Every antique American photograph is a fascinating piece of our history, an image of long-lost people, places and things, miraculously surviving into the present day. Searching eBay's offerings, you might find one of your own ancestors, or your home town or state as it was a hundred years ago. You can search for long-ago celebrities -- generals and actresses, presidents and kings -- or seek out pictures of everyday people earning their livings, blacksmiths or farmers or cowboys.

At first you may find the sheer number and variety of antique photographs on eBay overwhelming. On any given day, eBay's Collectibles > Photographic Images > Antique (Pre-1940) category has more than 20,000 listings! So where do you start? Well, as with any eBay shopping expedition, you need to know what you want, and how to find it.

In this guide, I'll describe the most important types of 19th century American photographs, give you clues for recognizing each type, and suggest eBay search strategies to get your collection started!

Daguerreotypes 1839-1854 

In the beginning there was the daguerreotype. Louis Daguerre’s process for capturing photographic images arrived in the United States in September 1839, imported from France.

The earliest technology wasn’t good for photographing people – the first photographers’ subjects (victims?) were forced to sit absolutely still in the blazing sun for excruciatingly long exposure times.

Fortunately, lenses were improved and exposure times cut to seconds by 1840. As a result, just about any American photographic portrait you find from 1840 until around 1854 will be a daguerreotype.

Daguerreotype in wooden case, circa 1850.

A daguerreotype image was printed directly onto metal, a thin sheet of copper plated with silver. This process yields a brilliantly detailed picture, often reversed left-to-right, and if tilted at the wrong angle is difficult to see, like a laptop screen. The most common daguerreotype portrait size is about 2-3/4 inches by 3-1/4 inches, which is called a “one-sixth plate”.

Expect to pay a premium price for daguerreotypes, as they are not only the earliest examples of American photography, but also one of a kind. There was no way to duplicate daguerreotypes, so no two can ever be exactly alike. Also, the velvet- or silk-lined cases made to protect these images are miniature works of art themselves.

Collector’s Tips:

• The word “daguerreotype” is hard to spell! For better luck in your eBay searches, use the abbreviation “dag”.
  

Albumen Prints 1852 - 1890

Albumen prints hit the market in 1852, made on paper coated with egg whites. (No kidding!) This gave a glossy surface, and photographs of this type have a sepia brown tint.

The two best-known types of albumen prints are “cartes de visite” – calling cards, borrowed from the French again – and cabinet cards.

Abbreviated as “CDVs”, cartes de visite were portraits pasted onto small (2-1/2 by 4 inches) cards, wildly collectible in their heyday from 1854 to about 1864. Plush albums like the one shown below were sold for collecting portraits of family and friends, plus celebrities, royalty and other public figures.

A carte de visite, or CDV, of a Civil War era couple.
Notice that he's clutching his ornate album of CDVs!

Cabinet cards were a larger version of CDVs introduced in 1866. Almost twice as big, a cabinet card measured 4-1/4 inches by 6-1/2 inches.

Collector’s Tips:

• Since CDVs and cabinet cards were produced by the millions, collectors favor “ID’d” cards, meaning the subject, the date, and/or the location are identified.
  
• Some CDVs have tax stamps. The U.S. postage stamp on the back means that the card was produced September 1, 1864 - August 1, 1866, when the government taxed photos sent through the mail.

Stereographs 1852 – 1920

Albumen prints were also used for stereographs, in which two identical photos were mounted side-by-side on a card. When viewed through a stereopticon, the two pictures merge into one, three-dimensional image. (Don’t have a stereopticon? Then try crossing your eyes when you look at the card.)

Stereographs were all the rage in Victorian home entertainment. Some 7 million stereographic cards were sold between 1852 and the 1920s, world-wide, and stereopticon viewers were a fixture in more than a million homes.

Collector’s Tips:

• Not all stereograph cards were made with photos; some used lithographs. If you examine lithographs closely, you’ll see the image is made up of lots of little dots.

Ambrotypes 1854 - 1860

An ambrotype is printed on glass; a backing of dark velvet makes the image show up. Like a daguerreotype, an ambrotype is kept in a case. An ambrotype is not quite as sharp an image as a “dag”, more pearlescent than diamond. Ambrotypes were only popular from 1854 to 1860, so they are somewhat scarce today.

Collector’s Tip:

• Ambrotypes are sometimes listed as daguerreotypes. Find more using eBay’s Search feature to look for “ambrotype” in the auction descriptions as well as the auction titles .

Tintypes 1855 - 1930

Like a daguerreotype, a tintype image was also printed onto metal. Tintypes were introduced around the same time as ambrotypes in the mid-1850s, but had a much longer run, popularity-wise: you can find tintypes made as late as the 1930s.

Tintypes are as tough as the black-lacquer-coated iron (oddly, not tin) that they’re printed on, and were often sealed with varnish.

Tintypes could be made in very small, postage-stamp size images called “gems”. These could be worn in a locket, in buttons or other jewelry. Civil War soldiers mailed them home to their sweethearts, but after the war, tintypes were considered cheap novelties. You wouldn’t have caught a real celebrity sitting for a tintype portrait, but you would find ordinary people posing for informal pictures like this one:

Don't ever doubt our ancestors had a sense of humor!
A tintype dating to the late 1800s / early 1900s.

Bromide Prints 1887 – 1920

In 1887, a new type of photographic print paper was developed, called bromide paper. These prints look very different from albumen prints, showing shades of black-and-gray rather than brown-and-yellow. As they age, bromide prints turn silvery around the edges. Bromide paper was also used to produce “real photo postcards”,or RPPCs in eBay collectors’ shorthand. 

The front and back of a "real photo" postcard, or RPPC, circa 1910.

Collector’s Tip:

• Want to build your collection on a budget? Look into real photo postcards. You’ll find a wide selection at lower prices than many photos.

Cyanotypes 1890 - Present

Cyanotypes are easy to recognize: they’re blue! Although the technology was actually developed (again, no pun intended) in the 1840s, it wasn’t until 1890 or so that cyanotypes were produced in quantity. The process was often used to create maps, drawings, and yep, you guessed it – blueprints; but from 1890 to 1900 cyanotypes were all the rage for amateur photographers. 

Cyanotype Couple, circa 1900

Today, cyanotype kits are still available for children to create simple light prints; the chemicals are harmless, and the prints are developed in plain water.

More Search Strategies!

• The majority of antique photographs listed for sale on eBay are in the Collectibles > Photographic Images > Antique (Pre-1940) category, but you will also find some under Art > Photographic Images, using the search phrase “vintage photographs”.
  
• To find antique photos whose subject interests you, think of key words to use in your searches. For example, if you’re interested in military and armed services, try war, general, soldier or sailor. If you like period costumes, search for costume, dress or hat; for occupational photographs, enter words like plumber, dentist, or fireman.
  
• To jump-start your new collection of antique photos, try searching for the word “lot” in the auction listings. You can win a grab-bag of photos that way!

Join eBay Groups!

You’ll find a warm welcome and a wealth of information in groups of eBay members devoted to any topic that interests you. If your interest in antique photographs was sparked by researching your family tree, try the eBay Geneaology Group. Check out the Vernacular Photography Enthusiasts for “Vintage Anonymous Photos & Snapshots”. And if you’d like to “cross over” into photographic postcards, visit the Real Photo (RPPC) Postcard Club.

All photographs shown in this guide are from the collection of the author, eBay ID LocalGringos.