American baby, tintype

J.S. Rankin, P.M.

Woman looking into mirror (1870)

Unidentified Photographer

DESCRIPTIVE TITLE: Portrait of a woman looking into mirror

ca. 1870
tintype with applied color
10.0 x 6.5 cm.
Museum Collection
GEH NEG: 3420
78:0829:0013
Via George Eastman House.

The Cheapness and Americanness of the Tintype

"We find that the word tintype was widely used from early on; and it is the only word generally recognized today. How did this come about? None of the literature, past or present, gives an adequate explanation for the misnomer. We can speculate that tintype derives from tinplate, the name of the thin iron sheet used by the tinsmith to construct his wares.
The manufacturers of ferrotype or tintype plates also used tinplate, coating it with black enamel and photographic emulsion. It was a short leap from tinplate to the alliterative tintype. I believe that tintype replaced ferrotype and melainotype because it is short and catchy, because it sounds American and cheap."

America and the Tintype
Steven Kasher
With essays by Geofffry Batchen & Karen Haltunen
ICP/STEIDL, 2008
ISBN 978-3-86521-686-1

Cloaked Attendants

Unidentified Invalid Girl with Woman and Cloaked Attendant

Unidentified Invalid Girl in Wheelchair with Cloaked Attendant


Zie ook MELINDA BARLOW : Saint Lucy

Kleinood