[AnnDroid]

I copied many photos onto my windows desktop to rename them. Then copied them back to the phone, without thinking I deleted the original named photos. The newly named photos all have today's date. How can I copy a photo to the phone preserving the original date? The ones on the desktop still show the original date.

[SpookDroid]

The 'original' date is still there, but it's in the EXIF information of the picture. The FILE, however, will keep whatever date you created/modified it. If you want to see the pictures in order of the original 'taken' date, you'd need a Gallery app that can sort through EXIF data. Unfortuantely, I don't know of any.

[GSDer]

How can I copy a photo to the phone preserving the original date?

Don't rename them. When you rename the file that modifies it, which causes the date to change.