Short answer: A photo from 1910 to 1919 is often a photo postcard or a studio portrait, black and white or sepia. Women wear long, narrow skirts that become shorter and plainer during the war; men are increasingly clean-shaven. Soldiers in uniform point to 1914 to 1918, and a divided postcard back is almost certain.
Last updated: 2 November 2026. Every year on this page was checked against the museums, archives and photo-history sources listed at the bottom.
In the 1910s the photo postcard was everywhere: a portrait from the studio, a view of the village, a soldier sending his picture home. At the same time women's fashion changed faster than in any decade before, which makes the clothes a good clock, as long as you remember that people in the countryside followed the city by a few years.
Formats and prints
- Photo postcards. A photo printed on postcard stock with a divided back is the typical format of the decade. The paper name in the stamp box (such as AZO, Velox or a local brand) can narrow the date further; an AZO box with four triangles pointing up is generally 1907 to 1912.
- Studio portraits. Cabinet cards were still made until about 1914, but the decade moved to plainer mounts and to card folders that open like a book.
- Notes on the negative. From 1914 Kodak's Autographic cameras let you write a note on the film through a small window in the back. A handwritten date or place in the margin of a negative, sometimes visible on the print, points to 1914 or later.
Clothes and hair
Around 1910 to 1914 women wore long, narrow skirts, sometimes so tight at the ankle that walking was hard, with long tunics over them and very wide hats. Paul Poiret had already freed fashion from the corset; the straight, high-waisted line is a 1910s look. During the war dresses became plainer and skirts rose above the ankle, and many women appear in work clothes or nursing uniforms.
For men, clean-shaven faces and short hair came back in this decade, and collars became softer and lower. Young boys could still be dressed in skirts until the early 1920s.
Uniforms and the war
A man in uniform is the strongest single clue. Many soldiers had a portrait taken before leaving or while on leave, and sent it home as a postcard. The uniform, cap badge and insignia identify the army and often the regiment, which a military museum or archive can date more precisely. Belgium, France, Britain and Germany were at war from 1914 to 1918; the Netherlands mobilised but stayed neutral, so Dutch uniforms from these years exist too.
In the background
Cars appear more often, though still rarely in ordinary family photos in Europe. The Ford Model T was built from 1908 to 1927, so it cannot date a photo to one decade, but it rules out anything before 1908. Shop signs, telegraph poles and street lighting can help with the place and the years.
Quick checklist
- Photo postcard with a divided back? Read the paper name in the stamp box.
- Skirts: long and narrow (early) or shorter and plainer (war years)?
- Men clean-shaven, collars softer?
- A uniform: which army, which badge?
- A handwritten note on the negative or the print margin (1914 or later)?
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
Previous decade: The 1900s (1900 to 1909). Next decade: The 1920s (1920 to 1929).
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 1900s (1900 to 1909)
- 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
- 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
- Museums Victoria Collections, Kodak Autographic camera (notes written on the film through a window in the back, from 1914): collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/395356
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Paul Poiret (1879 to 1944): metmuseum.org/essays/paul-poiret-1879-1944
- Ford Motor Company, The Model T (1908 to May 1927): corporate.ford.com/articles/history/the-model-t.html