Untitled (Dog)

The advent of photography enabled people of all classes to afford pictures of family and loved ones for the first time. The daguerreotype, the first commercial photographic process, became known as the “democratic art,” replacing large-scale portrait oils and painted miniatures. Even more affordable than the daguerreotype was the tintype, a relatively quick process patented in 1856 and especially widespread from the American Civil War through the 1930s. The tintype was taken up by itinerant portraitists as well as amusement park photographers. This unusually large image of a dog illustrates one way in which people explored new modes of portraiture in the early years of photography, treating a pet, for example, as they might a member of the family.