The Schomburg Ambrotype collection dates from the 1850s through the 1860s, and consists of fifteen ambrotypes. The portraits depict Black families, couples, and individuals, posed in a portrait style.
Biographical/historical: This collection of ambrotypes was compiled from multiple collections by the Schomburg Photographs and Prints Division. Ambrotypes are based on the wet plate collodion process and became widely used in the United States in the 1850s. The ambrotype is a one-of-a-kind image made with glass plates coated with collodion and dipped in silver nitrate. It was technically less complex and more inexpensive than the process of making daguerreotypes. However, by the 1860s, the format was superseded by the popularity and availability of tintypes.
The identities of most of the photographers are unknown. Some individuals depicted in the photographs have been identified. The identified photographers and photo studios include R. Adams; Quinby and Company; and the Goodridge Brothers.
R. Adams was a photographer or photography studio. The location of the studio or any further information about Adams is currently unknown.
Quinby and Company was a photography studio based in Charleston, South Carolina.
The Goodridge Brothers were Black photographers based in York, Pennsylvania, and later East Saginaw, Michigan. The eldest, Glenalvin, began working as a daguerreotypist in 1847, one of the earliest documented Black photographers known to have operated a studio before 1950. Glenalvin established a successful photography studio in York, Pennsylvania and by 1855, the studio was able to make both daguerreotypes as well as ambrotypes, the latest photographic technique of the time. After some financial difficulties in York, Glenalvin established the Michigan-based Goodridge Brothers photography studio with brothers William O. and Wallace Goodridge in Easy Saginaw in 1863. The studio continued to create daguerreotypes and ambrotypes, and the brothers established reputations for their landscape and portrait work. After Glenalvin died in 1867, the Goodridge Brothers studio continued to operate until the death of the last brother, Wallace, in 1922.
Content: The collection consists of fifteen ambrotypes from the 1850s and 1860s. The photographs depict Black families, couples, and individuals posed in a formal portrait style. Many plates have hand-painted gold details, mostly on jewelry. Three items depicting members of the Lyons family contain two plates facing either side of the enclosure. All other items contain a single plate facing the interior of the casing, sometimes with velvet details.
The majority of photographers are unknown, but one casing identifies Quinby and Co. studio, and another a photographer, R. Adams. A third photograph identifies the Goodridge Brothers on the mat surrounding the plate.
Each ambrotype is arranged alphabetically by title and includes a physical description of the casing, an approximate date, and a photographer or studio name when known.
