Antique Photographs

You've Got Em - So Name Em Antique photographs, or any photographs for that matter, can be an absolute goldmine, provided you have information on the subject of the photo - the lack of which happens to be the bane of genealogists! You may have a mountain of photos under your bed, but unless you can identify them they are not going to mean much to you. There are ways of pinpointing dates etc. by the clothes and the style of photograph. An excellent article for this purpose can be found at www.rogerco.freeserve.co.uk, which also has many examples of antique photographs.

You can also trace where the photos came from:

"Aunt Bessie had them in her dresser drawer and gave them to your mother who in turn gave them to you."

This information allows you to contact Aunt Bessie and/or your mother to gain further assistance. There will be many instances where you just can't get anywhere because the people in question have died - but then that's genealogy!

Preservation

Now that those priceless and identified images are in your hot little hands, how do you preserve them? Well, for a start get them out of your hot little hands because the oils in your skin are very damaging. Obviously antique photographs will need to be handled, so hold them by the edges and keep your fingers away from the actual image. Other enemies to antique photographs and all photos in general are: light, humidity and heat. Keep them in a box stored in a cool, dry place. Photographs, particularly old ones, are subject to deterioration due to chemical changes over time. Heat and light speed up these changes.

Resist the temptation to write on antique photographs, except perhaps on the back with a lead pencil only, as the chemicals in a ball point pen can be absorbed and damage the image. One obvious way around this problem is to put them in albums and write underneath the photo.

You have a computer, so why not scan them and store them digitally? This is ideal insurance against damage and deterioration. Hundreds of images can be stored on CD's, memory sticks, and many thousands on DVD's and your computer hard drive.

This is the area where computers are on their own. Nowadays antique photographs can be totally restored digitally. Once they are scanned on to your computer you don't need to handle them again. Torn, faded or discoloured, they can all be repaired if you have good photo manipulation software such as Photoshop, which is probably the best known. There are other programs of varying quality and skill level also available. The actual process involved is beyond the scope of my web site but here is a site that provides a brief tutorial - www.screengenes.com

Most stores that process photographic film have the technology to do restoration of antique photographs - costs will vary so be sure to get a quote.

Antique Photographs - A History

"Photography" is derived from the Greek words photos ("light") and graphein ("to draw") The word was first used by the scientist Sir John F.W. Herschel in 1839. It is a method of recording images by the action of light, or related radiation, on a sensitive material.

On a summer day in 1827, it took eight hours for Joseph Nicéphore Niépce to obtain the first fixed image. About the same time a fellow Frenchman, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre was experimenting to find a way to capture an image, but it would take another dozen years before he was able to reduce the exposure time to less than 30 minutes and keep the image from disappearing… ushering in the age of modern photography.

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, inventor of the first practical process of photography, was born near Paris, France on November 18, 1789. A professional scene painter for the opera, Daguerre began experimenting with the effects of light upon translucent paintings in the 1820s. In 1829, he formed a partnership with Joseph Nicéphore Niépce to improve the process Niépce had developed to take the first permanent photograph in 1826-1827. Niépce died in 1833.

After several years of experimentation, Daguerre developed a more convenient and effective method of photography, naming it after himself -- the daguerreotype. In 1839, he and Niépce's son sold the rights for the daguerreotype to the French government and published a booklet describing the process.

The daguerreotype gained popularity quickly; by 1850, there were over seventy daguerreotype studios in New York City alone.< P

The Daguerreotype
A sheet of copper, plated with silver, is carefully cleaned on the silver side by the aid of nitric acid. The plate thus prepared is exposed to the action of the vapour of iodine. The plate must be enclosed in a metallic frame.The plate is next exposed to the action of the vapour of mercury, and a condition stated to be essential is, that it shall be placed under a particular angle. It is therefore placed in a second box, at the bottom of which is a small trough of mercury. After this operation the plate is dipped into a weak solution of hyposulphite of soda, and then washed with distilled water. The process is now complete.

Albumen prints outnumber any other type of photographic positive made during the nineteenth century. They have a sepia color and slightly glossy surface. Thin sheets of paper were first coated with egg white and salt, then floated on silver nitrate to make them sensitive to light. The image is created by printing under a negative in sunlight. The finished picture is fixed, washed, and often gold toned before mounting. Invented by Louis Desire Blanquart-Evrard of France in 1850.

Autochrome plates were the invention of Auguste and Louis Lumiere, who patented the process in 1904 and began to market it commercially in 1907. Microscopic grains of potato starch were dyed red, green, and blue-violet, then mixed evenly and coated onto a sheet of glass. A black-and-white emulsion was then flowed over this layer. During exposure, the grains of potato starch on each plate acted as millions of tiny filters. The light-sensitive emulsion was then reversal processed into a positive transparency. When viewed, light passes through the emulsion and is filtered to the proper color by the starch grains. The resulting mosaic of glowing dots on glass gives autochromes the look of pointillist paintings.

Ambrotype is an early type of photograph made by imaging a negative on glass backed by a dark surface.

Ambrotypes were often hand-tinted. Untinted ambrotypes are grayish-white and have less contrast and brilliance than daguerreotypes. The ambrotype was much less expensive to produce than the daguerreotype. By the late 1850s, the ambrotype was overtaking the daguerreotype in popularity; nevertheless, by the mid-1860s, the ambrotype itself was supplanted by the tintype and other processes.

Tintype or Ferrotype a positive photograph made directly on an iron (thus ferro) plate varnished with a thin sensitized film, was developed in the United States in the mid-19th century. By the end of the Civil War, the tintype overtook the ambrotype in popularity to become the most common photographic process until the introduction of modern photography.

Tintypes continued to be made until the 1950s. Like the ambrotype, the image is a negative, but appears to be a positive image when viewed against the black background. The tintype was a minor improvement to the ambrotype, replacing the glass plate of the original process with a thin piece of black tin. The new materials reduced the cost considerably. The image proved to be very durable because it was trapped between the metal and varnished surface.

Carte de Visite (CDV) was invented by photographer Adolphe Disdéri in 1854. The CDV was very popular from the 1860s to the 1880s. It was used as a photographic calling card, developed for the Victorian practice of using visiting or calling cards to communicate with acquaintances. Taken with a special camera that produced eight poses on one negative, the CDV created a market for trading and collecting celebrity photographs in France and England; they served to connect the rich and famous with commoners. Copies of cartes-de-visite of royal or famous figures were sold to the public at large. The CDVs were placed in carte albums which were the forerunners of photo albums.

In doing family research never look a gift horse in the mouth, or antique photographs! If Uncle George is doing a clean up and has a pile of old photos to 'throw out', rescue them. They are priceless. Even if the subjects are a complete mystery to you, who knows, you may get lucky. Post them on the internet at www.rootsweb.com or similar. There will be somebody somewhere who can fill in the missing pieces for you.

Treat antique photographs as the priceless relics that they are and always ALWAYS record how the photos came into your possession. Generally people don't identify their photos, particularly true of antique photographs,or if they do, it's a name without a date or visa versa. All of which is very frustrating for the family historian, but then that's life in the past lane.

Sorry for repeating myself but please make digital copies of ALL your photos, not just those prized antique photographs. Once lost, they are lost forever.

Back to the top