The latest Duluth artifacts to fall in my lap are three unlabeled tintypes — photos processed onto thin sheets of metal. I don’t think I’ve come across Duluth tintypes before, but surely others must exist, so I post here with the hope that someone can enlighten me in the comments section and perhaps share their own tintypes.
Obviously there are many Duluth photos in the style of the ones above, printed on paper, so the tintype novelty is kind of lost when posting scans on a website, but that’s no reason to hold back.
How did I acquire the tintypes above? Well, it turns out my father has had them for ages. The gentleman without the mustache in the photos is my great grandfather, Andrew Andren, founder of Andren’s Paint Company in West Duluth. Andren’s has been in business since 1896, and that might roughly be the year of the tintype photos. The name of the other guy is not known.
Below is an instructional video about the tintype process to provide a better idea of how these portraits were made.
