<p>This is a sampling of tintypes and cameras used to make tintypes from the Photographic History Collection. <br></p> <p>This sampling includes works by contemporary photographer Ed Drew, of Native Americans and military personnel. These works are copyrighted by Ed Drew.  </p> <p>This sampling includes tintypes that are cased and uncased, in paper mats, in album pages, in frames, and often just the tintype plate itself. Some are lightly colored and others heavily painted.</p> <p>Keywords: tintype, ferrotype, melaniotype, occupational portrait, portrait photography, studio photography, exterior portrait</p> <p>Note: For additional images search collections.si.edu. The Scovil Company, held by the Division of Work & Industry, holds a particularly interesting group of pins and buttons with photography of Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and others who ran for office. The Military History Collection also holds tintypes of soldiers and other military related themes.</p> <h2>Tintypes</h2> <p>The NMAH Photographic History Collection (PHC) has over 3000 tintype photographs dating from the beginnings of the process in 1856 to the present. ‘Tintype’ was coined and became the favored name.</p> <p>Tintypes in the PHC are found in albums, the Kaynor Union Case collection, and as individual photographs. The original tintype process patent was assigned to William and Peter Neff in 1856. William Neff died a short time later, but his son Peter, who named the process Melainotype, continued on with his work. The earliest tintypes in the PHC are a group of more than thirty Peter Neff Melainotypes, some of which date back to 1856 and contain notes written by Peter Neff. Shortly after the Melainotype, Victor Griswold introduced a very similar process on thinner, lighter iron plates and called them Ferrotypes. The PHC has tintypes ranging from rare large images between 5”x7” and 10”x12”down to small images cut to 6mm diameter to fit jewelry. The Melainotypes are between 1/6 plate and 4”x5” in size and many have indistinct images. There are also unexposed Melainotype plates including a pack of 1/6 plates and large whole-plates with four decorated oval borders that were designed to be cut into smaller quarter plates after exposure.</p> <p>The great majority of tintype photographs are studio portraits, including the very popular ‘Gem’ size (about ¾” x 1”). Almost every gem tintype in the PHC is an individual head and shoulders portraits, the only exceptions seen being a full length portrait and a head and shoulders portrait of a couple. Most of these gem portraits are in small gem albums designed to hold two to six gems per page. However, several gems are mounted on cartes-de-visite (CDV) size cards and set in specifically designed album pages. Some of these CDV mounted gems are in elaborate miniature frames attached to the card. The tintypes larger than gem size show a greater variety of subject matter, but still with a main focus on individual portraits, this is especially true of the smaller 1/16 and 1/9 plate images. The most common outdoor subjects noted are people standing in front of their homes and photographs of people proudly standing with, or sitting on, their horse or horses and buggy. One of the largest tintypes is a 9”x 7” outdoor view of a row of townhouses with a couple standing on one of the balconies. There is also an outdoor tintype of men fishing along with another of their days catch.</p> <p>One common subject in tintype photography, as noted in textbooks, is the civil war soldier. The durability of the tintype meant that photographs taken in the field could be sent home. However, this category of tintype is not well represented in the PHC, with less than thirty noted due to the fact that the majority of the Smithsonian’s Civil War tintypes are located mainly in the Military History Collection. Most of the PHC examples of Civil War tintypes are in the Kaynor collection of cased images.</p> <p>Some of the tintypes in the PHC are hand-colored. This coloring varies from light tinting of faces and hands to heavy overpainting that obscures the underlying tintype image. A number of tintypes, occupational views, depict people with the apparatus of their occupations. Some are posed studio shots and others appear to be photographs of people at their place of work. Among the occupational views are images of milk maids, doctor, grocery delivery man, weavers, fireman, ice delivery man, craftsman, cobbler, shoe shiners, mail carrier, surveyor, pipe liners, and other tintypes of people wearing work clothes and posing with tools. </p> <p><br></p>

<p>This is an assortment of photographs from the Photographic History Collection related to meals and eating.<br></p> <p>Additional photographs from the Photographic History Collection related to food can be found in Learning Lab collections Food, Eateries, Agriculture, and Kitchens. </p> <p>For additional images, search collections.si.edu.</p> <p>Keywords: Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, dinner table, kitchen table, taking tea, drinking coffee</p>

<p>This is a selection of works from the Photographic History Collection by Donald Mennie.<br></p> <p>For additional images, search collections.si.edu.</p> <p>Keywords: photogravure, China, architecture, sacred buildings, tombs, temple, palace, gates, memorials, farmers, wagons, commerce, tourism, gate, wall, sculpture, pack animals</p>

<p>The Erich Salomon Collection consists of two groups of gelatin silver prints from 1927-1943, totaling 140 prints. There is some duplication between the groups. Accession 2002.0258 was acquired in 1965 from Salomon’s son, Peter Hunter. These prints were made from Salomon’s original negatives. Accession 2002.0259 was acquired in 1965 from Magnum Photos. Subjects in the collection are mainly photographs of politicians, diplomats, business magnates, royalty; European and American.<br></p> <p>Keywords: photojournalism, journalism, visual culture, print history, media history, Holocaust victim<br><br></p> <p>Dr. Erich Salomon (1886-1944) was born to a prominent Jewish family in Berlin, Germany. He became a lawyer before the outbreak of World War I but was drafted into service. When he returned, his family had lost its fortune and he needed to work. Salomon became interested in photography and soon specialized in taking photographs where cameras were not allowed and without his subject’s knowledge.</p> <p>Salomon became famous in 1928 when his photographs from the Johann Hein murder trial in Coburg, Germany were published in the Berliner Illustrirte newspaper [see images PG*008164.42 and PG*008164.47]. From that point, Salomon became a freelance photographer, gaining admittance to even the most secure meetings and banquets. Salomon was labeled the first “candid cameraman” and called himself a bildjournalist, still the German word for “photojournalist.”</p> <p>Salomon first used the common journalist’s camera – a 13 x 18 cm Contessa Nettel – but it was too cumbersome for his purposes. He soon switched to the Ermanox, a small plate-loaded camera perfect for photographing in low lighting. Salomon mastered the technique and used it until 1932 when he traded it for the Leica.</p> <p>In 1933 Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. As Jews, Salomon and his family were forced to flee to Holland, his wife’s homeland, for protection. Based in The Hague, he had greater access to the political conferences but he also began taking photographs of cultural events, such as concerts. Salomon traveled to Britain and the United States as well. In 1943, while on the verge of immigrating to America, Salomon, his wife and one son were forced to go into hiding when the Nazis overtook Holland. They were eventually deported and died at the Auschwitz labor camp in July 1944.</p> <p>Salomon’s images survive to this day because of his foresight. In order to keep the negatives safe he hid them in three separate places in Holland during the war. The first group was placed in the Dutch Parliament library. The second, he buried in the chicken coup at a friend’s home. This group was critically damaged by the dampness, though many of the plates are still printable. The third was in the custody of son Peter Hunter. In 1952, the collection was consolidated in Amsterdam. Beginning in the 1950s, there were a number of exhibitions of his work, including a 1958 traveling exhibition which was acquired by the Smithsonian.</p> <p>For more images by Erich Salomon search collections.si.edu.</p> <p><br></p>

<p>This is a collection of photographs that were accidentally and intentionally exposed two or more times.<br></p> <p>For additional photographs, search collections.si.edu.</p> <p>Keywords: Double exposure, triple exposure, trick photography, manipulated photography, multiple exposure, accidental exposure, accidental photography</p>

<p>This is a collection of work by Lauren Greenfield from the Photographic History Collection. <br></p> <p>Copyright Lauren Greenfield.</p> <p>Keywords: women, girls, body image, body shaming, women's health, women's mental health, eating disorders</p>

<p>This collection is small selection of work by photographer Sally Bordwell and author Lesley Sussman. Together, they traveled with carnivals through the south in the early 1970s.  The collection includes contact sheet for the 35mm film negatives.<br></p> <p>For additional images, search collections.si.edu.</p> <p>Keywords, carnival, carnival games, midway games, carnies, carnival rides, traveling carnival, freak show, frog eater, tattooed lady, snake charmer, sideshow, clown</p>

<p>This is a collection of work by Bonnie Collier.<br></p> <p>Copyright Bonnie Collier</p> <p>Keywords: digital photography, landscape photography, manipulated photography, women photographer, combination photography, art photography</p>

<p>This is a selection of photogravures by Adolf Fassbender.<br></p> <p>For additional images, search collection.si.edu.</p> <p>Keywords: photomechanical, art photography, Pictorialism</p>

<p>This is an assortment of photographs from the Photographic History Collection broadly related to agriculture. The photographs seen here were created with a variety of formats and process, and for a variety of purposes by amateur and professional photographers.<br></p> <p>For additional related photographs, see Learning Lab collections Eateries, Kitchens, Food, and Meals and Eating.</p> <p>For additional images, search collections.si.edu.</p> <p>Keywords: barns, farms, crops, fields, plows, tractors, farmers, agriculture workers, horses, wagons, animal husbandry, cows, pigs, chickens, field hands, fences, hay, hay bale, hay stack, rakes, hoes, gardens, windmill, water trough, digging, orchard, ranch</p>

<p>This is a selection of photographs by Susana Raab.<br></p> <p>Copyright Susana Raab.</p> <p>Keywords: women photographers, color photography, documentary photography, state fair, food, Elvis, Pepsi, hot dog contest, Superman, drive through, wheelchair</p>

<p>This an assortment of photograph of Marilyn Monroe that are in the Photographic History Collection.<br></p> <p>Photographers include, Richard Avedon, Andre DeDienes, Milton H. Greene and Douglas Kirkland.</p> <p>Images may be copyrighted.</p> <p>For additional images, search collections.si.edu.</p> <p>Keywords: celebrity photography, fashion photography, Arthur Miller, fine art photography, digital photography</p>