Does anyone know anything about Abarham Lincoln Pictures taken on tin types? Value or so forth?

Question

I have a picture that my mother found in the atttic of Abraham Lincoln when I was born in 1957. It is in not great condition but it is on tin. I read up some on some of the photography of that time and learned of dagrotypes(sp) and that he had two photograhers at the time and they were pressed on tin at that time. The camera was invented by this man Dagrotype(sp) who was french and the paper was invented in the Civil War.

Then a man who was wealthy can out with a fancy camera and began to make the camera. After that they were pressed on glass for a while but I believe for a while they still used tin because of the paper being so thin. I would love it to be worth something.

Does anyone know about this? Also I do know that any pictures taken of him without the beard are of extreme value.

jadeeandjojo

Answer 1

Early photography was done by coating metal and then glass with liquid emulsion (containing silver salts) just before exposure and immediately developing them. The processes were well developed before the Civil War began and there are pictures of Lincoln showing him well before the war - not a lot but some. Thousands of pictures were taken during the war of all subjects but taking pictures was a slow process of many seconds to a minute exposure and if people moved they showed up blurred. The picture was not applied to the metal but made on the metal and there was only one - no prints could be made. The picture was/is viewed by reflecting light off the metal and is rather faint. About the time of the war, glass plates were used for making negatives which could be used for printing many positives, the process used until recently, although our negatives are on plastic and thus less fragile and are dry so a lab is not immediately needed to make or process them.