Tintypes:
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tintype is a direct-image photograph on a
collodion-coated thin iron sheet that is coated
with a dark lacquer to appear as a positive
image. Also called ferrotype or melainotype.
It is sometimes housed in a special
case, but usually in a paper folder, mat or
unprotected. Gathering them together
in an album was a popular way of keeping them.
The metal base was durable, making
tintypes ideal for carrying around or mailing
to friends and family. The Henry Ford has over 600 tintypes
from the mid-1850s through the 1910s. The
images include occupational portraits, a few
outdoor scenes and many portraits of ordinary
Americans dressed in their best clothes.
The museum's collection also contains about
275 modern tintypes made from the 1930s to
the 1980s by Charles Tremear and other Tintypists
in the Greenfield Village Tintype Studio. |
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