Archival Anecdotes: Smiles all around

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the lack of smiles in photographs from the earliest parts of the 20th century. It turns out the smiles that we expect in photos didn't come into fashion until the late 1930s.

While much of this had to do with changing cultural norms and improved dentistry, there is one theory about photogenic smiles that makes perfect sense­.  

People could buy a box camera f...