Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

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Start Over You searched for: Repository University of Michigan William L. Clements Library Remove constraint Repository: University of Michigan William L. Clements Library Collection David V. Tinder Collection of Michigan Photography, ca. 1845-1980 Remove constraint Collection: David V. Tinder Collection of Michigan Photography, ca. 1845-1980
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Approximately 113,000 photographs and 96 volumes

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.

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.

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I. Cased Images

The David V. Tinder Collection of Michigan Photography, Cased Images series consists of 132 cased photographs (primarily daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes), the majority of which were produced by 25 photographers mainly based in Michigan between 1845 and 1950. The vast majority of these images are studio portraits depicting 19th-century men, women, and children from middle and upper class backgrounds in formal individual and/or group portraits. The series includes 65 daguerreotypes, 38 ambrotypes, 28 tintypes and 1 snapshot. There are approximately 42 images where the subjects have been identified but not the photographers, 54 images where the photographers have been identified but not the subjects, 17 images where both the photographers and subjects have been identified as well as 18 images where neither the photographers nor subjects have been identified. All items in this series have been individually cataloged. Item-specific catalog records with more in-depth information as well as links to digital versions of these materials are accessible through University of Michigan Library Search. For best results, keyword search specific photographer names and/or subject names.