I don't know about you but sometimes I give up investigating something and move on to something else when I'm not having very good luck. That is good in some cases as when you go back to your subject you see it from a fresh angle and may be able to discover something that was hidden before. Sometimes though, it pays off to keep hitting at it.

I've been trying to date a group picture of 16 young ladies with my great great Aunt in it. Each lady was numbered and on the back a name corresponded with the number. I wasn't sure, where it was  taken or anything else about it. I didn't even know she was in the picture til I scanned it in, enlarged it and saw on the backside she had Yours Truly listed as #16.  Also written on front were the initials CTC and a partial date of 19 and then the picture was cropped. :(

Since her family moved from Chicago to Detroit sometime between 1910 and 1920 it was a toss up as to what city it was taken in. I've spent 2 weeks looking at old buildings mainly chuches and schools of both areas. I was just ready to say I learned all I could (which wasn't much) when I tried one more thing. I found a picture of a building that matched the building in my picture on the American Memory website.. It was the Chicago Teaching College. I even found that Chicago had put in a short mass transit line from her old neighborhood to the college shortly before I estimate the picture was taken. So I discovered what city the picture was taken and that she attended a teaching college.It was well worth the time spent. :)

Here is the link to the American Memory website:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html