So what type of photos, the process used, existed during the Old West period. On one end of the time spectrum the process used created what is known as a "
tintype", also known as a "ferrotype". Most of all the Civil War photos you will find today are tintypes. They were a negative image produced on a thin iron plate. First introduced in 1856 and peaking between 1860-1863. The last tintypes contained in a case were produced around 1867. However, it is important to understand that today tintypes are once again being made by the thousands. Many are being created by reenactor photographers using antique camera equipment and following the same process as was used back in the day.
Prior to what many consider the beginning of the Old West period, just after the end of the Civil War, two other processes were used to make photos. The first being a Daguerreotype image and the other being an Ambrotype image.
The Daguerreotype images were produced on a silver-coated copper plate first introduced in 1839. This process peaked between 1852 & 1854. By 1860 the process had waned. In identifying a Daguerreotype it's important to remember the image was produced on a highly polished silver plate which exhibits a mirror-like finish. The image will exhibit a wide tonal range with rich blacks and bright whites unlike the lackluster ambro & tintypes. If you reflect a white piece of paper onto the surface the image will appear as a negative.
Ambrotypes, a negative image produced on a glass plate and viewed as a positive by placing the glass on a black backing. Ambros were introduced in 1854 and peaked between 1857 - 1859. The bast way to identify an Ambro is to remove it from the case. If the image is on glass it is an Ambro. If it's not glass it is not an Ambro.
So what about the height of the Old West period, say from the 1870's to the end of the 1880's. Well by then photography had entered the modern age and paper prints were being turned out all across the country, including the southwest.
Like all things, photographs made on paper took awhile to perfect. Calotype photos made as a positive image on salted paper were first introduced in 1841. Following the Calotype came the Albumen wet-plate print and from that the Albumenized paper print.
It is from these albumenized paper prints that many of the Old West period photographs come. In fact, from 1850 to the turn of the century millions of images were produced on albumenized paper by itinerant photographers traveling around the Southwest, by resident photographers and by amateur photographers using their store bought cameras.
There also existed the Carte De Viste, Cabinet Card and Stereograph photos. At the very end of the Old West period prints were made from silver bromide or silver chloride. Lastly, came the Carbon prints and the Platinum prints. In 1880 a man named George Eastman took his life savings and started manufacturing photographic plates and as they say, "the rest is history".
For more information of early period photographs look for a book titled, " Collector's Guide to Early Photographs", by O. Henry Mace c.1999.
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Old West photos.
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