Historical photo processes and formats at the Simcoe County Archives

Photographs are some of the most frequently requested records housed at the Simcoe County Archives. Whether it is a portrait of a family member or an early photograph of a century home, these records provide some of the most compelling evidence of our collective past. In this blog post we will explore some of the earliest forms of photography highlighting examples from the Archives’ collections. 

Photography as we know it today started to take shape in the early 19th century. Experiments in the 1820s and early 1830s led to some successes, but these processes required long exposure times and frequently had inconsistent results. For the most part, these formats were never widely used.  

Daguerreotype (Early 1840s to late 1850s)

One of the earliest commercially available forms of photography is the daguerreotype. These photographs were first created in 1839 by inventor Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre. A daguerreotype is made by exposing a copper plate coated with silver to light – creating a direct positive image. The result is a one-of-a-kind photo with a distinctive mirror-like quality. These would have been considered precious mementos for those who owned them, and they were often housed in ornate cases, referred to as “union” cases, with gilded frames and a velvet cushion to protect the photo. 

 The daguerreotype was popular throughout the 1850s, although few examples exist in the Archives’ collections. This is likely due to the relative novelty and cost of a daguerreotype, which would have prohibited wide use in more rural areas like Simcoe County. 

It is worth noting that daguerreotypes are frequently confused with the much more commonly found tintype. The easiest way to tell them apart is by the unique reflective nature of the daguerreotype. Tintypes have a much darker, more matte appearance and also tend to weigh less as they have a thin sheet of iron for a base. 

Ambrotype (early 1850s to mid 1880s)

The ambrotype is another early photo format that was first introduced in the mid 1850s. Instead of using metal, ambrotypes were created on glass, using a wet collodion process – essentially coating the glass with light-sensitive chemicals.  The photograph appears as a negative until it is placed against a dark background, which reveals the positive image. Ambrotypes are frequently housed in ornate cases, similar to daguerreotypes. The tones of these photos tend to be soft and creamy, unlike the darker, richer tones we often see in modern photography.    

Tintype (Early 1850s to early 1900s)

Tintypes, sometimes called “ferrotypes”, use a variation of the wet collodion process to produce a positive image on thin, lacquered iron. Unlike the glass-based ambrotype, these photos were very durable and relatively inexpensive to produce, making them popular with consumers and photographers. There are several examples at the Simcoe County Archives, as this format was in wide use from around the early 1850s to the early 1900s.   

Glass Plate Negatives (1850s to 1920s)

Glass plate negatives were a major advancement in the field of photography. These were negatives created on glass plates coated with light-sensitive chemicals. This method became very popular because it produced high-quality images and, unlike earlier formats, these negatives could be used to create multiple copies of a positive image.  This was very appealing to commercial photographers and made photography much more accessible to consumers. Glass plate negatives were used from around the1850s to the1920s.  The Hanly-Clark collection at the Simcoe County Archives features many different photo formats including glass plate negatives. John Hanly was a photographer based out of Stayner and Midland, and this collection gives a fabulous glimpse into these communities in the 1870s through the 1900s.  

Carte de Visite and Cabinet Cards (Mid 1850s to 1920s)

Around the 1860s, portrait photography became extremely popular, and consumers wanted their photos to be easily shared. The result was the creation of cartes de visite, and later the larger cabinet card. These small prints were developed on albumen paper, then adhered to cardboard mounts (2 ½ inches wide and 4 – 4 ½ inches high). As multiple copies could be created at once, it became fashionable for people to give these photographs to friends or family as keepsakes. Cabinet cards were extremely popular from around the 1870s to 1890s, and there are many examples at the Simcoe County Archives. 

Cyanotype (1880s to the present)

Invented in 1842, a cyanotype is a photographic print on plain, uncoated paper, on which the image is composed of a blue pigment. Through stages of chemically washing and drying, the photograph achieves a vibrant blue colour. This format became more popular around the 1880s and is still used in reproductions of technical and architectural plans, also known as blueprints, to this day. 

In addition to being interesting, understanding historic photo processes can be a key tool for dating old photographs. Each photographic method was developed and made popular during a specific time. Identifying the process used can give a good indication of when a photo was taken. With that said, context is still important. Simcoe County was, for the most part, very rural in the 19^th century and trends in photography would likely have been slower to catch-up here than in major metropolitan centers. Many formats persisted here, even by professional photographers, longer than they would have in other parts of the province.   

Recognizing the materials, image quality, and formats of a photograph, such as glass plate negatives or cabinet cards, archivists and researchers can narrow down the possible time frame of a photo’s origin.   

We hope you have enjoyed learning about some of the 19^th century photo formats we have in our collections at the Simcoe County Archives! 

Works consulted:

• Anon. LibGuides: Early Photographic Formats and Processes in the Special Collections and Archives Research Center: Home. https://guides.library.oregonstate.edu/earlyphotoformats
• Lavédrine, Bertrand, Jean-Paul Gandolfo, John McElhone and Sibylle Monod. 2009. Photographs of the Past: Process and Preservation. https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA91453420.
• Murdoch, S. (1981). Nineteenth century photographers in Simcoe County. East Georgian Bay Historical Journal, 1, 170-189.