Untitled

In the years following its invention, photography was welcomed as a democratic art. Now members of nearly all classes could possess pictures of loved ones, a visual genealogy previously limited to ancestral oil portraits or painted miniatures. The tintype—a relatively quick process patented in 1856, but especially widespread from the Civil War through the 1930s—was one of the most inexpensive and popular forms of photography. Elaborately painted and framed, large tintypes such as this one might have pride of place on a parlor wall, filling many of the same functions as American folk portraits of earlier centuries. This frame bears the label “Electrograph” on the back, an establishment based in New England, but the identity of the girl and her pet remain unknown.