Several weeks ago I sent a message out to several lists asking for input from other readers concerning care and identification of old photographs. The response was overwhelming and I want to thank all of you for your responses. In response to several requests, I am sharing the information I received. Some of the information was sent to me directly and some was sent only to one or two lists so there may be some repetition of information already received. I have tried to put the information into a more condensed format. In addition, just this week my local genealogy and history library sponsored a lecture on care of old photographs. I am also including information from that lecture. ******** The following information was provided by several listers. It is rather long, but I include it verbatim because it contains some excellent background information. The entire article which contains additional information on Daguerreotypes, Calotypes, Ambrotypes, Revenue Stamps, Stereotypes and Wet Plate Prints, can be found at the following site. Although this is a commercial site, the information is certainly useful to the amateur genealogist. http://www.classyimage.com/picdate.htm DATING THE TINTYPES Introduction 1856 - 1860. The earliest tintypes were on heavy metal (0.017 inches thick) that was never again used. They are stamped "Neff's Melainotype Pat 19 Feb 56" along one edge. Many are found in gilt frames or in the leather or plastic (thermomolded) cases of the earliest ambrotypes. Size range from one-sixth plate to full plate. Civil War Period 1861 - 1865. Tintypes of this time are primarily one-sixth and one-fourth plate and are often datable by the Potter's Patent paper holders, adorned with patriotic stars and emblems, that were introduced during the period. After 1863 the paper holders were embossed rather than printed. Uncased tintypes have been found with canceled tax stamps adhered to the backs. The stamps date these photographs to the period of the Wartime Retail Tax Act, 1 Sept. 1864 to 1 Aug. 1866. Brown Period 1870 - 1885. In 1870 the Phoenix Plate Co. began making plates with a chocolate-tinted surface. They created a sensation among the photographers throughout the country, and the pictures made on the chocolate-tinted surface soon became the rage. During this period "rustic" photography also made its debut with its painted backgrounds, fake stones, wood fences and rural props. Neither the chocolate tint nor the rustic look are to be found in pre-1870 tintypes. Gem Period 1863 - 1890. Tiny portraits, 7/8 by 1 inch, or about the size of a small postage stamp, became available with the invention of the Wing multiplying cameras. They were popularized under the trade name Gem and the Gem Galleries offered the tiny likeness at what proved to be the lowest prices in studio history. Gem Galleries flourished until about 1890, at which time the invention of roll film and family cameras made possible larger images at modest cost. It was no longer necessary to visit a studio that specialized in the tiny likeness. Gem portraits were commonly stored in special albums with provision for a single portrait per page. Slightly larger versions also existed. Some Gems were cut to fit lockets, cufflinks, tie pins, rings and even garter clasps. Carnival Period 1875 - 1930. Itinerant photographers frequently brought the tintype to public gatherings, such as fairs and carnivals. They came equipped with painted backdrops of Niagara Falls, a beach, a boat, and other novelty props for comic portraits. Postmortems. In the nineteenth century it was common to request a photographer to make a deathbed portrait of a loved one. THE CABINET CARD (approx. 1866 - 1906). A card stock product, nearly four times the size of previous photographs on card stock. The larger size created new problems of photographic quality. Flaws that were not obvious in the smaller cards now became very visible. This gave rise to a new skill of photo retoucher. Success in retouching led to innovations in the darkroom and at the camera. Diffusion of the image reduced the need for retouching. This led to verbal skirmishes between photographers who insisted in "truth in photography". Opponents called retouching degenerating, demoralizing, and untruthful practices. Cabinet cards can be further dated by color of stock, borders, corners and size. QUICK DATING GUIDE TO CABINET CARDS The earliest American-made cabinet cards have been dated only to the post- Civil War period, beginning in 1866. Design and colors of these cards followed those of the cards of that time. Cabinet cards are rarely found after 1906. Card Colors: 1866 - 1880 White card stock of a light weight. 1880 - 1890 Different colors for face and back of mounts. 1882 - 1888 Face of buff, matte-finished, with a back of creamy-yellow, glossy. Borders: 1866 - 1880 Red or gold rules, single and double lines. 1884 - 1885 Wide gold borders. 1885 - 1892 Gold beveled edges. 1889 - 1896 Rounded corner rule of single line. 1890 - 1892 Metallic green or gold impressed border. 1896 Impressed outer border, without color. Corners: 1866 - 1880 Square, lightweight mount. 1880 - 1890 Square, heavy board with scalloped sides. -Photographs mounted on card stock- The most popular mount sizes were: Carte-de-visite 4 1/4" x 2 1/2" Cabinet card 6 1/2" x 4 1/2" Victoria 5" x 3 1/4" Promenade 7" x 4" Boudoir 8 1/2" x 5 1/4" Imperial 9 7/8" x 6 7/8" Panel 8 1/4" x 4" Stereograph 3" x 7" ******** That said, at the lecture I attended I also learned the following bits of information which I did not see in at the site listed above: * Newspapers were able to use photographs starting in the 1880s. Prior to that they used only woodblock type prints. * Color photoraphy was first introduced about 1935. * The first black and white Polaroid photos were introduced in 1947. * The first colour Polaroid photos came out in 1968. ******** Preserving Your Photos and Documents There were two particularly useful sites on this topic. They are: http://www.gcah.org/care.html which is an archival leaflet covering the handling and care of photographs; and. http://aboutimage.net/preserving.html which is a genealogists guide the the care and preservation of old, treasured family photographs. The basics are that photographs have two enemies: chemicals and the environment. Don't store your photos in attics or basements (unless it is a finished basement with a controlled temperature). They need a constant temperature such as that your own body finds comfortable. Ideally between 69 and 72 degrees. Don't expose your photos to light. If you want to display a particular photo, have a copy made of it and use the copy for display purposes. Light will destroy them. Colour photos are particularly susceptible to light deterioration. Get them out of any album that does not use acid free paper or acid free photo corners. But make sure when you do this, that you don't lose identifications if they are written next to the photo. Get them out of the sticky type albums (the "magnetic" stick type with the plastic sheet that lays over the photo. Again, make sure you do not lose the identifying data when you do this. Don't ever glue a photo into an album. If you have a photo that is glued into an old album, copy it and preserve the copy. Don't try to clean old tintypes. One suggestion was to call the Kodak Info Center at 1-800-242-2424 or a local museum. I would rather not try this. This is a job for a professional. The best suggestion was to copy them. (See copying below.) Tintypes: Sometimes the "dirty" appearance is due to dust or mildew inside the glass in the frame. Carefully remove from the frame and clean the glass. (There may be a problem with cleaners here so you might want to check before you do it.) If the tintype is not behind glass, any attempt to clean could damage it in some way. If you must frame them, don't use wood frames. Wood contains acid when can damage the photos. Stainless steel or aluminum is acceptable. Again, make sure all matting used is acid free and Ph balanced and that the glass protects the photo from ultra violet light. A good framer should be able to tell you if acid free materials are used and if the glass (or plexiglass) is ultra violet safe. It is best that the framed photo (or document) be sealed in back with paper to keep out air. Don't back your photos with cardboard. Don't stack photos directly on top of each other. They will eventually stick together. Don't ever staple them, paperclip them, or hold them together with rubber bands. Never store a piece of newspaper with a photo or old document. Newspaper is highly acidic and will eventually cause an image on whatever it is stored with. Newspaper will deteriorate. If you have an old newspaper article you wish to preserve, make a photocopy of it and preserve the photocopy. Newspaper stock was not designed to last and will eventually become brittle and crumble. Don't use ball point or felt tip pens to write names on photos. Pencil is acceptable but not ideal. There are special pens for this purpose that may be purchased from an achival supply company. The archival leaflet site listed above contains a number that you can call for a catalogue which sells archival supplies. I'm sure there are others, but this is the only one I have at this time. Supplies can also be bought through photography suppliers. Don't ever laminate photos or documents you wish to preserve. If you do have laminated photos, documents or newspaper articles, make copies of them and preserve properly. Don't ever roll photos into a tube for storage. They will eventually dry out and crack. The archival leaflet listed above details a process for humidifying and relaxing rolled up photos. Make copies of your photos and documents before they deteriorate and store the new copies properly. (See copying below.) Ordinary photocopy paper is normally acid free. However, to be sure, look for a statement that it is on the package. I use a multi system printer paper which I was pleased to see does state that it is acid free. Don't use recycled paper. It is acid. Do store photos and tintypes in acid free archival quality photo sleeves. These can be full page size or two, four or six photos to a page size. They can then be put into a notebook or hanging files and kept out of the light or they can be stacked and stored in special acid free archival boxes. The latter are available through catalogue suppliers or quality photo stores. If you store more than one photo back to back in a sleeve, be sure they do not touch one another. You can avoid this by putting a piece of acid free paper between the two photos. If you have a photo or document too large for a normal page size sleeve, you can encapsulate it. The main idea here is to preserve it by keeping the air out. Encapsulation is accomplished by placing the photo or document on a sheet of acid free Mylar, putting ordinary double sided tape about an inch beyond the the top and bottom edges of the photo or document, lifting the protective film over the tape and repeating the process about an inch from the side of the photo or document. The tape must overlap. Remove the protective film from the tape and place a second sheet of Mylar over the document. Trim outside the tape. Mylar can also be purchased via catalogue. IMPORTANT: Look for the words "safety film" on the edges of old negatives. Negatives prior to the 1940s were done on highly combustible film stock. Even later some photographers continued to use the combustible stock. These negatives have the potential to combust spontaneously and should be stored in acid free paper sleeves inside a fireproof box. These can be purchased at office supply stores as well as other places. Although spontaneous combustion is not likely, it is better to be safe than sorry. ******** Copying Old Photos and Documents There are several ways to do this. You can take them to a reputable professional photographer and have negatives made. You must then store the negatives properly. This is expensive if you have a lot of photos. I was told that the cost in my area (east coast) runs around $90 per photo. I had some done about 15 years ago and it was $75 at that time so I would guess this is figure is in the ballpark. If you do this, you may want to ask the photographer what experience he/she has had working with old photos. You may also want to ask if they do the work themselves or send it out. You can rephotograph them in black and white yourself with a mounted camera or ask a camera shop to recommend someone who does this work. This can be tricky if you don't know what you are doing. You can take them to a self operated photo copier and make the copies yourself. These are the Kodak Phtomaker Machines. I'm sure this varies with areas. In my area Wal-Mart and Kinko's both have self-operated machines that will allow you to make a print for about $6.00. At Wal-Mart you are pretty much on your own. The people at Kinko's will be glad to help you. You can make copies on a special copier that does colour and photos. I'm sure a lot of places have these. I have done them at Kinko's for $1.00 per copy. Make sure you ask for special photo paper. You can use a laser printer. This is something new to me but was one of the suggestions I received for copying tintypes. I was told that the laser printer will pull the picture out of the dark tintype because it bounces off the imprint on the back of the picture. The person who gave me this suggestion said that it worked with other photos of various types that have turned very dark and could no longer be seen. I have no personal experience with this method unless it is the same as one of the copies cited above. You can scan the photo yourself. Scanners are not particularly expensive and are a great addition to your computer if you don't already have one. This process does expose the photo to light, but only on a limited basis. After reading the material received, my husband scanned in my four tintypes and the cabinet photo with excellent results. Once scanned the originals can be stored, you can keep the photo in your computer with a backup disk and you can print copies on photo quality paper that can be purchased from various sources. If you have a lot of photos and don't have money to burn, this is probably the best method. It does require a bit of playing with the brightness and contrast but they do turn out great. There are various software programs for scanning. Some will allow you to clean up and remove blemishes, scratches, etc. Some will scan negatives and print them as finished photos. We used JPEG and it seemed to work well, however TIFF format was recommended as giving a higher quality product. WARNING: If you are copying a tintype with a curled edge, watch that it doesn't scratch the glass on your scanner. You can photograph with a digital camera. I've no experience with this but was told by one person that the method wasn't recommended unless you are only interested in viewing the image onscreen. The digital camera will not give the high resolution you can get from scanning. If you have a very large document, try a commercial copying firm. Call around. Places that do blueprints usually have extra large area copies. Once you have made copes, store them properly. One other site that has information on scanning was: http://www.scantips.com/ ******** Books The scantips site listed above also lists a book for sale that might be of use. I could not find the book anyplace other than that particular site but it may be available at local bookstores. Several other books that looked interesting were: "Dating Old Photographs 1840-1929, a Family Chronicle Publication" which gives history and examples of all photo types and sell (per the site) for $12. The site listed is: http://www.familychronicle.com/daphoto.htm "Uncovering Your Ancestry Through Family Photographs" by Maureen Taylor, published by Betterway Books, Cincinnati, OH, 2000. Sells for around $19. "An Ounce of Preservation" by Craig Tuttle. Sells for around $12 or $15. There are a lot of others out there; some quite expensive. Finally, another good suggestion was to surf the web looking for information. ASK JEEVES and GOOGLE were recommended. Again, I thank all of you who responded and hope this is as useful to you as it was to me. Gloria