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using one. Ambrotypes often were hand-colored, most commonly with dabs of red paint on the cheeks of the sitter. They were housed in wood or thermoplastic cases (also called 'Union cases'), like the daguerreotype photographs with which they are often confused; an ambrotype is easily distinguished from a daguerreotype because its surface is not reflective, as daguerreotype surfaces are. Ambrotypes were most popular during the mid- to late-1850s but continued to be available through the 1890s.
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When dry, the glass plate was then backed either with black paint, metal, cloth, or paper; this black backing made light areas of the negative appear darker, turning the negative image into a positive. Some ambrotypes were made with ruby or dark green glass to simulate the effect of a backing without
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In 1854, Cutting took out three patents relating to the process of creating images on glass using the wet plate collodion process. While
Cutting is sometimes referred to as the inventor of the ambrotype, his three photographic patents of 1854 refer only to improvements in the process, rather than
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Patent
Numbers 11,213, 11,266 and 11,267: Awarded to James Ambrose Cutting of Boston, Massachusetts in 1854 for creating collodion positive photographs on glass. The first and second of these patents refer to the chemicals & handling used in the collodion process, while the third describes a
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The first advertisements for the Grand aquariums at the Boston
Aquarial Gardens appeared in the April 12, 1859, edition of the Boston Post. "This magnificent display of one of the most fascinating phenomena of nature is now open for public exhibition," announced the Boston Post. "These Ocean
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and exposed the plate in a camera to produce a negative image. The wet plate collodion process was invented just a few years before by
Frederick Scott Archer and widely used for glass negatives, but in an ambrotype the collodion image is used as a positive, instead of a negative.
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Conservatories are filled with rare marine animals imported and collected exclusively for this
Establishment. They present us with a perfect and striking illustration of Life Beneath The Waters." The facility was eventually purchased by
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Distraught over the conversion of the
Aquarial Gardens into an amusement hall, Cutting suffered a nervous collapse, from which he never recovered; he died in August 1867 in an insane asylum in Worcester, MA. Article in
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Although
Cutting, the patent holder, had named the process after himself, it appears the term, "ambrotype" itself may have been first coined in the gallery of
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the idea of the collodion positive itself. Ambrotypes (black-backed collodion positives) are reported to have been made at least as early as 1852 by
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Patent Number 19,626: In 1858, James
Ambrose Cutting & Lodowick H. Bradford of Boston, Massachusetts were awarded a patent for improvements in
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The Camera and the Pencil; or the
Heliographic Art, its theory and practice in all its branches; e.g.-Daguerreotypy, photography, &c".
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The Camera and the Pencil; or the
Heliographic Art, its theory and practice in all its branches; e.g.-Daguerreotypy, photography, &c.
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284:"Boston Photographers Cited in 19th Century American Photographic Journals: A Bibliographic Database"
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method for sealing finished collodion images beneath a layer of glass using balsam - the so-called
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which published in 1858 was one of the first books written in the United States solely about the
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on Bromfield Street, which they later moved to 240 Washington Street. His partner wrote the book
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30:(1814–1867) was an American photographer and inventor, sometimes called the inventor of the
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To create an ambrotype, the photographer sensitized a polished plate of glass by the
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American Photographic Patents, The Daguerreotype & Wet Plate Era 1840-1880
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Improvement in the Preparation of Collodion for Photographic Pictures
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Philadelphia, D. Appleton & Co., N.Y., 1864, pp. 372–373.
231:(Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2007), pp. 171–172.
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Arctic Spectacles: The Frozen North in Visual Culture, 1818-1875
88:, a well-known daguerreotypist, as documented in the 1864 book
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Improvement in Compositions for Making Photographic Pictures
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Philadelphia, D. Appleton & Co., N.Y., 1864, pp. 372-373
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in 1842, and on the money from selling his patents moved to
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215:The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes
208:Improvement in Photographic Pictures on Glass
222:Death of an Inventor in an Insane Asylum
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41:. At age 28, he invented a new type of
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348:19th-century American photographers
37:He grew up in poverty on a farm in
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299:(includes info related to Cutting)
16:American photographer and inventor
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210:, US Patent 11267, July 11, 1854.
203:, US Patent 11266, July 11, 1854.
333:Photographers from Massachusetts
250:The Tintype in America 1856-1880
196:, US Patent 11213, July 4, 1854.
313:American portrait photographers
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23:Portrait of J.A. Cutting, 1862
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103:Cutting's Patent Ambrotype
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164:: 'Death of an Inventor'
154:Barnum's Aquarial Gardens
90:The Camera and the Pencil
39:Haverhill, New Hampshire
318:Pioneers of photography
257:Photography in America,
248:Schimmelman, Janice G.
241:Schimmelman, Janice G.
130:Boston Aquarial Gardens
343:19th century in Boston
114:lithographic limestone
79:Frederick Scott Archer
34:photographic process.
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28:James Ambrose Cutting
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86:Marcus Aurelius Root
338:Artists from Boston
213:James, Christopher
138:The Family Aquarium
128:first opened their
81:(see Schimmelman).
282:Ron Polito (ed.).
275:2012-10-19 at the
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270:US Patents Online
255:Welling, William
227:Potter, Russell,
206:Cutting, James A.
199:Cutting, James A.
192:Cutting, James A.
66:collodion process
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124:In 1859, he and
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110:Photolithography
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328:1867 deaths
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150:P.T. Barnum
120:Later years
307:Categories
294:2015-05-05
168:References
57:Ambrotypes
63:wet plate
32:Ambrotype
273:Archived
142:aquarium
96:Patents
43:beehive
47:Boston
132:, a
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