The Changing Face of W.T. Stead (c.1871-1912)

Thanks to the amazing software at My Heritage, we can see here what an animated W.T. Stead (in colour) might have looked like through the years. The transitions are not perfect (Stead's contemporaries describe his hair and beard as red rather than brown, while his eyes were a notable light blue). And many of the surviving photos we have of Stead (even some of those published by his own family after his death) are wrongly dated. I have, therefore, arranged these animations in order of what I guess to be Stead's approximate age at the time of the photo. They range from the fresh-faced 22-year-old editor of The Northern Echo in Darlington to the aged, careworn figure that boarded the ill-fated Titanic.

© Owen Mulpetre 2021