Photogr. [f. TIN sb. + TYPE.] A photograph taken as a positive on a thin tin plate: cf. FERROTYPE 2. Also attrib.
1863. Daily Even. News (Fall River, MA), 5 Dec., 3/1, Advt. Miniature Albums for Tin Types.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 1684/2. Ferrotypes, or tintypes, as they are sometimes called.
1889. Anthony’s Photogr. Bull., II. 173. Having dallied with our very attractive art since the early days of tintypes.
1894. Brit. Jrnl. Photogr., XLI. 68. The tin-type man still continues to employ collodion.
Hence Tin-typer, a photographer who takes tin-types.
1882. The Sun (N.Y.), 15 May, 3/2. Most of these itinerants are prosperous, but some of the tin-typers who take your picture on the street for ten cents are Bohemians…. They are the tramps of the profession.
1892. Stevenson & L. Osbourne, Wrecker, iii. 43. The trade of a tin-typer proved too narrow for the lad’s ambition.
