the.com/tintype
a photograph etched onto metal that outlives everyone who posed for it
means A photograph made directly onto a thin sheet of lacquered or enameled metal, a popular and cheap form of portrait in the mid-to-late 19th century.
from From 'tin' plus 'type,' echoing earlier photographic terms like 'daguerreotype' and 'ambrotype.' The name is itself a bit of a misnomer: the plates were usually iron, not tin, blackened with lacquer or enamel. An early name was 'ferrotype,' from Latin 'ferrum' meaning iron — the more honest label, though 'tintype' is the one that stuck.
- not tin
- Actually made on iron, never tin
- civil war
- Soldiers mailed cheap tintypes home before dying
- backwards image
- Most tintypes show subjects mirror-reversed
- exposure pain
- Sitters froze still for several brutal seconds
- instant souvenir
- Carnivals sold them while you waited
civil war soldier portraits — millions of tintypes made 1856-1880 preserved images of union and confederate soldiers
mathew brady's collection — the pioneering civil war photographer created thousands of tintypes documenting 1861-1865