Ambrotype collection, 1851 – 1881. 2 boxes (1.5 linear feet)
AMBRO.22: Lavinia Longmire with Walter and William Longmire
The Ambrotype collection is made up of individually accessioned photographs from the Photography Collection, items from the Archive & Manuscript Collections, and items found in the collection. The photographs are portraits depicting Brooklyn residents of the 19th century.
Ambrotypes are an application of the wet collodion process. A faint negative image was printed onto glass, which was then backed with a black material to make the image appear positive. They were much cheaper than daguerreotypes, and were most popular in the U.S. in the 1850s. Some ambrotypes were colored by hand, and many were kept in small cases.
Ritzenthaler, Mary Lynn, and Diane Vogt-O’Connor. 2008. Photographs: Archival Care and Management. Chicago: Society of American Archivists.
Subjects:
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- Photographs
- Commercial portraiture