Ambrotypes

The photography choice of the mid 1850's through the 1860's.

An ambrotype was a photographic process invented in the 1850's that replaced the daguerreotype (it was cheaper to produce an ambrotype). By the mid 1860's, the tintype became the photography of choice since tintypes were more durable and less expensive. By the 1870s, albumen prints on paper became the dominant photographic format.

Like today, technology kept changing!