The Wet Collodion Process
In the beginning years of photography, there was the Daguerreotype and the Calotype, photographs on paper invented by Henry Fox Talbot and also announced in 1839 after the Daguerreotype. Photographers in the early days of photography had two choices, either the pristine detail of the Daguerreotype (without the ability to make multiple copies) or the multiples of the Calotype (without clarity and sharpness because the paper's fibers were visible). For a few years after 1839, photographers didn't have the sharpness and multiple nature seen in film photography throughout the 20th century. Then in 1851, Frederick Scott Archer invented the Wet Collodion Process, a process which involved pouring a silver emulsion (a diluted solution silver compounds that is light sensitive) mixed with collodion onto a piece of glass.
Now one could get a sharp image and produce multiple prints from the glass negative through contact printing (placing the negative onto photo-sensitive paper and exposing it to sunlight to create a photographic print). Though, of course, there was a catch: a photographer making Wet-Collodion photographs had to prepare the photographic plate, expose it and develop it all in the span of around 10 minutes. Unlike in the film days of the 20th century, you couldn't shoot your photographs and then wait to develop them later. Each plate had to be prepared, exposed, developed individually at the time you want to take the photograph. This didn't stop people from taking pictures of whatever they wanted. If a photographer wanted to take Wet-Collodion photographs while travelling, they had to bring all their chemicals and glass plates with them in a portable darkroom, any sort of darkened space they could bring around with them in which they would prepare their Wet-Collodion plates.
The Wet Collodion Process spawned many derivative types of photography such as the tintype and ambrotype. The photograph pictured above is a tintype. A tintype was a photograph made through the Wet Collodion Process except the emulsion was poured onto a metal plate like with the Daguerreotype. The tintype was, like the Daguerreotype, also used mainly for portraiture. It became a popular and cheaper form of photographic portraiture, a "poor man's" Daguerreotype. Of course, since it had to be developed right away, it was like an early 'instant' photography; it became widely used by studio photographers and itinerant photographers or street photographers, photographers standing on the street, ready to take people's picture.
Further Exploration, Sources and Resources:
"My Dear Mother Fanny Woodhill": http://rbscarchives.library.ubc.ca/index.php/my-dear-mother-fanny-woodhill
Marien, Mary Warner. Photography: A Cultural History. London: Lawrence King Publishing, 2014. Print.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collodion_process
Tintypes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tintype
The George Eastman House video on the Wet-Collodion Process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnxT4WQsLLM
The George Eastman House video on making a Tintype: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY5KQQLBbcs
The Getty Museum video on the Wet-Collodion Process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiAhPIUno1o
Picture of Wet-Collodion negative: http://majaandreassen.karnoffel.com/2014/02/22/learning-activity-delving-deeper-into-the-history-of-photography/
Picture of Roger Fenton's portable darkroom: https://judybachdocumentary.wordpress.com/2014/08/31/historical-developments-in-documentary-photography/
Picture of Wet-plate camera: http://www.photographica.nu/fre253.htm
Picture of tintype camera: http://www.geh.org/fm/Mees/htmlsrc/mp831500001_ful.html
"My Dear Mother Fanny Woodhill": http://rbscarchives.library.ubc.ca/index.php/my-dear-mother-fanny-woodhill
Marien, Mary Warner. Photography: A Cultural History. London: Lawrence King Publishing, 2014. Print.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collodion_process
Tintypes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tintype
The George Eastman House video on the Wet-Collodion Process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnxT4WQsLLM
The George Eastman House video on making a Tintype: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY5KQQLBbcs
The Getty Museum video on the Wet-Collodion Process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiAhPIUno1o
Picture of Wet-Collodion negative: http://majaandreassen.karnoffel.com/2014/02/22/learning-activity-delving-deeper-into-the-history-of-photography/
Picture of Roger Fenton's portable darkroom: https://judybachdocumentary.wordpress.com/2014/08/31/historical-developments-in-documentary-photography/
Picture of Wet-plate camera: http://www.photographica.nu/fre253.htm
Picture of tintype camera: http://www.geh.org/fm/Mees/htmlsrc/mp831500001_ful.html