From Dick Eastman's Newsletter...

The Last Muster

Did you know that many of the men and women of the American Revolution sat for photographs in the mid-nineteenth century? These Revolutionary War veterans were old men and women by the time photography was invented. However, it is believed that many of them had their photographs taken. As elders and as veterans, it was a sign of respect to record their images. Now Maureen Taylor is looking for those pictures.

Maureen has been mentioned in this newsletter many times (see http://tinyurl.com/2mmw3n). She is known as a photography expert, specializing in identifying and restoring very old photographs. She is the author of Uncovering Your Ancestry Through Family Photographs, second edition (Family Tree Books, 2005), Preserving Your Family Photographs (Betterway, 2001) and Scrapbooking Your Family History (Betterway, 2003).

Maureen writes,

"It'll take an army of volunteers to find all the members of the Revolutionary War generation that had their picture taken. We need your help! If you own or know of a photograph of an individual who served in the American Revolution, was born during the War, or who was married to a soldier, please let us know. Your assistance is needed."

A full description of her project and several articles can be found at http://www.maureentaylor.com/projects.html.

Maureen has also started a blog that describes her efforts, details newly discovered items, and also gives a lot of great information. For instance, one recent article describes the differences between Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Tintypes or ferrotypes, and cartes de visite (CDVs).

You can find this educational blog at http://www.lastmuster.blogspot.com.