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How to date a photo from the 1940s: wartime clothes, the New Look and the first colour prints

· 5 min read · The Memory Palace Team

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Short answer: A photo from 1940 to 1949 is usually black and white. Wartime clothes have square, padded shoulders and skirts just below the knee; from 1947 Dior's New Look brought a cinched waist and long, full skirts. Uniforms are common. Colour prints exist from 1942 but are rare and often faded to brown.

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 war divides the 1940s in two. Photos from 1940 to 1945 show uniforms, practical clothes and fewer occasions, and in occupied countries film and paper were hard to get. After 1945 come the weddings, the babies and, from 1947, a new silhouette that is easy to recognise.

Clothes and hair

In the war years women's clothes were practical: jackets and dresses with square, padded shoulders, skirts just below the knee, flat or wedge shoes, and headscarves or turbans over the hair. Hair was often rolled and pinned up at the front and sides. More women wore trousers for work.

In 1947 Christian Dior's first collection, soon called the New Look, brought rounded shoulders, a cinched waist and very full skirts well below the knee. A woman in that silhouette was photographed in 1947 or later, and the style ran on into the 1950s. Men wore uniforms in the war years and broad, double-breasted suits after it.

Formats and prints

  • Black and white snapshots. The great majority, often with a white border, sometimes with a wavy deckle edge (a mid-century style). Wartime prints can be small or printed on thin paper.
  • The first colour prints. Kodak announced Kodacolor, the first colour negative film for prints, in 1942. These early colour prints had very poor dye stability: today they often show a yellow stain in the whites and an image faded to brown.
  • Date stamps. From 1942 Kodak's photofinishing stamps on the back of colour prints showed the date of processing.
  • The first Polaroids. Polaroid's first instant camera, the Model 95, went on sale in 1948, and its first prints were sepia rather than black and white. See Polaroid and instant photos.
  • Slides. Kodachrome slides from the 1940s exist, and Ektachrome, which users could process themselves, appeared in 1946.

Uniforms, places and occasions

A uniform, a ration-era shop window, bomb damage or a liberation parade can date a photo to the year. For Belgium and the Netherlands, liberation photos fall between September 1944 and May 1945. After the war, demobilisation suits, weddings in borrowed or simple dresses, and many photos of babies point to 1945 to 1949.

Quick checklist

  • Square, padded shoulders and a knee-length skirt (war years)?
  • A small waist and a long, full skirt (1947 or later)?
  • A uniform, insignia or an event such as a liberation parade?
  • A colour print with yellow whites and brownish colours (1942 to early 1950s)?
  • A sepia instant print (Polaroid, 1948 to 1950)?

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 1930s (1930 to 1939). Next decade: The 1950s (1950 to 1959).

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:

Sources

Questions people ask

How can I tell if a photo is from the 1940s?

The clothes usually decide it. Square shoulders, knee-length skirts, headscarves and uniforms point to the war years. Rounded shoulders, a cinched waist and long, full skirts point to 1947 or later, after Dior's New Look. Most photos are black and white snapshots.

Why has my 1940s colour photo turned brown?

The first colour prints, made from Kodacolor film from 1942, had very poor dye stability. Over the decades the colours faded and the whites stained yellow, leaving a brownish image. It is typical of colour prints from the 1940s and early 1950s.

When did the New Look start?

Christian Dior showed his first collection in Paris in 1947. Its rounded shoulders, small waist and very full skirts became known as the New Look and shaped women's fashion into the 1950s.

Is a sepia instant photo very old?

Not necessarily. Polaroid's first instant prints, from 1948, were sepia; black and white instant film followed in 1950. A sepia peel-apart instant print is therefore usually from 1948 to about 1950.

When was this photo taken?

Reads the date taken from digital photos and says when only a file date is left. For paper photos and scans, a checklist with sources estimates the period.

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