The Mystery of Unsmiling Faces: Exploring Old Photos and Family History

If you look at old photographs, whether in your own family’s album or in history books, you probably notice something striking: people rarely smiled. It wasn’t that they had nothing to be happy about or they never smiled throughout their day. Rather, smiling in old photos was unrealistic or frowned upon. From poor oral hygiene to long exposure times, people opted for that look of pensive stoicism so commonly associated with old photographs.

If you want to learn why people didn’t smile in old photos or more about those impassive faces peering back from yellowed photographs, Ancestry^® can help. Explore a range of picture collections from the 1800s to 2000s, such as the Oklahoma and Indian Territory photos from 1850 to 1930 or photos of World War I soldiers from 1917 to 1918. Peruse over 300,000 images within the U.S. Library of Congress Photo Collection, ranging from the 1840s to the 2000s. Each collection of photos offers a chance to travel through time for a glimpse of life during that period.

Exposure Times and Technical Limitations

More likely, the reason why people didn’t smile in old photos was due to the technical limitations at the time. The earliest photography required much longer exposure times than today’s instant point-and-shoot cameras that can pick up the image in a fraction of a second. Paired with the rarity of getting photographs taken, people likely wanted their photos to come out perfectly, which meant choosing a pose that they could hold for a while.

The earliest photograph types, known as daguerreotypes, didn’t print on paper. Rather, they were formed on sheets of glass or metal. While they could capture images with impressive details, they also required extensive time to create, as well as a trip to a studio that could facilitate the process.

Daguerreotypes were made by exposing silver-plated copper sheets to iodide to form a light-sensitive coat. By exposing the plate to light for any time up to 70 minutes, holding them over mercury vapors, and fixing them with a hypo solution, the image would be sealed into the surface of the plate. These earliest portraits wouldn’t fade but could tarnish over time.

Because these required extensive exposure time to get the shot and picked up even minute details with impressive accuracy, even the slightest movement would ruin the shot. Smiles are naturally difficult to hold for longer periods of time and often falter or cause small movements that would have spelled disaster for the shot. Because of this, people chose serious, almost stern expressions that were easier to hold. Smiling may not seem particularly strenuous, but it can be difficult to hold perfectly still while smiling for longer than a few seconds.

By the 1840s, the exposure time to take a photograph was around 20 seconds, during which any movement could still blur the photograph. In fact, the need for stillness was so vital that squirming children would sometimes be placed in restraints.

While paper negatives existed as early as 1853, they weren’t the typical go-to for photographers, used primarily for commercial purposes. However, they eventually grew in popularity, and by the onset of the Civil War, they became more widely used. 

People began using paper or glass negatives, which could be produced quicker but lacked the same nearly perfect precision created by daguerreotypes. However, these paper prints were also reproducible, which saw photography’s rise in popularity, especially commercially. By the end of the decade, paper became commonplace. Even as the time required to take a photo decreased, smiling still wasn’t the norm, so there had to be other factors at play.

Bad Teeth & Oral Hygiene

Some may think the reason people didn’t smile in photographs was due to bad teeth. Poor oral hygiene and a lack of access to dentists meant many people had unsightly teeth. 

People commonly had tooth decay, especially after sugar cane became a common part of daily diet. Though people cleaned their teeth with twigs, they didn’t have access to the dental care or oral hygiene products used today, leaving them vulnerable to cavities. It wasn’t uncommon for many historical figures, such as George Washington, to have teeth made of ivory, gold, or lead. 

In fact, it wasn’t until almost the mid-twentieth century that people started adapting regular oral hygiene habits in the United States. It was during this time that oral hygiene and personal appearance were linked together, and Americans started using the latest oral hygiene invention: the nylon toothbrush. 

Cultural Factors and Social Norms

When you smile, it’s a response to something. It’s not a constant expression that you hold in a conversation or while doing something. Because of this, there was a widespread idea that smiling in photographs paints an unrealistic picture since, more often than not, people didn’t have smiles on their faces. When people were portrayed with smiles in art, they were often either children, fools, or drunkards, labels most people didn’t want. There was a social stigma associated with smiling in photographs for this reason. 

Photographs, just like portraits, were not common occurrences in the 1800s. People may have only had one in a lifetime if they had one at all, and because of that, they wanted to be seen as respectable or serious. They were trying to create a formalized ideal of themselves rather than attempting to capture a moment in time. Keeping that stern expression was one way people believed they could do so. 

Another factor to consider was the novelty of the situation. Even when Kodak created the first mass-market camera in 1888, the idea of photography was still cutting-edge to most people. The only real frame of reference they had was painted portraits, where people often looked stern because they wouldn’t have been able to hold a smile for hours during the time it was taken. People often likened photography to painted portraits, adopting the serious expressions commonly seen.

Though the earliest photographs didn’t involve smiles, they still present an interesting snapshot of behavioral and social norms. 

When Did People Start to Smile in Photos? The Kodak Influence

It wasn’t until the 1920s that people considered smiling in photographs, and as the 1900s progressed, smiles became more commonplace. Part of this was the popularity of motion pictures, which represented a wide range of human emotions over a period of time rather than the still, once-in-a-lifetime representation provided by the earliest daguerreotypes. People could show their authentic selves in real-time and have that documented. As photographs became easier to obtain, documenting more than a single still shot was more accessible as well.

The introduction of Kodak’s handheld cameras in 1888 made photography more accessible to everyone. However, it wasn’t until the early 1900s that Kodak started pushing smiles. Ads began suggesting that people should use their cameras to capture snapshots of fun moments of day-to-day life. Cameras were becoming easier to operate as well. They were considered relatively affordable, allowing people to experiment more and bringing the idea of capturing a natural smile to the forefront of people’s minds.

If your family has a collection of photographs that spans generations, you may be able to spot some during this transitional phase with your relatives smiling. These can provide a brilliant peek into your family’s past, and you might even see a little of yourself in them.

Smiling in Modern-Day Photography

Today, people aren’t afraid to show their emotions to the camera. From smiling to crying or simply existing, people are willing to capture the whole human experience on film or, in the case of cell phones, on-screen. People document the genuine moments of happiness and their own self-expression without worrying the photograph they take will be their only documentation.

Though you may have heard stories about your distant relatives, seeing their likeness captured can create a new sense of connection and realness to their being. Each photograph reveals a snippet of your relative’s life, telling stories you may never have heard before and offering clues to who they were as a person.

Through Ancestry, you can explore your family’s visual history to find existing photos of your relatives, both smiling and non-smiling. Try exploring the U.S., Family Photo Collection or the collection of African American photos to view portraits from 1850 to 2000. Other photographs are available to browse, like the collection of Sears catalogs from 1896 to 1993, revealing insight into trends and advertisements as photography entered mainstream use. If you have or discover photos of your distant family members, share your discoveries and experiences by uploading them to your family tree with the Ancestry mobile app, or explore your family’s history by signing up for a free trial today. 

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Image 1: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kaiulani_wearing_lei_hulu_manu,_photograph_by_J._A._Gonsalves_or_Frank_Davey,_published_in_Hawaii_and_its_people;_the_land_of_rainbow_and_palm_(1899)_(14582033918).jpg
Image 2: https://www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryqueensland/8143495193