Tintypes were popular in the 1860’s and 1870’s and many of the photographs taken during the Civil War were tintypes. They are not made on tin, but are a type of photograph made on a sheet of blackened iron. A mobile tintype photography booth will be set up at the Penobscot Marine Museum on Wednesday, July 29 and visitors may have their tintype portrait taken or can watch a tintype demonstration. The tintype booth is run by the AgNO3 Lab, which specializes in formal tintype portraits. Portraits are $40 per tintype, which includes a 2 for 1 museum admission. The tintype booth will be set up between 10:00 am and 5:00 pm. The tintype demonstration begins at 2:00 pm. Portraits will be made on a first come first served basis or reservations for a portrait may be made by calling the museum at 207-548-0334.
Tintype portrait by AgNO3 Lab
Making a Tintype Portrait is part of Exploring the Magic of Photography: Painting with Light,Penobscot Marine Museum’s first major exhibition of historic photography. It includes four exhibits, a walk-in camera, a wall of selfies taken by museum visitors, an historic darkroom, tintype and cyanotype demonstrations, and workshops on making pin-hole cameras. The four exhibits, Through Her Lens: Women Photographers of Mid-Coast Maine, 1890-1920; Twenty Best; Evolution of the Photographic Snapshot: 1888-2015; and The Carters and the Lukes – Selections from the Red Boutilier Collection are filled with inter-active opportunities for visitors including life-sized photographic cut-outs with which visitors may photograph themselves, an online exhibit of visitor photographs and comments, and QR codes and tablets providing access to audio clips of interviews, biographies, and commentary by historians, curators and professional photographers.