Wednesday, May 11, 2011

19th Century Paper Photographs: A Genealogist's Guide to Cartes de visite and Cabinet Cards.

Everyone knows that I love books. I don't care if they are books I pick up at the used bookstore or if they are ones I download to my eReader or iPad.  I just love reading. Like most genealogists, I also love old photographs. I've read with interest any book or magazine I can get my hands on about vintage photographs.

Recently, I had the opportunity to check out this new eBook about photographs, 19th Century Paper Photographs: A Genealogist's Guide to Cartes de visite and Cabinet Cards by Gary Clark of PhotoTree.com. Gary is currently showing his new book at #NGS 2011. If you are at NGS I would highly recommend you go check out his booth, PhotoTree and take a look at his latest book.

As a side note, I have always loved Gary's website PhotoTree and have  highly recommend it to others. In fact, prior to my knowing him I did recommend it  to people as a great place to learn more about dating photos that includes examples and a photo gallery. In case you are wondering,  Gary did give me a free copy of the book and I provided some feedback but I have been recommending Gary's website for quite a while.

This book is a great addition for any genealogist, historian or anyone else with an interest in vintage photos.  One of my favorite aspects of the book is the comprehensive look he takes at dating photos including what was available to photographers and their studios during various decades in the later 19th century.

The following is the press release about the above book:



 PhotoTree.com Announces New Book:
19th Century Paper Photographs
A Genealogist’s Guide to Cartes de visite and Cabinet Cards
New EPUB formatted book brings a unique approach and fresh information to 19th century photograph research.

CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA - May 10, 2011 – PhotoTree.com, a developer and publisher of genealogical research tools announced today a new book titled 19th Century Paper Photographs: A Genealogist’s Guide to Cartes de Visite and Cabinet Cards. This book, in EPUB® format for the iPad® and iPad 2 tablets, presents a fresh and comprehensive approach to researching and dating 19th century photographs.
By following the easy-to-use numbered clues, reviewing tables and checklists, and comparing images to their own, the genealogist can easily become an expert at dating old family photographs. This book – the first in a series – presents a unique way to benefit from over 220 high quality, documented images from the 1800s. Unlike many e-books that are merely PDF files of older printed works, 19th Century Paper Photographs was conceived and developed to take advantage of new electronic publishing capabilities.
“The new generation of tablets brings exciting features such as interactive images to e-book reading,” said Gary Clark, founder of PhotoTree.com. “We took the extra steps and time during development to create a new way for genealogists to look at old images and take advantage of advanced tablet capabilities and the native EPUB format,” he continued.
iPad tablets allow the reader to tap on an image, and enlarge it to the full window size. The reader can continue to enlarge the photo with two-finger movements. In addition, by simply rotating the iPad, the screen view will change from single page in portrait mode, to a two-page layout in landscape mode. Features of the EPUB format also include the ability to enlarge or reduce the text size, change fonts, and create bookmarks. The EPUB format is a nationally recognized standard for e-book development and is supported by leading publishers and e-reader manufacturers.
Along with taking advantage of the next generation of publishing capabilities, 19th Century Paper Photographs presents the most complete information source for dating old photographs. Gary Clark’s twenty years of collecting and researching 19th century photographs has yielded new datable evidence, providing the researcher with the knowledge to establish most photograph dates within two to six years of when the picture was made.

19th Century Paper Photographs is will be introduced at the National Genealogical Society conference in Charleston, SC on May 11, 2011. It will be available for purchase from the Apple® iTunes Store on May 18, 2011 for $16.95 (ISBN: 978-0-9835785-9-5). A free sample of the book, optimized for the iPad family of tablets, will also be available from the iTunes Store. E-book versions for additional tablet models including the Zoom from Motorola will be announced soon on the PhotoTree.com website. Paperback printed versions will be available Summer 2011.

About PhotoTree.com
PhotoTree.com provides products, services, and research tools to genealogists, photograph collectors, and historians that guide them through the process of dating 19th century photographs. Professional services include restoration and quality reproductions of 19th century photographs. New in 2011, PhotoTree.com is publishing a series of books that help the researcher identify and date their 19th century family photographs. Research tools include a web-based online gallery of more than 1,000 dated images in over 50 categories to compare with researchers’ undated family photos. This website includes an extensive history and description of 19th century photographs and is freely available to the public. More information is available at www.phototree.com.

Phototree.com is a trademark of PhotoTree.com. iPad is a registered trademark of Apple, Inc. EPUB is a registered trademark of the International Digital Publishing Forum.

Contact: Gary Clark
gary@phototree.com

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