Jump into History! Researching Images and Sitters with Internet Resources by Shayne Davidson, Rachel Wetzel, and Bill Becker

Speakers: Shayne Davidson, author, illustrator and genealogist; Rachel Wetzel, Conservator, Library of Congress; and Bill Becker, Director, American Museum of Photography (moderator) Artist and genealogy expert Shayne Davidson shows how to trace images and sitters using internet resources – including free sites that provide access to billions of historical records and documents. Conservator Rachel Wetzel of the Library of Congress reveals her methods of identifying sitters using various internet sources and historic literature, as part of the Robert Cornelius Project. She also covers how to make connections for discovering other unidentified works by makers of the same time and location, and where available, assembling and analyzing multiple images. Presented at the 2021 Daguerreian Symposium on October 17, 2021.