Many times, when we at the Digitization Centre are attempting to provide a date range for an image, we often rely on using details from within the image to make an estimate. One of the easier and more reliable details to watch out for are homes. The design of a house allows us to pattern match the home to a home style and locate the date range they were popular in to approximate the date that a photo was taken.
To give an example of how our metadata would appear, if we looked at a photo of a Victorian home, we could estimate that our image would have been taken no earlier than 1886, and so we would write: [not before 1886].
If there were other context clues in the image that could give us a range to when an image most likely was taken, we would use a range of dates such that the metadata would be: [between 1886 and 1925?].
If we know the name of the photographer, we can find the years that they were actively producing photos in the area, further reducing possible years that the photo was taken.
The Vancouver Heritage Foundation has a housing style identification guide available on the web that we can reference our in-image house. Having said that, this method is far from perfect as many homes do not subscribe to any one style and may mix and match designs making it difficult to accurately identify a home to an era.
Here is a selection of early Vancouver house styles we’ve recently tried to identify in the Uno Langmann collection. Did we get these correct? What do you think?
Settler House
Victorian House
Victorian House
Queen Anne Revival house
Early Cottage House
Side-Gabled 1 ½ Storey Craftsman House
Edwardian House
Front-Gabled 1½ to 2½ Storey Craftsman
Arts and Crafts and/or Front-Gabled 1½ to 2½ Storey Craftsman. This house is difficult because of how large it was constructed and that it mixes features from both home styles.
Craftsman Bungalow-Arts and Crafts House Hybrid?
Edwardian House
Front-Gabled 1½ to 2½ Storey Craftsman House
