The American Tintype

The tintype was a uniquely American form of photography that reached the height of its popularity between 1861 and 1863. Also known as the melainotype and the ferrotype the tintype was developed in Gambier and Lancaster Ohio. Making a tintype involved reproducing a photographic image on very thin sheets of iron instead of glass; multiple tintypes could be produced at one time from a single sheet of iron. The tintype process was faster simpler cheaper and more durable than that of the daguerreotype. The characteristics of the tintype that led its critics to dismiss it as a serious art form are precisely the ones we find so appealing today. The men women children and dogs in these images look as though they lived real lives. The informality of the medium encouraged its subjects to relax so their poses are natural. We see details of hairstyles clothing and surroundings that are missing in the more formal daguerreotypes of the time. These wonderful tintypes provide us with a special appreciation of nineteenth-century American life that we are unlikely to encounter elsewhere. The American Tintype is the first comprehensive history of the subject. Most of the illustrations in this book are in the Floyd and Marion Rinhart Collection at The Ohio State University and are reproduced here for the first time. The text provides an accessible history of the tintype including an appendix that contains information about 400 American tintypists.