The book is a history of the ferrotype, or tintype, in American photography, from its origin in the 1850s until 1880. The heart of the book is the extended accounts of the improvements in the presentation of the images and of the inventors and businessmen who made the improvements and advanced their careers. These accounts are brought together by the wonderfully interesting reproductions of actual tintypes. The author's writing is intelligent and engaging. Her enthusiasm for the topic, which shines through the text, carries the reader along with her.

One of the most intriguing and little studied forms of 19th century photography is the tintype. This title demonstrates how this inauspicious form of photography provides extraordinary insight into the development of national attitudes and characteristics in the formative years of the early modern era.

A collection of nineteenth-century tintypes in the collection of the author, with an introduction concerning the tintype as art.

The Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography is the first comprehensive encyclopedia of world photography up to the beginning of the twentieth century. It sets out to be the standard, definitive reference work on the subject for years to come. Its coverage is global – an important ‘first’ in that authorities from all over the world have contributed their expertise and scholarship towards making this a truly comprehensive publication. The Encyclopedia presents new and ground-breaking research alongside accounts of the major established figures in the nineteenth century arena. Coverage includes all the key people, processes, equipment, movements, styles, debates and groupings which helped photography develop from being ‘a solution in search of a problem’ when first invented, to the essential communication tool, creative medium, and recorder of everyday life which it had become by the dawn of the twentieth century. The sheer breadth of coverage in the 1200 essays makes the Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography an essential reference source for academics, students, researchers and libraries worldwide.

Twenty-five archaeologists each tell an intimate story of their experience and entanglement with an evocative artifact.