1800s Baseball Tintypes

[Leon]

Here is a little cut and paste from our friends at Wiki about tintypes. I always enjoy the clarity and interesting subjects found. If anyone cares to show others it would be interesting....

A tintype, also known as a melainotype or ferrotype, is a photograph made by creating a direct positive on a thin sheet of metal coated with a dark lacquer or enamel and used as the support for the photographic emulsion. Tintypes enjoyed their widest use during the 1860s and 1870s, but lesser use of the medium persisted into the early 20th century and it has been revived as a novelty in the 21st.

Tintype portraits were at first usually made in a formal photographic studio, like daguerreotypes and other early types of photographs, but later they were most commonly made by photographers working in booths or the open air at fairs and carnivals, as well as by itinerant sidewalk photographers.
Because the lacquered iron support (there is no actual tin used) was resilient and did not need drying, a tintype could be developed and fixed and handed to the customer only a few minutes after the picture had been taken.

The tintype photograph saw more uses and captured a wider variety of settings and subjects than any other photographic type. It was introduced while the daguerreotype was still popular, though its primary competition would have been the ambrotype.

The tintype saw the Civil War come and go, documenting the individual soldier and horrific battle scenes. It captured scenes from the Wild West, as it was easy to produce by itinerant photographers working out of covered wagons.
It began losing artistic and commercial ground to higher quality albumen prints on paper in the mid-1860s, yet survived for well over another 40 years, living mostly as a carnival novelty. [1]
The tintype's immediate predecessor, the ambrotype, was done by the same process of using a sheet of glass as the support. The glass was either of a dark color or provided with a black backing so that, as with a tintype, the underexposed negative image in the emulsion appeared as a positive. Tintypes were sturdy and did not require mounting in a protective hard case like ambrotypes and daguerreotypes.

[Louieman]

Very cool. I'm not completely convinced it's authentic, and it's not baseball related, but I saw this article the other day on a potentially very interesting tintype:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-millions.html

[joeadcock]

Pre 1900 kid

[Leon]

Originally Posted by joeadcock

Pre 1900 kid

I want to know how the heck they ran in those shoes? I am thinking not too well!!

[earlybball]

Thanks for starting an interesting topic Leon.

I will add one of my favourites to the show and tell.

It is a circa 1865-7 tintype of 3 players likely from the Phillips Academy team. The central figure (Archie McClure Bush) was considered the country’s best baseball player throughout the 1860’s up until the professional era began in 1869 – incidentally Bush is featured in a well known CDV from Rucker’s collection which also featured his cousin James McClure.

He played learned to play while serving in the civil war and played for Phillips Academy; the Andover Nine; The Albany Nationals and was the captain of Harvard.

Talk about uncomfortable footwear Leon - try on Bush's baseball knee boots for size!!!

Here is some cool info on Archie McClure Bush within the following articles: http://www.pa59ers.com/library/Harri...hletics02.html
http://www.thenationalpastimemuseum....onals-albany-0
https://www.andover.edu/Athletics/Te...es/Alumni.aspx

[rjackson44]

I pick these up from time to time ...near my beach house in south jersey guy has a ton of them .loved the article thank you man.

[steve B]

Well, I suppose you'd never get worried about getting spiked in boots like those

I've shown these before, but it's been a while.

A guy looking stylish and happy in his odd uniform.


Then a pic with the wife, who seems less pleased.


Finally they get the whole group in the shot a bit of clowning around and the women look a bit mad about the whole thing.


It's been suggested that it's probably actors from a play or something and not a baseball player with friends, which may be accurate.

Steve B

[bbpostcards]

Great matching hats.

[rjackson44]

Pretty steve

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by Leon

Tintypes enjoyed their widest use during the 1860s and 1870s, but lesser use of the medium persisted into the early 20th century and it has been revived as a novelty in the 21st.
....
It began losing artistic and commercial ground to higher quality albumen prints on paper in the mid-1860s, yet survived for well over another 40 years, living mostly as a carnival novelty. [1]

Ebay sellers conveniently 'forget' the above. I would argue that despite Wiki's claim that their widest use was during the 1860s and 1870s, most of the baseball tintypes we see are from the 1880s and 1890s and I think it's a safe guess that most of the crappy blurry ones on ebay are closer to 1900. I can tell you - it's pretty special when you actually find one from the '60s or '70s.

[Leon]

Those are some great tintypes, guys. Thanks for showing them.