Tintype Studio

Without a doubt, the last building Ford added before the October 21, 1929 grand opening of Greenfield Village was the replicated Tintype Studio.
As Ed Cutler relates: "The last headache was the day before the celebration. The boss came along and wanted a tintype shop and we had to have that tintype shop in one day. Ebling (Ford photographer) worked his fool head off. I think he got his wife's curtains down there to put on the windows. His wife and mother-in-law fixed up the curtains for the skylight. He had to get the thing operating for the next day. We had to paint (it) to get it in shape, and then it started to rain. It rained all the day of the celebration."
Of course, once the grand opening was completed, Ford finished off the studio correctly, using linen for the skylights and decorating the inside for a more accurate portrayal. It was designed to look like a studio from the 1870's and 1880's.Large cities and small towns all across America in the last half of the 19th century had tintype studios, very similar to this reproduction. Tintypes, a thin sheet of iron painted black, were an inexpensive way for the average person to have an image taken. Having your photograph taken was considered an event, and folks dressed up in their Sunday best.The studio had three rooms: a dressing (or "primping") room, where the customer got ready to have their image taken; the studio (or "operating") room originally equipped with head rests to hold people's heads still so the picture wouldn't come out blurry; and the darkroom, for the preparation and developing of the tintypes.At one time, the Village, for a small fee, would take a customer's tintype image as a souvenir. In fact, many famous people that visited the Village had their images taken with an original wet plate camera from the period, including Walt Disney, Joe Louis, Lillian Gish, and Jane Withers.
Every so often - most notably during the Civil War Remembrance Weekend, tintypes can still be taken at the studio.

.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Maps Through Time: The Ever-changing Lay Out of Greenfield Village

Image
From its inception over 80 years ago through today, Greenfield Village has gone through numerous layouts, which is no easy task considering that it is actual buildings - historic buildings - that are being moved. I'm sure with each change there were complaints. Well, of course, unless it was Mr. Ford's idea. No one disagreed with the Big Guy. But, even with the last major restructuring in 2003 their were disgruntled customers. My opinion is as long as it's kept historically accurate, I don't mind. What I thought I'd do here was to show, through original six maps from six different decades, the ever-growing and ever-changing history of Greenfield Village. To see the graphics larger, please click onto the photo. Our first map takes us back to October 29, 1929 - that very first rainy day that Henry Ford opened up his Greenfield Village to special guests. Here was Mr. Ford's original vision: Twelve years later, in 1941, one can see just how much the Village grew: ...
Read more

Grimm Jewelry Store

Image
When Englebert Grimm died in 1931, he bequeathed the contents of his store to his good friend Henry Ford, and Grimm's surviving daughter honored that request in 1932. Originally built in 1878 (or possibly 1885 - I have two different sources from the Village) at 2033 Michigan Avenue, Ford obtained the building from the City of Detroit for a $195 salvage fee and, in 1940, had it re-erected inside Greenfield Village. This was the shop where young Henry would stop to visit the owner and sometimes purchase tools or parts to repair watches. Grimm was a German immigrant who, with his family, lived on in the second floor of this building, creating a modest modern home for its time. He offered mass-produced inexpensive clocks, watches, and jewelry to the local Detroit area residents. It was specialty stores such as this that caused the demise of the general store. It is set now as it was in the late 1880's. I have been told that many of the watches inside are those that Henry Ford actu...
Read more

Sarah Jordan Boarding House

Image
This house, built in 1870, originally stood near the laboratory where Thomas Edison and his men toiled in Menlo Park, New Jersey. Widowed in 1877, "Aunt Sally," as Sarah was known, lived in Newark, and was sent for in 1878 by her distant relative, Thomas Edison, to run a place for his workers to eat and sleep. With little employment opportunities for women, Mrs. Jordan accepted the offer and opened the home as a boarding house that same year. Several of Edison's single employees lived here and would sleep two to three to a bed in the six rooms on the second floor. In fact, at the height of the laboratory's activities in 1880, sixteen boarders called this structure 'home.' Edison's house, a good-sized residence, was down the road a short ways. Daily, the 'Wizard of Menlo Park' passed the Jordan Boarding House to and from his laboratory, walking atop the wood-plank walk, wearing a skull cap or a farmer's wide-brimmed straw hat, both hands...
Read more