[Civil War nurse Mary A.E. Keen Woodworth]

Archive record

1 photograph : tintype ; mat 37 x 28 mm (gem plate format)

About this photograph

The archive records this as a tintype portrait of Mary A.E. Keen Woodworth, a Civil War nurse, made in 1900. The tintype process produced a direct positive image on a thin sheet of iron, and the gem plate format noted here was among the smallest standard sizes used.

By 1900 the Civil War had been over for thirty-five years. During the war itself, soldiers on both sides commonly sat for cartes de visite or tintypes before leaving for service, intending to leave an image with family. The technology of the period made action photographs impossible, so the visual record consists largely of portraits, camp scenes, and fortifications.

If this portrait was indeed made in 1900, it represents a much later sitting, produced decades after Woodworth's wartime service ended. The tintype process had largely been replaced by other photographic methods by the turn of the century.

Compiled from the catalogue record and reference notes on the formats and events involved. The archive record above is the primary source.

About the format

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