For all who are asking, I've included more of the original article. This really a nice magazine. I've learned a lot from it. >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. _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]