Desperate & Dateless

Desperately seeking a date

Show your love for Picture Ipswich and date the Desperate & Dateless collection.  Can you figure out when these photos were taken?  

The images in this collection have come to us without confirmed dates.  When we date images at Picture Ipswich, we look for clues within the image, such as:

• who is in the photo (when were they born, what age do they look in the photo)
• fashion & hairstyles (also military uniform, sports uniforms, etc.)
• car makes, models & license plate numbers 
  • History of Personalised Plates [PPQ]
  • Vehicle Registration Plates of Queensland [Wikipedia]
• trains, buses and other modes of transportation
• telegraph & power poles
• events depicted in the image
• when a building was constructed
• streetscapes
• advertising and signage styles

 We also use clues from the photo itself:

• sepia, black & white, colour
• glass plate or negative, carte de visite or print (see Photographic Types timeline below)
• size of photo
• photographer or studio (see Photographers of Ipswich timeline below)
• writing on the back of the photo 

We then cross-reference this with other images in the collection and Trove searches. 

Once you think you have worked out the date, click on the Suggest an Edit button (located in the top left of this page, next to the navigation bar).  Find the date field and enter your estimate.  If you are not sure, you can provide an approximate (1920s) or use circa (c.1926).

All suggested edits will be moderated before inclusion on Picture Ipswich.