Over the next few weeks, I’ll be showing you how to date your old family photographs by format and process, using the photographic techniques that dominated the first 100 years of commercial photography.
Frustratingly, old family photographs often come without any accompanying documentation so it can be very difficult to identify their age. Old photographs are full of clues that can help you to do this, such as clothes or hairstyles, and we have a list of useful contacts and resources that may be able to help you date your photographs by fashion.
But even without these pointers, it is possible to date a photograph by its type, rather than what it depicts. One way to do this is to consider the methods used to create photographs.
There have been hundreds of different photographic processes, each with their own distinguishing characteristics. Fortunately, most family photographs were made using just a few photographic techniques—for example daguerreotypes, collodion positives and ferrotypes.
As well as the process, you can also tell a lot from a photograph’s size or ‘format’.
Most processes and formats were only popular for a limited time, so if you can identify these you will also have a rough idea of the photograph’s date.
With just a basic knowledge of what these physical clues can tell you, you are well on your way to revealing the mysteries of your family photographs and their subjects.
How to identify a Daguerreotype (1840s–1850s)
For the first in this series of posts, we’ll take a look at some clues that can help to spot a daguerreotype among your old family photographs.
About the daguerreotype process
The daguerreotype was invented by Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre (1787–1851), and it was the first commercial photographic process. A highly polished silver surface on a copper plate was sensitised to light by exposing it to iodine fumes. After exposing the plate in a camera it was developed with mercury vapour.
Richard Beard opened England’s first public photographic studio in March 1841 in London’s Regent Street, after buying the rights to be sole patentee of the daguerreotype process in England.
Daguerreotypes were sold in Britain throughout the 1840s and into the early 1850s. Access to the studios of photographers working with the daguerreotype process around 1850 would have been limited to the middle and upper classes.
Use these clues to identify a daguerreotype
Cases
Daguerreotype images are very delicate and easily damaged. Daguerreotypes always come in protective cases, often made of leather and lined with silk or velvet.
Plates
They were made on highly polished silver plates. Depending on the angle at which you view them, they can look like a negative, a positive or a mirror.
Tarnish
If exposed to the air, the silver plate will tarnish. Though they were sealed under glass, it is very common to find characteristic signs of tarnishing around the edges of the daguerreotype.
Size
Daguerreotypes were produced in a range of sizes, but most portraits are quite small, usually around 2×3 inches.
Examples of daguerreotypes in our collection
John Adams Whipple (1822–1891), working with George Phillips Bond (1825–1865), the director of the Harvard College Observatory, endeavoured to create lunar daguerreotypes of a quality never seen before. One of Whipple and Bond’s lunar daguerreotypes was shown at the Great Exhibition of 1851 where it won a medal.
Inscribed in ink, ‘For Mrs Bridges Taylor / with the very sincere regards / Prince Liholiho / Gerrit Parmele Judd / Prince Kamahameeaha / Boston 24th May 1850. To be left at St Katherine’s Lodge / Regent’s Park / or the Foreign Office / London’. Signed by all three sitters.
Judd was a Congregational cleric and Foreign Minister to the Hawaiian Kingdom. He and the Princes visited Europe and America on a diplomatic mission in 1849 and 1850. The Boston portrait studio, Southworth and Hawes, operated from 1843 to 1863.
More in the series
- How to spot a collodion positive/ambrotype (early 1850s–1880s)
- How to spot a ferrotype/tintype (1855–1940s)
- How to spot a carte de visite (late 1850s–c.1910)
- How to spot a cabinet card (1866–c.1914)
- How to spot a postcard (1900–1950s)
- How to date Victorian photographs
- How to date photographs by fashion
- Researching your photographer ancestors
Have just discovered Colin Harding’s photo-history blogs. Informed and accessible: required reading for all.
I found this article to be a informal and a great attention grabber.
I find it to be a unique thing that he used Mercury vapor to develop something like this.
I really like the one entitled Portrait of a young women. You can really see all the detail and the light of the room on her skin. Very nice exposure she must have been super still or it was shorter than most.
I found the portrait of the young girl being held still by the woman to be very interesting. I have never seen an image from this time where everyone is not sitting upright & still as they had to so I enjoyed seeing a portrait where a situation is being shown that is often a common problem attempting to capture a child’s image even today.
I enjoyed reading about how to identify the Daguerreotype process. I have so many old family photos that I do not know what time period they came from or who they even are other than what is written on the back. I am looking forward to learning more on how to identify the era that these photos came from.
I find it so incredibly interesting that the Daguerreotype is able to be seen as either a positive or negative image based on how the light hits the plate.
The idea that the daguerreotype is capable of being viewed as either a positive or negative image based on the way the light hits the plate is amazing. I love that!
My Favorite image is the portrait of a small child. I really like how the coat pops. I find it amazing that these images are preserved so well today.
I really liked seeing Portrait of a dog, April 1846, Kodak Collection, National Media Museum posted. It shows that while there is quite a difference in generations people back then thought of their pets as being an important part of their family, or at least important enough to make and keep images of!
I, too, enjoyed the article. It is amazing to me the clarity of the portraits and the close up of the moon is remarkable.
This article was very informing and gave a lot of different examples of daguerreotype. After reading this article it made me want to create a daguerreotype art work myself. I really like the portrait of the little dog is was so cute and very detail that it seem very alive.
I have a few old pictures of my family I need someone to tell me if they are tin types if anyone knows of someone please let me know.
Judy Price judyredthread@yahoo.com
Great post. Trying to figure out if the oldest photo I own is either daguerreotype or ambrotype. I think now it might be the latter. Thanks so much.
You’re very welcome, Belinda. Glad we could help.
I have a large photographic print (about A1) of a family group of victorian children which seems to have been printed on fabric, possibly silk. Do you know what this technique was called?
Thanks.
Hello Ann
Please send your enquiry to our collections team – research@nationalmediamuseum.org.uk. They will be happy to help.
Thanks
Emma
i have several daguerrotypes and have been told the ‘fancier’ the case, the newer the plate. is that so? is there any way to restore tarnished images without ruining what’s left of the photo? Is it true that a photo would have been quite an expense for most families so taking and giving one would have been quite meaningful im guessing. (sorry, lots of questions)
I am a photography student and in my history class we are learning about daguerrotypes. this is the first I have heard of them but in my research I found it is an incredible process with mind blowing results. The images captured on a metal plate are truly spectacular.
I found the time frame on how fast the word got out about the portraits made to the public to be quite fast! The process seemed very tiedious, although I did find interesting that the photograph is a negative and positive image at the same time.
The portrait of the young girl who is must be held still by a woman amazes me. I’ve worked with some children photographers and often we are running around the studio to capture them! I can only imagine the patience it must have taken to get the child to be still for simply 20 seconds!
*young girl who must be
I found this very interesting on how so much information about daguerreotype. It amazes me how photography has been going on for so long, that I did not know. I am a student at RCC and I am going for Commercial Photography, so this was good info about photography(:
I am a photography student at RCC and going to major in commercial photography. This blog amazes me the fact that photography has been going on for so long and all the negative and positive in the pictures.
I found it interesting that the photos got to public very fast. It didn’t take much time at all for everyone to know about the photography pictures.
Photography in those days sounds like a slightly dangerous profession because of the toxic fumes used to develop the image on the plate. Its pretty incredible the clarity produced by the daguerreotype. How did some of the images receive color?
The colour was hand painted on to the photograph.
Is there any way I can identify the precise age of an ancestor of mine. A finely dressed lady with chatelaine this has always been referred to as a Dagerrotype, is ‘painted’ on the reverse of what appears to be glass,, 3 inches by 4 1/4 inches, backed by velvet, and with a metal frame at the front. I assume it was done in this country, possibly Portsmouth, or London.
email me and I will tell you what I know myronhensel@yahoo.com
That sounds like an ambrotype to me. A glass plate image is underexposed, and when backed with black (either velvet or paint) the negative image becomes positive. It was a method used to reduce costs and same time.
I have a couple of pictures and would like to know what type they are. If someone could help please I would really appreciate it. My email address is newfsatblubrick@btinternet.com
In identifying a Daguerreotype in every book I have read on the matter they are produced on a sheet of copper, not silver. I have three myself and all are on copper. Which is correct please?
I have a Daguerrotype Photograph of one of my distant relatives from the Harber Family. It is a man sitting and Is in a beautiful framed case, but don’t know which relative it is. My mother thought his name was Joseph and said one of my other relatives has an identical one of a lady who could be his wife Sarah. Would love to know more details of this photograph.
you left the subject you started unfinished. nothing except one mention of size. no criteria for discerning 1840-1840 Dags from later ones, though you stated that as a topic…disappointing.
I would like to know about the ornate edging framing the Daug or Ambrosetype photos incased in glass. What kind of material was the edging made of. How was it tooled. Does it have a specific name. Does it depict an era, contribute to the value of the photo. Why is it never discussed in describing the photo and Union case.
How is the value of a Daug or Ambrosetype photo in a Union case determined?
Does the material used in making the case affect the value of the of a given piece?
I have three portrait images that I cannot figure out what process was used to create them or what type of metal they are on. Based on the clothing of the three subjects, the images are from the mid- to late-1800s. Each image is on a metal plate about 6 & 1/2″ by 4″. The images take up 50% to 80% of the frontside with two images having the same tannish background and the third having a gray background. One of the images is a “head shot” of a woman looking straight ahead in the center of an oval of a border shaped like a no-relief mat that extends to the edges of the plate. The other two images are of a man (head & shoulders) and a woman (head & torso) looking off to the right at an oblique angle. The image of the latter appears to be “colorized”, including jewelry having been painted on (you can feel a thin relief) and eyes painted blue. The color of the metal on the backside of all three images is copper but each plate attracts a magnet. The images are all very stable — they are not rubbing off or tarnishing.
Additionally, I have a separate copy of the colorized image on a 2 & 3/8″ by 3 & 7/8″ paper card. The image is more complete (head down to bottom of dress sitting) and reversed (looking left). The image looks more like B&W but in gray tones (the black is not that black) and the image has not been “colorized” Other than those differences, the image looks to be the exact same image that is on the metal plate. The subject’s pose is identical and the hair and dress are the same, down to the ruffles. The back of the card incudes a graphic and the name and location of the photographer. There is no date but based on a directory of photographers, the photographer was working at that address in 1867-1868. So, in addition to my questions about image processes and materials used on the first three metal plates, I am wondering about the two identical images — one on metal and one on paper, which came first and how were they produced? Thank you in advance for any insight you can provide!
If seeing the pictures would be helpful to answering the questions above, send me an email address and I can forward them to you.