Short answer: A photo from 1900 to 1909 is usually black and white or brown-toned, either a studio portrait on a card mount or a small snapshot from a box camera such as the Kodak Brownie (1900). Look for very high collars, corseted silhouettes, hair piled up, postcard backs and a photographer's stamp.
Last updated: 2 November 2026. Every year on this page was checked against the museums, archives and photo-history sources listed at the bottom.
The 1900s are the decade in which photography left the studio. Cabinet cards and cartes de visite were still being made, but the Kodak Brownie, sold from 1900 for one dollar or five shillings, put a camera in ordinary hands. A family box from these years often holds both: formal portraits on stiff card and the first informal snapshots of a garden, a beach or a bicycle.
Formats and prints
- Studio portraits on card. Cabinet cards were made until about 1914 and cartes de visite until about 1910, but both were waning after 1900. A card mount with a studio name in gilt or embossed lettering is typical. See Cabinet cards and cartes de visite for the mounts in detail.
- Box-camera snapshots. The Brownie and similar cameras used roll film. The prints are small, usually contact prints the size of the negative, and often slightly soft. Outdoor scenes, people squinting into the sun and tilted horizons are signs of an amateur, which before 1900 was rare.
- Photo postcards. Photos printed on postcard stock, with a postcard back, arrived around 1903. They were made by studios and by amateurs.
- Blue and grey prints. A blue print is a cyanotype, a popular amateur process from about 1880 to 1920. A soft grey print with a matte surface may be a platinum print, used by studios from the 1880s to the 1920s.
Clothes and hair
Women's dress is the clearest clue. Early in the decade collars were very high, often boned lace reaching up to the jaw, and they lowered through the decade. Blouses were full at the front with lace and floral trimmings, skirts reached the floor, and hair was piled up high under wide hats. Corsets shaped the figure. From 1906 the Paris designer Paul Poiret dressed women without a corset, and towards 1910 the line became straighter and higher at the waist.
Men wore three-piece suits with very high stiff collars, bowler hats in town and straw boaters in summer. Moustaches were common. Young boys were often dressed in skirts or dresses, a custom that lasted until the early 1920s, so a "girl" in a 1900s photo may be a boy.
The back of the print
- Postcard backs. At first the whole back was for the address. Britain allowed the message and the address on the same side, with a dividing line, from 1902; the United States from 1907. An undivided back on a card sent in the United States points to before 1907.
- The paper name in the stamp box. Photo postcards often name the photographic paper in the box where the stamp goes. Velox appears from 1902 and AZO from 1904; an AZO box with four triangles pointing up is generally from 1907 to 1912.
- The studio. A photographer's name and address lead to a studio that was open only for certain years. For Belgium, the FOMU Directory of Belgian Photographers lists studios active up to 1914.
In the background
Horse-drawn carts, trams and bicycles are everywhere; cars are rare and boxy, without windscreens or roofs on many models. A car in a family photo from this decade is a strong hint of the later years or a well-off family. British soldiers wearing khaki rather than red coats point to after about 1903.
Quick checklist
- Card mount with a studio name, or a small snapshot from roll film?
- Collars: very high (early in the decade) or a little lower (later)?
- Postcard back: divided or undivided, and which paper name is in the stamp box?
- Blue tone (cyanotype) or a soft grey matte surface (platinum)?
- Any car, uniform or shop sign with a known date?
Try the free photo date tool
Not sure yet? The free photo date tool asks what you can see (the material, the colour, the edge, the back, a printed year) and turns your answers into a period, with the source behind each year. It needs no account and uploads nothing. For digital photos and scans, read when was this photo taken.
Once you know the year
Write the year in soft pencil on the back, and put it at the start of the file name when you scan it. Then hang it with its date in your palace: in The Memory Palace each photo gets its year, the people in it and the story that goes with it, in a room the family can walk through together. You can start your palace for free.
Date a photo from another decade
Next decade: The 1910s (1910 to 1919).
Start from the overview: when was this photo taken, or the seven general clues in how to tell when an old photo was taken. All guides on old photos:
- The 1910s (1910 to 1919)
- The 1920s (1920 to 1929)
- The 1930s (1930 to 1939)
- The 1940s (1940 to 1949)
- The 1950s (1950 to 1959)
- The 1960s (1960 to 1969)
- The 1970s (1970 to 1979)
- The 1980s (1980 to 1989)
- The 1990s (1990 to 1999)
- Cabinet cards and cartes de visite
- Polaroid and instant photos
- Slides: Kodachrome and Ektachrome
- Colour prints and negatives
Sources
- Kodak, Photography history (roll film 1889, Brownie 1900, Kodachrome 1935 and for 35 mm slides 1936, Kodacolor 1942, Carousel projector 1961, DC40 digital camera 1995): kodak.com/en/company/page/photography-history
- University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections (Nicolette Bromberg), Dating photographs by format and technology: content.lib.washington.edu/imls/kcsnapshots/documents/DatingPhotos.pdf
- National Library of Australia, Finding and dating photographs (formats, clothing and grooming by decade): library.gov.au/learn/adults/lifelong-learning/finding-and-dating-photographs
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Paul Poiret (1879 to 1944): metmuseum.org/essays/paul-poiret-1879-1944