Nineteenth century photographs

The photographer who took this ambrotype is unknown, but almost certainly American. The process, which was invented about 1853, puts a thin positive image on a glass plate, and then mounts black paper behind the glass, which makes it visible. Although it is a very sharp image, most ambrotypes are grayish, with a limited tonal range (few or no highlights). The image is roughly actual size. Most ambrotypes were matted, framed and cased in an identical manner to daguerrotypes.

The photo with its dark backing is mounted in a gilded frame and inserted into a hard paper-maché case. There was usually a floral design embossed on the cover of the case, and one or two hooks to keep the cover closed. I believe this was taken between 1855 and 1863, when the tintype process became much more popular. Ambrotypes are still available and affordable (depending on the subject, of course), as collectors and curators seem to have little interest in them.

     
Portraits

This rather pretty young lady strikes a conventional studio pose. With her arm resting on the stool she would have no trouble holding that pose for the multiple seconds needed to make the exposure.

Although the photographer was obviously accomplished, there was a limited range of poses regarded as appropriate; once you have seen a few dozen ambrotypes or tintypes, you will have a very good idea of how portraitists of that period, and every town of any size seemed to have one, worked with their subjects. They were inexpensive so even a working class family could have pictures of all. It signified a remarkable social transformation; a generation earlier a portrait (in oil) would have marked an individual as gentry.

There must be tens of thousands of ambrotypes and tintypes that have survived, most of which were taken in the studio. I have seen hundreds, but only a few that show a building or a landscape.