The time to reach St. Paul, Minnesota from New York City in 1860 was about 5 days, a combination of rail and steamboat conveyances. The closest rail station to St. Paul was Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin (although this was short-lived). If you attempted to take the train there from New York City you would have paid about $25.20 (the fare in 1857). You would also have to change trains several times, not only because there were different railroad companies involved, but because those companies ran on disparate gauges of track! You'd likely start out on 4'-8.5" (standard) gauge, probably switch to a 4'-10" gauge at Buffalo, and then switch back to standard gauge at Cleveland. In all, there were six different, incompatible railroad gauges in use throughout the country in 1860, and this would later complicate the war effort.

Wooden rail passenger cars were not built for comfort or safety. There were no dining cars (you would have to grab a bite during a stop), few sleeping cars (Pullman was still working on it) and the cars were not vestibuled so that walking between cars was dirty and dangerous. Soot and cinders easily worked its way into the cars and passengers nearly suffocated within covered train sheds and tunnels. There was a toilet and drinking water in each car,however.

Another difficulty was telling time. Until time zones were established by the railroads in 1883, every town operated on its own time as indicated by sundials. In some cases, each railroad station in a town operated on its own time. When riding on a train going east or west, you never really knew what time it was until you got to the next station and someone could tell you. This made schedules very difficult (the chaos often resulted in train crashes). Because train connections and un-synchronized timepieces were so commonplace, missed trains were routine.

TELEGRAPHY.

American Financier Cyrus W. Field began laying a transatlantic cable in August 1857, the first of several unsuccessful attempts to lay a cable. A partial success came in 1858 when a cable between Newfoundland and Ireland allowed U. S. President Buchanan and Queen Victoria to exchange messages. Field was celebrated, but his venture was set back when the cable's insulation failed. Success was finally achieved in July 1866, and Field was once again acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Pacific Telegraph Act, passed June 16, 1860, authorized the U. S. to construct a telegraph line from Missouri to San Francisco. The line was completed October 24, 1861. Two major telegraph companies in 1860 were American Telegraph Co., formed in 1855, and Western Union Telegraph Company, formed in 1856 to control western telegraph lines. The two merged in 1866, retaining the Western Union name. In 1860, the census counted 1,956 "telegraph operators"; top eleven states in order of count: New York, Pennsylvania,Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Massachusetts, Iowa, New Jersey,Virginia.

PHOTOGRAPHY.

In 1860, the census counted 2,650 "Daguerreotypists" and only 504 "photographers." This indicates that the older job title was still entrenched, although the twenty-year-old process had been superseded by safer and reproducible forms. In 1860, a photograph was sometimes referred to as a "likeness" and studios were called "likeness shops."

Collodion glass negative - F. Scott Archer published the collodion process in 1851. The process was widely used until 1881. Collodion is made from gun cotton (cotton soaked in nitric and sulfuric acid and dried) dissolved into a mixture of alcohol, ether, and potassium iodide. This syrupy, sticky mixture is poured onto clean glass plates, sensitized in a solution of silver nitrate in a darkroom. The plate is then inserted into a light tight plate holder and then the plate holder is inserted into the prearranged camera. The dark slide is removed and the exposure is made by removing the lens cap thus exposing the plate. The dark slide is replaced and the holder is then removed from the camera and taken back into the darkroom. The photographer needed to act quickly to develop the exposed plate before the collodion dried. Once fixed, washed, dried, and coated with protective varnish, the negative was then used to produce prints (salt or albumen) by contact printing in sunlight.

Paper print processes and types - salt, albumen, CdV, stereograph

Salt print - The technology behind the first photographs taken in the early 1830s, a salt print is a sheet of paper sensitized in a solution of salt (sodium chloride) and then coated with silver nitrate on one side only. The salt combined with the silver nitrate to form light sensitive silver chloride. After drying, the paper was contact printed in sunlight through a glass or paper negative in a printing frame. By 1860, albumen prints largely replaced salt prints.

Albumen print - Invented by Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard of France in 1850, this process replaced salt prints for copying from photographic negatives. Thin paper soaked in a bath of egg whites and salt, offered a smoother surface than salted paper alone, and was capable of recording more accurate detail. A bath in silver nitrate solution sensitized the paper to light. Sunlight contact printed an image onto the albumen paper through a collodion glass negative.

Originally reddish brown in color, most albumen prints have faded over time to a yellowish brown tone. Image particles are suspended in the albumen layer on top of the paper instead of in the fibers of the paper itself. Until about 1890, albumen prints reigned as the prevalent process.

Carte de visite - This visiting card style of photograph was a French invention, patented about 1854. In America, CdVs gained popularity during the Civil War because they were cheap, sturdy (for mailing), and available in multiple copies. Generally, photographers used a four-lens camera to produce four CdV negatives on a 7x9 inch glass plate. Each negative produced a print that was mounted a stiff card measuring about 2.5 by 4.25 inches. The bottom or back of the CdV often advertised the photographer's name and address. Carte de visites were usually collected in special albums designed to hold them. A typical CdV portrait was a head and shoulders or full length pose-usually an albumen photograph, but occasionally a salt print.

Many individuals sat for their CdV portrait, but mass produced portraits of celebrities were also sold. CdV portraits of generals, statesmen, actors and actresses and other 19th century celebrities were commercially sold by the thousands. Supposedly, more than 100,000 carte de visite photographs were produced and distributed of Abraham Lincoln alone.

Stereograph or Stereo card - Paired photographs of the same image which, when viewed through a stereoscope, appear as a single image in three dimension. There are stereo Daguerreotypes and ambrotypes but most, called "card" stereographs were made of albumen prints set next to each other on a cardboard mount. A dual-lens camera made two exposures separated approximately as far apart as are human eyes.

In 1854, Frederick and William Langenheim issued the first American card series. Most stereographs date from the mid-1850s to about 1920. Viewing stereographs through the stereoscope was extremely popular parlor entertainment. No other form of photograph provides such a complete record of the world changing from agrarianism to a new industrial and urban way of life.

 
An example of an early photograph stereo card showing two unidentified base ball clubs. Circa 1870. Later cards are printed via halftone and are spot colored. Brent "Skinny" Peterson collection.

Ambrotype - A common photograph process in 1860, the ambrotypec was patented in 1854 in the United States by James A. Cutting, although it was first introduced in 1852 in England. Ambrotype photographs are across between a wet-plate negative and a Daguerreotype. An ambrotype is an underexposed, wet collodion negative, mounted against a dark background to appear as a positive image. It is like a Daguerreotype in that it is meant to be a single, unique image and is displayed in the same kind of case, so the two are often confused. They are entirely different photographic processes, the ambrotype being a piece of glass as opposed to the piece of silvered copper plate used for a Daguerreotype. The ambrotype is less reflective than the Daguerreotype and thus easier to view, but it usually captured less detail and less tonal range. Ambrotypes quickly took hold in America, gradually eclipsing the Daguerreotype. Ambrotypes were easy to tint and cheaper to make and sell than Daguerreotypes. However, by the mid-1860s, sturdier tintypes and carte de visites replaced the glass plate ambrotype.

A dismantled ambrotype photograph illustrates how it produces a positive image even though the image on the glass is actually a negative. The backing can be painted metal, as illustrated here, black felt, or a black card. Often the paint on the metal backing is flaking off, which creates a strange, three-dimensional pocked appearance. Unlike a Daguerreotype, ambrotypes do not have a silvery, mirror appearance and can sometimes be difficult to distinguish between a mounted tintype with a glass covering. Washington County Historical Society (Minn.) collection (AMB002).

This ambrotype was taken out of its case and illustrates how the collodion is easily scratched. Many ambrotypes were hand colored in the cheeks and lips. Ambrotype portraits usually measure 2 X2.5-inches. Washington County Historical Society (Minn.) collection (AMB001).

 

Tintype or Ferrotype - Invented in 1856 by Hamilton Smith, an Ohio professor of chemistry and physics, the tintype took the ambrotype one step further by replacing the glass. As with the Daguerreotype, the image was secured on a metal plate exposed in the camera, but the metal was iron instead of copper and it was lacquered with a black or brown Japan varnish instead of being coated with silver. As with the glass plate of an ambrotype, the metal plate of a tintype was sensitized with collodion and silver nitrate before camera exposure. Until 1865, tintypes were mounted in the same cases as Daguerreotypes and ambrotypes.

Used almost exclusively for inexpensive portraiture, the tintype's popularity expanded during the Civil War. Tintypes were easier to take and could better withstand vicissitudes of the mail. Photographers were also more inclined to create ovals and other shapes with tintypes, as the image was not likely to be damaged when trimmed. Oval cases made of wood or thermoplastic, often with a felt covering and button opener, were a refreshing change from the staid rectangular case of years past. Most post-war tintypes were inexpensively mounted in a paper sleeve. Tintypes remained popular until after 1900.
 

Early tintypes look almost exactly like an ambrotype due to the glass covering and case mounting, however portraits are often the same size as Daguerreotypes, measuring 2.75 X 3.25-inches. A way to determine if it is a tintype is to study the surface of the image: a tintype will have an uneven surface, often as small, shiny bumps, unlike the smooth glass surface of an ambrotype. Also, tintypes are attracted to magnets. Tintypes are also mirror-images being that the collodion is the light-struck surface; an ambrotype should be displayed emulsion side down to create a correct orientation. Washington County Historical Society (Minn.) collection (TIN001).