David V. Tinder Collection of Michigan Photography, ca. 1845-1980

Summary

Creator:

Tinder, David V.

Abstract:

The David V. Tinder Collection of Michigan Photography consists of over 100,000 images in a variety of formats including daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, cartes de visite, cabinet photographs, real photo postcards, stereographs, and mounted and unmounted paper prints. The collection is primarily made up of vernacular photographs of everyday life in Michigan taken by both professional and amateur photographers from the 1840s into the mid-twentieth century. In addition to supporting local history research, the collection has resources for the study of specific events and subjects. Included are images related to lumbering, mining, suburbanization; the industrialization of cities; travel and transportation; the impact of the automobile; the rise of middle-class leisure society; fashion and dress; ethnicity and race; the role of fraternal organizations in society; and the participation of photographers in business, domestic, and social life. The collection is only partially open for research.

Extent:

Approximately 113,000 photographs and 96 volumes

Language:

English

Authors:

Collection processed and finding aid created by Joel Hickey, Leslie High, Francine Keyes, Clayton Lewis, William Lewis, Jorge Lopez-McKnight, Megan Marion, Lori Mott, Eve Neiger, Marjorie O'Brien, May Oyler, Diana Sykes, James Thiry, Jayne Ptolemy, Michael Wesenberg, Louie Miller, Claire Milldrum, Morgan Fenton, Jakob Dopp, Annika Dekker, 2009-2024

Background

Scope and Content:

The subject contents of different photographic format series within the Tinder collection vary, depending in part upon how each format was historically used, and the date range of that format's popularity. For example, cartes de visite and cased images are most often formal studio portraits, while stereographs are likely to be outdoor views. Cabinet photographs are frequently portraits, but often composed with less formality than the cartes de visite and cased images. The postcards and the mounted prints contain very diverse subjects. The photographers' file contains many important and rare images of photographers, their galleries, promotional images, and the activities of photographers in the field. See individual series descriptions in the Contents List below for more specific details.

Included throughout are images by both professional and amateur photographers, although those by professionals are extant in far greater numbers.

Biographical / Historical:

David V. Tinder was born in Lima, Ohio, in 1926, and moved to Flint, Michigan, as a child. He served in the United States Navy as an electronic technician's mate until he was honorably discharged in July of 1946. Dave Tinder attended Flint Junior College for one year before transferring to the University of Michigan, which awarded him a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics in 1949.

Tinder spent the majority of his career as a project engineer and engineering manager to new product development in the Detroit area. He worked for manufacturers and automotive suppliers including Dura Corporation, McCord Corporation, and United Technologies. Tinder developed many successful products and has been issued sixteen United States patents plus a number in foreign countries. Dave Tinder retired from United Technologies, Automotive Products Division in 1990.

Tinder began collecting antiques in the late 1950s, starting with leaded glass lamps, art glass and ceramics, Art Nouveau pewter, and Japanese bronzes. Inspired by William C. Darrah's 1964 book A History of Stereographs in America and Their Collection, he amassed a large group of international photographic stereo views. By the early 1970s he began trading his international collection for Michigan stereo views and other early photographic formats related to Michigan. Eventually this would include examples of virtually every popular photographic format used by both professional and amateur photographers in the first century of photography.

Tinder became increasingly interested in the lives and careers of the photographers represented in his collection and began creating The Directory of Early Michigan Photographers. The combination of his collection and research has led to his recognition as the leading authority on the subject of early Michigan photography.

Acquisition Information:

Clements Library Associate Board Member David B. Walters purchased the David V. Tinder Collection of Michigan Photography in 2006. The collection is being held on deposit and donated incrementally to the Clements library in honor of Harold L. Walters, University of Michigan class of 1947, Engineering, and Marilyn S. Walters, University of Michigan class of 1950, LSA. Additional materials have been donated by Elaine Cato, Larry Filipczak, Donald Harrison, Andrew and Jill Kerkhoff, Cynthia Kerkhoff, David and Laurel Kovacs, Daisy Lovain, Peter and Cynthia Motzenbecker, Keith and Angela Steffke, David E. and Joanne Tinder, and David V. Tinder.

F-830, F-831, F-832, F-847, F-860, F-890, F-891, F-892, F-893, F-897, F-903, F-921, F-923, F-924, F-928, F-938, F-972, F-979, F-980, F-987, F-990, F-995, F-996, F-997, F-998, F-999, F-1000, F-1004, F-1005, F-1013, F-1014, F-1018, F-1033, F-1035, F-1045, F-1054, F-1055, F-1056, F-1066, F-1069, F-1070, F-1086, F-1101, F-1103, F-1105, F-1135, F-1137, F-1138, F-1144, F-1164, F-1167.

Processing information:

Cataloging funded in part by the Michigan Photographic Historical Society. This collection has been processed according to minimal processing procedures and may be revised, expanded, or updated in the future.

Arrangement:

The David V. Tinder Collection of Michigan Photography is organized primarily by photographic format, and sorted either by geographic location, photographer, or subject content. Because of the size and variety of the collection, separate finding aids describe each photographic format or subsection of the collection.

The collection is arranged in the following series:

• Series I. Cased Images: Cased daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes. Primarily portraiture with some special subjects. Date range from 1840s-1860s. Approx. 95 items.
• Series II. Cartes de Visite/Card Photographs: Alphabetized by photographer with special interest subjects sorted separately. Comprised mostly of studio portraiture. Includes small cdv sized tintypes. Date range from 1860-1900. Approx. 13,000 items.
• Series III. Stereographs: Sorted by county, place name, photographer and/or publisher, with some a few special sets are grouped separately. Comprised mostly of outdoor views. Date range from 1859-1920. Approx. 6,900 items.
• Series IV. Cabinet Photographs: Alphabetized by photographer with special interest subjects sorted separately. Comprised mostly of studio portraiture. Date range from 1868-1900. Approx. 19,000 items.
• Series V. County File: Alphabetized by county, including all 83 Michigan counties. Includes both card mounted photographs, unmounted paper prints, photomechanical prints, and large tintypes. Includes views of places, events, activities, group and individual portraits. Date range 1860s-1950s. 6,600 items.
• Series VI. Over-Sized File: Sorted by subject. Includes large card mounted photos and unmounted paper prints. Includes views of places, events, local scenes, group portraits, Cirkut Camera panoramas. Also includes examples of fine art photography by contemporary Michigan photographers known personally to the collector, David V. Tinder. Date range 1860s-1980s. Approx. 454 items.
• Series VII. Photographers File: Alphabetized by photographer. Housed in ring binders, approximately 24 binders representing over 800 photographers. Includes both original and reproduction photo portraits of photographers, views of gallery storefronts and interiors, images of photographers in the field, and advertising samples. Approx. 1,800 items. NOT PRESENTLY OPEN FOR RESEARCH.
• Series VIII. Real Photo Postcards: Alphabetized by Michigan County, place name, and subject. All 83 Michigan counties are represented. Date range 1906-1950s. Approx. 50,000 postcards. NOT PRESENTLY OPEN FOR RESEARCH.
• Series IX. Photo Albums and Photographically Illustrated Books: In chronological order. Includes both professional and amateur photographic albums, carte de visite albums, travel collections, school albums, published books, souvenir viewbooks, and pamphlets with photographic plate illustrations. Date range 1860s-1970s. 96 volumes. NOT PRESENTLY OPEN FOR RESEARCH.
• Series X. Framed Photographs: Photographic prints in vintage decorative frames or printing frames used for exposing contact prints. NOT PRESENTLY OPEN FOR RESEARCH.
• Series XI. Small Formats: Small mounted prints, unmounted snapshots, tintypes, miniature souvenir portfolios. NOT PRESENTLY OPEN FOR RESEARCH.
• Series XII. Detroit Publishing Company: Process related examples of mass produced lithographic prints and postcard production and advertising. NOT PRESENTLY OPEN FOR RESEARCH.
• Series XIII. Henry Stephens Lumber Company: Archive material including documents, photographs, and printed advertising examples. NOT PRESENTLY OPEN FOR RESEARCH.
• Series XIV. Black River Lumbering Photographs: Mounted albumen prints circa 1880s of lumbering operations in Alcona County, Michigan. 16 items.
• Series XV. C.C. Buskirk Railroad Photographs: Railroad locomotives, lumber camps, transport of logs via truck and rail in various Michigan counties all photographed by C.C Buskirk of Big Rapids. Date range 1885-1939. 7 items.
• Series XVI. Owen Fawcett Theatrical Photos: Photographs of the British born actor, Owen Fawcett (1838-1904) and his family. 41 items.
• Series XVII. Objects and Realia: Small objects and realia related to Michigan photography. NOT PRESENTLY OPEN FOR RESEARCH.
• Series XVIII. Glass Slides and Negatives: NOT PRESENTLY OPEN FOR RESEARCH
• Series XIV. World War I Polar Bear Expedition Photographs, U.S. Signal Corps. 193 items.

Rules or Conventions:

Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Related

Additional Descriptive Data:

Bibliography

Tinder, David V. Directory of Early Michigan Photographers. This reference work contains biographical information about virtually every known commercial and significant amateur photographer in the state of Michigan from the first known appearances in the 1840s into the early twentieth century.

Subjects

Click on terms below to find any related finding aids on this site.

Subjects:

David V. Tinder Collection of Michigan Photography.
Photographs shelf.
Agriculture--Michigan.
Agricultural laborers--Michigan.
Agricultural machinery & implements--Michigan.
Athletes--Michigan.
Automobile factories.
Automobile industry workers.
Automobiles--Design and construction.
Bicycles.
Boats and boating.
Business.
Camping--Michigan.
Cities & towns--Michigan.
Copper miners--Michigan.
Copper mines and mining.
Copper smelting.
Crimes--Michigan.
Cycling--Michigan.
Disasters--Michigan.
Domestic life--Michigan.
Dwellings--Michigan.
Education--Michigan.
Electric railroads--Michigan.
Farms--Michigan.
Fraternal lodges--Michigan.
Fraternal organizations--Michigan.
Industries.
Iron miners--Michigan.
Iron mines and mining.
Labor--Michigan.
Leisure--Michigan.
Loggers--Michigan.
Logging--Michigan.
Lumber camps--Michigan.
Lumbermen.
Lumbering.
Logging railroads.
Mineral industries.
Mining--Michigan.
Mining machinery.
Occupations--Michigan.
Photographers--Michigan.
Railroad stations--Michigan.
Railroads--Michigan.
Railroads--Design and construction.
Roads--Design and construction.
Schools--Michigan.
Steamboats--Michigan.
Storefronts--Michigan.
Stores & shops--Michigan.
Wars.
Women--Societies and clubs.

Formats:

Albumen prints.
Ambrotypes.
Cartes de visite.
Cabinet photographs.
Card photographs.
Cyanotypes.
Daguerreotypes.
Ephemera.
Gelatin silver prints.
Glass negatives.
Group portraits.
Lantern slides.
Panoramic photographs.
Photograph albums.
Photographic postcards.
Photographic prints.
Photomechanical prints.
Portrait photographs.
Snapshots.
Stereographs.
Tintypes.

Places:

Michigan.