America. But we believe that Kodak began marketing the Brownie in England very soon after it was introduced in America. We assume that British companies began offering similar systems. With the Briownie or similar camera virtually anyone could now take a photograph. Any it took photography out of the studio. You could take a photograph virtully wherever you went. All you had to do was to point the ameral in the right direction and click the shutter. Than when all the exosures taken, mail the camera back to Kodak. It was virtually fool proof. The resulting prints subsequently varied in different ways which we can follow decacade by decade. Most American early prints were done in 3x5" postcard back prints. We are not sure how common that was in England. A major variant for many years was the white border found on many sanpshots. We see these in England from an early point. This was needed to keep the photographic paper flat during the printing process. Soon a range of didderentcameras wee developed. Andyoun could take your film to local shops. And as the century developed we see faster emulsions expanding when and where photographs could be taken. Flash bulbs allowed indoor photographs. The width of white margin prints help to date them. We see a medium width white margin on the previous page (1930s). Other indicators were the size and dimensions of the paper. The paper edging also caried with both smooth and serated edges. After World War II we begin to see some dates printed in the white margin. We begin to see color snapshots (1940s), but they were not common until much later (1970s). We begin to see more square prints (1950s). Color film was developed before World War II, but it was not very common until the mid-1970s.

Created: 7:17 PM 3/9/2019
Last updated: 6:39 AM 6/14/2019