Browse Items (488 total)

The ambrotype was invented in England by William Henry Fox Talbot, but not perfected until 1854 by James A. Cutting. This ambrotype is held in a Union Case, patented on October 14, 1856 and on April 21, 1857. Union cases were made of a “union” of…

This ambrotype depicts Patience P. Crandall (1794-1886) wearing a striped dress with bishop sleeves and a large white, flat collar (most likely either of lace or a sheer fabric) completed with a cameo brooch. The loose-fitting dress is fashioned with…

This ambrotype is enclosed in a miniature book measuring only three by four inches. To prevent early photographs from deteriorating, photographers came up with this method of encasing the image that kept them out of direct sunlight and regulated…

This is a ambrotype of young girl and her mother dating from the late 1840s to the early 1850s. Although the donor record indicated that this was an image of herself and her mother, the dates do not correspond. This may, in fact, be a photograph of…

This photograph is an ambrotype of an older woman circa 1850s. The ambrotype is in a brass matte with decorative engravings. Ambrotypes were developed in the early 1850s and were considerably less expensive than their predecessor, the daguerreotype,…

This photograph is a tinted ambrotype, which is typically kept in a case such as this one to protect the image from sunlight and heat. Ambrotypes appeared in the early 1850s and became very popular, displacing the early daguerreotype. The well-worn…

This ambrotype image of a young woman is housed in a small gold decorative frame. The young woman is wearing a printed dress which closes in the center front with a brooch at her collar. Her hair, parted down the middle, has been smoothed over her…

"This photograph is of Eleanor Dearborn's grandmother and mother as a child." The child's dress and part of the mother's dress that can be seen help to date this ambrotype to the 1860s. In the photo, the girl sits on her mother's lap wearing…

Heavily beaded dress part, with black and silvered glass beads on a black silk net; en disposition; architectural motif. This design represents the Geometric Period of Art Deco.

Detail of a printed silk crepe panel; blue ground with black and discharged white abstracted floral; representative of the Late Period. The discharge process for dyeing the white flowers removed the dye from the blue background.