I came across a great photo when I was browsing Antique tintypes. I wish I had the extra money to make a bid. It says he is a mason named William Abraham Timmerman. I have an uncle who loves old photos like this and it would have made a great Christmas gift. Im already bidding on something for someone else, though, so I’ll have to try back later.
I didn’t know exactly what a mason sword is so I google around and apparently its a symbolic sword Freemasons use for ceremonies. I did a quick search for William Abraham Timmerman and couldn’t find anything about him. This tintype was probably for sale back in Aug of 1997, though. There was no picture on the site, but I’m assuming its the same tintype, though it could have been a different one of William. Freemasons are like a secret society organization that has a lot of power and has a lot of influential members, George Washington being one. Im not familiar with freemasons though, so I’ll do some more reading and make another post.
This photo looks rough to me but from reading some of the descriptions of the photos I guess its not in that bad of shape for its date. Also, tintypes are not paper photographs. According to the site
“The ambrotype was a negative on glass, while the tintype was easier and cheaper to produce on a thin piece of laquer-backed black iron.”
Tintypes are just one of several different methods of photography at the time. Photos were made on glass, iron, silver-coated metal, and paper cardstock as well. Some of it is kind of confusing to me, like the chemicals used and the dates of all the different photo techniques but its really interesting. Also, civil war soldiers had many types of different equipment and uniforms. On the civil war tintypes page it says
“Zouave units such as the 5th New York or the 72nd Pennsylvanians were wild exceptions however, as they wore flashy red and blue jackets and baggy pants, contrasted with white leggings, tassled turbins, and a sash.”
Check these out! I must be drawn to these crazy outfits! Just look at the photos Ive put up on this site so far 
. The wikipedia page says theyre modeled after the French zouave units in Algeria from 1831. These old photos helped decline the use of death masks. Death masks were like plaster molds made from dead peoples faces! People kept them to document what they looked like and to remember them and they made paintings from these. Creepy. Okay, I really have to go now. See ya later.
