Maureen Taylor

Maureen Alice Taylor, born April 14, 1956, is a genealogist, author, and speaker in Providence, Rhode Island with expertise in genealogy, art history, costume history and cultural anthropology. She is a blogger, and author of many books and magazine articles. The Wall Street Journal named her the "nation's foremost historical photo detective." Education and career Taylor holds a B.A. and an M.A. in history from Rhode Island College. She discovered a portrait of Dorothy Catherine Draper from 1839, which she believes to be the first American family photo. She has been widely featured in US national print media and television, including The Today Show, The View, the Boston Globe and MSNBC. Taylor is the author of a guide to family history for children, Through the Eyes of Your Ancestors (Houghton Mifflin, 1999). Voice of Youth Advocacy named Through the Eyes of Your Ancestors to its best nonfiction list for 1999. "Taylor works with children as young as second grade to create simple family trees or charts. But give the kids a wealth of art supplies, she says, and kids will come up with their own creative expressions." Taylor worked for the Rhode Island Historical Society, The New England Historic Genealogical Society, and Houghton Mifflin. She is a former president of the Rhode Island Genealogical Society.