Fashionable Tin

 

What does a photo portrait reveal?

A person's facial features, of course,

and maybe their age too.
Though that's usually
a subjective quality
that's hard to determine
in unidentified subjects.
And likewise the color
of eyes or hair
is a just a guess
in antique sepia tone photos.

If the camera is positioned far enough away
a person's clothing is included in the frame
so that a taste for fashion can be ventured.

Handmade or store bought?
Velvet or gingham?
Light pink or dark green?

But personality?
Not so much.
A frown does not indicate
a lack of good humor.
A dull eye is not a sign
of a dull mind.
A bland expression 
does not prove an uncaring heart.

A photograph is just
a fleeting moment in a person's life.
Only their family and friends
knew their genuine nature.  

Today I present three anonymous young women
who posed for a camera a long time ago.
Unbeknownst to them
their little tintype photos
recorded personal styles
that surprisingly resemble
future fashion trends from our time. 

A tintype or ferrotype is with a unique photographic process that captures an image like a mirror. That is, the light reflected on the emulsion of the metal plate reverses itself creating a positive image like a mirror does. So a tintype photo, despite its clarity and focus, is actually not a true-to-life image like in a modern photograph. However with computer software I can easily flip the image and transform it into a realistic likeness of a person. That's what I've done here with the first young woman's photo. It makes a subtle difference, but I think it allows a viewer to better appreciate a person's face. 

One of the most striking things to observe in antique portraits is how people dressed and styled their hair. Most women in the 19th century did not cut their hair and usually arranged it neatly in a coil or bun. From 1845 to 1900, in the early age of photography, women appear in photos with various hair fashions ranging from slick oiled hair pulled tightly at the back to elaborate coiffures with braids, waves, and curls. 

But this girl chose an unconventional hair style that is almost breezy and unkempt. It does not fit with the common fashions seen in most portraits of both young and mature women. I can't say for sure, of course, but she is only a teenager I think. Maybe around age thirteen to sixteen. Surely not more than nineteen. To my 21st century eye she looks more like a girl from the 1960s-70s. It's frizzy pop star hair, a bit like Janis Joplin, Carly Simon, or Maria Muldaur.

I bought this tintype mainly because I thought it was good example of this photograph medium and also because she had such an unusual, even chic, quality that was outside the norm for this period. The photo is small, 1.5 inches (4 cm) by 2.0 inches ( 5 cm).

* * *

A year later I found a second tintype portrait of another young lady with a very similar hair style. Like the other girl, this girl has medium long hair in curled locks and then casually gathered up by a ribbon band around her head. Again I have reversed the original tintype to show her true features. The photographers in both portraits dabbed some pink color onto the girls' cheeks. It is stronger on this girl but her downward gaze gives her a sad expression. 

The back of the tintype has remnants of a paper matt or envelope. Someone has written a cryptic note: #7EL. This photo is larger than the others, about 1.75 inches (4.5 cm) by 2.75 inches (7 cm).

* * *

My third girl comes displayed in her original paper frame. She is older, maybe 18-19 or even in her twenties. Like the other two she has the same frizzled hair tied with a ribbon but adds a flower and a second ribbon around her neck. She also has pink cheeks and a serious, if not glum, countenance.

This photo is about the same size as the first one, what is called a Gem size, but the paper envelope has dimensions similar to a carte de visite photo, about 2.5 inches (6.5 cm) by 4.0 inches (10 cm). Since tintype photos are made on an iron sheet coated with japanned black enamel, the material doesn't invite annotations in pencil or ink. The paper envelopes may have space for a date or name but are very fragile and easily lost. Finding one that has been preserved makes it special. Tintypes like these were popular from around 1860 to 1885. They were relatively easy for a photographer to make and develop quickly. Many tintype photographers set up a trade at amusement parks and on seaside resort boardwalks. They usually cost about 25 cents.

The back of this photo shows how the little tintype was held in the frame by a piece of newspaper pasted onto the envelope.  

The paper backing is clipped from the top left corner of a newspaper page. Another bit of black paper adheres to the back and probably comes from an album page where the photo was once stored. There is enough of the newsprint to make out a report on "The Latest Postage..." which lists postage fees for letters, pamphlets, and registered mail. Unfortunately there is no name, place, or date. But the report reads like a federal notice so I wondered, could I find a similar one in the newspaper archives? 

I could indeed. The same words were in a report from the West Chester, Pennsylvania Local News published on 2 January 1874. 

West Chester, PA Local News
2 January 1874

The report is verbatim to the clipped portion on the photo. Though I found the same report published in other newspapers in other years there were slight differences in the regulatory text. It leads me to believe that this particular girl had her photo taken sometime around 1873 to 1874, though not necessarily in Pennsylvania. Whether this is the time frame for the other two girls, I can't say, but it seems safe to place them in the same 1870s decade.  

The full report also includes the 1874 U. S. postal rate for letters to foreign addresses. For mail to Germany and Great Britain it was 6 cents per ½ ounce. France and Italy was 10 cents. Russia 11 cents. Letters to China via San Francisco was only 10 cents using American steamers but 28 cents using British mail service. Likewise South Africa was 28 cents too.

I'm not sure what, if anything, connects these three portraits.
They have an exotic quality that suggests
the girls have a youthful free spirit.

Their unorthodox hair fashion might be influenced
by their ethnic or national heritage,
or a favorite romance book or operetta,
or just normal teenage rebellion.
Beyond that we really can't infer much more
without resorting to our modern prejudices
and preconceptions.
Let's just call them pretty.

 

I'll finish with some appropriate music.
Here is Irving Berlin's hit song
from the “The Ziegfeld Follies Of 1919”

"A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody"

 

This was the first recording of this song,
as sung by the tenor John Steel who made it famous
in the first Broadway production of the "Follies".
It was recorded by the Victor Talking Machine Co.

in Camden, New Jersey on June 30, 1919.

Sheet music cover to
"A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody" 
by Irving Berlin, 1919
Source: Wikipedia

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where smoking is strictly prohibited
except in restricted galleries.