“Winter presented special technical problems for Victorian-era photographers; their chemicals did not always behave properly in freezing temperatures, and processes of the day were unable to capture snowflakes in mid-air. So what the photographers could not accomplish in nature, they simulated indoors, under their studio skylights. From shortly after the Civil War until the end of the 19th century, these winter tableaux were made in cities large and small– for a public that never seemed to tire of donning cold weather garb for a portrait with faux snow.”

- The American Museum of Photography

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Thank you to The American Museum of Photography

‘This was a practice where the mother, often disguised or hiding, often under a spread, holds her baby tightly for the photographer to insure a sharply focused image.’

- The Hidden Mother

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Thank you to Memorias Perdidas and all the members of The Hidden Mother Flickr Group

‘The first artificially-created human clones date back to the 1860s. Clever photographers, ever on the watch for new ideas to boost business, developed several techniques to duplicate people — causing them to appear twice in the same photograph. Special plate-holders and rotating partial lens caps were among the devices used to expose half of the negative at a time. After the first exposure, the subject of the photograph would quickly move into a different position so the second half of the picture could be made.’

- The American Museum of Photography