What is a tintype?
Tintype photography was patented in 1856 by Hamilton Smith, a professor of chemistry and physics at Kenyon College in Gambier. Recorded on a thin metal (not tin) plate, the relatively inexpensive, indestructible image could be mailed easily and many survive to this day. The image on the plate was actually reversed, something that many people did not immediately realize. With the durability of the photograph, many tintypists did quite a trade during the Civil War by visiting the encampments. Common tintypes were 2 ¼ X 3 ½ inches, but it was the size of the camera back that determined how large the image would actually be. Very small tintypes, about the size of a postage stamp, were called ‘Gem tintypes” and can sometimes be found in school photographic albums.
Most tintypes were varnished to protect the surface from abrasions and today many that were processed this way experience a cracking in the varnish coating. Also the way the tintypes were stored and handled has reduced the depth of the image to a flatter, duller finish on plates found today. Tintype photography made photography available to the working class, something that had only been available to the wealthy in the past. Tintypes were eventually replaced by gelatin emulsion dry plates in the 1880s and this continued into the 1950s.
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