“Look! Look!! Look!!! Tintypes. Cheap. Beautiful. Lasting.” The sign posted by the entrance to an elaborate temporary booth at a 1903 county fair sums up in a handful of words much of the appeal of the simple tintype portrait photograph.

County fair, tintype booth of Miss. F.B. Johnston, May 1903. Photo by Frances Benjamin Johnston, May 1903. hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ds.06570
For decades, the tintype was the most likely result of such a transaction, as it could be created with minimal equipment on any busy street corner. The metal base (iron, not tin, despite the name) for the photo was far more durable than paper and so it offered a lasting photographic record.
As seen in the examples below, photographers set up on bustling streets to catch passersby, at county or state fairs or anywhere a crowd was gathering. Some had mobile studios, though few as elaborate as the one above. Not all itinerant photographers made tintypes. As time and technology marched forward, small photographs on paper were also available for sale. The practice of the itinerant photographer faded away in the 1940s, as more and more people owned their own cameras.

Street photographers, Little Italy, New York. Photo by Bain News Service. hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain.02979

Tin-type photographer at Morrisville, Vermont fair. Photo by Carl Mydans, 1936 Aug. hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8a02572

Steele, Missouri. A crowd in front of an itinerant photographer’s tent. Photo by Russell Lee, 1938 Aug. hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8a23444

Itinerant photographer in Columbus, Ohio. Photo by Ben Shahn, 1938 Aug. hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8a18478

Essex Junction, Vermont. Tintype photographer at the Champlain Valley Exposition. Photo by Jack Delano, 1941 Aug. hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8a36744

Street photographer. Smithfield, North Carolina. Photo by Arthur Rothstein, 1936 Oct. hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b28344

Washington, D.C. Street photographer in front of the Capitol. Photo by Esther Bubley, 1943 Mar. hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8d26795
Learn More:
- The photographers who made their living by setting up their cameras in varying locations were known by many names, and so our photo captions vary as well. Explore more photos of: street photographers, itinerant photographers and traveling photographers in the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog. Photographers who focused on producing tintypes were, of course, also known as tintype photographers.
- Explore hundreds of examples of tintypes in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. While many of these were shot in traditional studios, some were certainly shot on the street or in traveling studios equipped with a few props.
- Learn more about tintypes in our overview of Popular Photographic Print Processes Represented in the Prints and Photographs Division.
April 8, 2016 at 6:23 am
Beautiful finds! Thanks!
April 11, 2016 at 10:33 am
Really interesting article. Thanks for sharing this info.!
April 18, 2016 at 1:20 pm
as an old TV News Videographer love it I should of looked that good!