Tintype Art

Nineteenth-century photographic process brought pictures to the masses

by LORNA CONDON, Senior Curator of Library and Archives and CAROLINE LITTLEWOOD, Local History Librarian, Watertown Public Library and cataloguer of the Diana Korzenik Collection of Painted Tintypes

SHE FOUND THEM AT flea markets and antiques shops. Painted tintype portraits of anonymous

Americans always caught Diana

Korzenik’s eye. Over the years, she amassed an impressive collection of more than 500 of the photographs.

What appealed to Korzenik was the tintype’s enormous diversity— of the makers, often unknown male and female photographers and colorists; of the sitters, who reflected all Americans; and the diversity of the finished products.

Korzenik was particularly interested in painted tintypes of groups, couples, and children, especially images of babies with “hidden mothers”— that is, with the adult presence concealed. Photographs illustrating the occupations of the sitters or their leisure activities also intrigued her. And the treatment of the surface of the image, whether heavily overpainted with oil or watercolor, tinted, highlighted, outlined, scratched, or solarized— fascinated her.

As an educator, author, and artist, Korzenik recognized the extraordinary power of tintypes to convey insights into the everyday lives of middle- and working-class

Americans in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She also understood that until fairly recently, tintypes had been largely overlooked and underappreciated as both art and critical historical documents.

She built the Diana Korzenik

Collection of Painted Tintypes to rectify that situation.

Tintypes, or ferrotypes or melainotypes as they were originally called, actually are not made of tin. They are unique direct positive images, laterally reversed, made on enamel-coated iron plates using the collodion process; they range in size from ¾ by 1 inch to 11 by 14 inches. Some have been so thickly overpainted with oil or watercolor that the original photographic image is obscured; others have only one or two pigments added to give color to faces or highlight jewelry or other items of adornment; still others are not colored at all. The Korzenik Collection includes largersize plates, many overpainted to compete with oil paintings.

These types of photographs were produced in the millions from the 1850s into the twentieth century, satisfying countless Americans’ efforts to record their lives in a variety of ways. Americans flocked to photographers’ studios and posed in front of painted backdrops or sought out itinerant practitioners who set up shop at seaside resorts, carnivals, amusement parks, and in rural areas. Because tintypes were more affordable, durable, and

page 18 This tintype portrait of a child was hand painted, giving it the look of traditional painted portraiture. above This young man posed in front of a painted outdoor backdrop for his tintype portrait. His cheeks were painted to effect a rosy glow.

above These images show how tintypes might either be heavily or minimally overpainted. below Hand coloring was added to accentuate the eyes of this little girl, who is holding a fan, which was a standard photographic prop. The corners of unframed tintypes were frequently rounded to eliminate bends caused in production.

faster to produce than daguerreotypes, people felt more at ease when they posed for the photographer. As active participants in the process, they used the tintype to illustrate their family relationships, show their interests by including personal objects in the photograph, highlight their sense of humor, depict their occupations, and provide mementos for family and friends before going off to the Civil War.

Tintypes served a variety of purposes: those overpainted with oil by colorists were often framed and hung on the walls of homes to serve as substitutes for traditional painted portraiture; others were placed in keepsake photograph albums for family members and friends; and others were housed in paper sleeves and given as tokens of affection. However they were used, tintypes documented people’s lives for nearly seven decades.

In 2014, Korzenik donated her collection to Historic New England to facilitate the ongoing study and appreciation of the art of the tintype. The collection can be viewed online at historicnewengland.org/explore/collections-access/ gusn/325646.