Imaging Software for Genealogy Projects
From Ancestry Magazine, Nov/Dec '96 pg. 7, HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPHY:
Identification and Preservation,by Diane VanSkiver Gagle
"The daguerreotype image produced on a highly polished, silvered
copperplate. The image will be difficult to see in certain positions.
While holding the cased photograph, move the case around at different
angles. If the image seems to disappear in certain positions, difficult
to discern, or has a mirror-like quality, then it probably a
daguerreotype. The daguerreotype has a very detailed image when compared
to other cased photographs. If you have determined that a cased
photograph a daguerreotype, then it was taken between 1840 and 1860."
The tintype or ferrotype 1854-1930A tintype easy to identify since it
metal, a thin sheet of black jappaned iron, coated with a collodion wet
plate emulsion. The resulting image was a reversed positive one. If
incased, use a magnet to identify the tintype. If image has a
chocolate-brown tone, it dates after 1870, also check props and clothing
for approximate date.
The ambrotype 1851-1880The beginning of the end for the
daguerreotype
becauseambrotypes were cheaper. The image was formed on a treated sheet
of glass and then backed with a dark, usually black, material. Sometimes
this was black paper, varnish, or velvet. Later in this period coral
glass, a deep red, backed the ambrotypes which gave them a rose-colored
appearance. Sometimes they were hand painted. Copies could not be made.
Therefore each was an original.