Nell Walker was the speaker for the Rootseekers Genealogy Society at the Tri-County Library recently. Her topic was "Old Photographs."
Nell has two sons, David and John and a lovely husband Robert. She is Registrar of the Sarah Maples Daughters of the American Revolution and belongs to Colonial Dames, Dallas County Pioneers and Rootseekers.
The year 1839 is recognized as the beginning of photography. While many people were working on various techniques for nearly 30 years prior, the first commercially viable method was announced and published in Paris that year. Announcements appeared Jan. 7, 1839 in the local newspapers heralding the dawn of nothing less than a miracle.
This process was called Daguerrotype by Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre, a commercial artist and theater producer. He worked for 10 years to develop a method to capture images to a canvas by mere exposure to the desired scene. While similar research was being conducted by others in France and England, his method was the first that became commercially viable.
It probably didn't hurt that Daguerre was a promoter also. While realizing that maintaining financial control of the process would be nearly impossible once it was published, he persuaded the French government to grant him a pension for life in recognition of this breakthrough he was giving the world. The Daguerrotype photograph remained the dominate means of photography until the late 1850s. By this time, less expensive, easier to produce Ambrotypes became popular. Virtually all serious Daguerreotype photography ceased by the mid 1860s.
The Ambrotype was patented in 1854 by James Ambrose Cutting that produced a very attractive image on glass. It was made by coating a piece of glass with silver solution and exposing this to the image. The image is on the back of the glass and is sandwiched with another glass behind it. The back glass is coated with a black substance.
Care must be taken to not scratch the back, dark surface, as you will scratch away the photograph. Because the photograph is glass and very fragile, all Ambrotype pictures were mounted in a frame, usually brass, and then placed in a protective case.
Tintype appeared about 1856 and are usually more difficult to date. The tintype spanned a longer time frame than other photographic techniques, and it was not easy to write on the surface. Unless it was placed in a case, or a carte de visite sleeve, there was no supporting evidence of its origin. The tintype is also known as ferrotype. It was made of iron and no tin is used. It was introduced by Adolphe Alexandre Martin in 1853 and became instantly popular in the United States and Great Britain.
The Carte de Visite, the first pocket photographs, appeared in 1859. A Carte de Visite is a piece of thick board with a photograph mounted on it. They were much cheaper to buy than images from earlier processes of photography. They were also less delicate requiring no velvet lined cases, which made them ideal for mailing to friends in far away places.
The Cabinet Card appeared in 1863 in London by Windsor & Bridge and 1866 in America. It is a photographic print mounted on card stock. The cabinet card received its name from its suitability for display in parlors, especially in cabinets and was a popular medium for family portraits.
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Nell Walker recently gave the Rootseekers an overiew of the history of photography. Courtesy photo
Rootseekers learn about the history of photography
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