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Old Photographs

Dating Old Photographs 1840-1929 is a set of books in the archives published by “A Family Chronicle” that I find very useful. Halvor Moorshead is the publisher and editor of these books.

An article by Andrew J. Morris tells me that the initial clue in dating a photograph is the process used in creating it. The earliest photographic images available were the Daguerreotype and the Talbotype. Daguerre’s invention was unveiled first, in France, in 1839. Talbot introduced his own process shortly afterward, but the two differed in several ways. Later called Calotypes, Talbot’s images were patented, but Daguerreotypes were produced “in the millions.”

Photographic paper was very thin in the 1800s, so prints were glued to cardboard mounts. The size of the mount more easily distinguishes the date than the various processes. The carte-de-visite and cabinet cards were popular at that time.

Ambrotypes were glass negatives with a black background, making the image appear positive, and were cased photos. They appeared in 1854, but lost popularity in the early 1860s when tintypes and card mounted prints replaced them.

The tintype came along in 1856 and was popular until about 1900. The image was produced on a thin metal plate. There was no need for a negative, so tintypes are unique. During the 1860s and ‘70s, tintypes were often placed in CDV (carte-de-visite) mounts.

These books also contain many pages of historical photographs. Dating photographs from clothing styles is another interesting facet of these books.

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