Visual Materials
A collection of chiefly 19th-century cased photographs representing some of the earliest photography formats: daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes. These early photographs, made on glass or metal plates, were typically placed in small, hinged wooden cases, often covered with leather and lined in velvet, with a brass mat and piece of protective glass placed over the image. The collection contains 72 daguerreotypes and 46 ambrotypes (approximately 1840s-1860s), and 58 early tintypes (approximately mid-1850-1900s). Some items in the collection are not in cases or are in frames.The Huntington Library assembled these 185 items into a collection from various sources over a period of many years, and some related formats were added: a miniature tintype album with 22 portraits; two opalotypes; two miniature paintings; and six photographic prints placed in cases or frames; and one stereoscopic daguerreotype in a fold-out viewing case. Also in the collection are two modern daguerreotypes, made in 1992 and 2003 by photographer Robert Shlaer, and three ambrotypes made in 2012 by Barret Oliver, of the mausoleum of Henry E. Huntington and his wife, Arabella Huntington, on the grounds of the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. Most cased items were cleaned and housed in individual, custom-sized boxes by the Conservation Department in the late 1980s.
The majority of photographs are studio portraits of men, women, and children, made approximately 1840s-1865 (daguerreotypes and ambrotypes), or approximately mid-1850s-1900s (tintypes). Many are pioneers of the American West, or ancestors of families who came West, and others are unidentified or of unknown provenance. Notable portraits are: Edgar Allan Poe; Jane Thoreau (aunt of Henry David Thoreau); John B. Colton (Jayhawker of 1849); a postmortem view of a young daughter of B.D. Wilson; Theodore D. Judah; a whole plate ambrotype of a group of San Francisco businessmen; and a Civil War drummer boy and his mother. There are a few reproduction images of Abraham Lincoln, including two circular images that were campaign badges. Also in the collection are several outdoor scenes: California Gold Rush miners posed with tools at work sites; the First Baptist Church, San Francisco, 1849; a street scene in the frontier town of Orleans, California; and the locomotive "Sam Cruse," named for an executive of the Memphis & Charleston Railroad. Photographers are largely uncredited, though three have the imprint of Robert H. Vance, San Francisco, and date from 1853-1856. A whole plate daguerreotype of Lyman Beecher is by Southworth & Hawes of Boston, Massachusetts, approximately 1850.Most of the images are undated, which is common with cased photographs. If a date can be determined from writing or other material with the image, or by the image content, that date is given. When dates cannot be determined from any other source, estimated dates have been given based on dates of major usage of daguerreotypes (1840s-1850s) and ambrotypes (1855-1865). Tintypes were produced mid-1850s to early-20th century, though tintypes in this collection are estimated to date no later than 1900s.
