I came across a box of tintypes. Apparently there is not really any tin in tintypes. It was a very early kind of photography, invented in the 1850’s, where a direct positive image is affixed on a sheet of metal by emulsion. They were the first “instamatics” — the process would only take a couple of minutes. Interestingly enough, it is possible to scan the tintypes and get a semblance of the image from the metal.
Here is a tintype of my greatgreatgrandfather and a tintype of his daughter, my greatgrandmother, Lucy.
Michael Harm, 1857
Lucy Harm
There’s also an ambrotype of Michael and his wife Elizabeth. The ambrotype was an image on glass. It didn’t stand the test of time as well as the tintypes, but here’s what’s left of the image:
