I spotted this petite photo album - it measures 5" x 4" - in an antique store in Hillsborough, N.C. a few weeks ago. The cover was falling off. The pages were coming apart. Some photos were missing. Even so, there were hundreds of images in it. Hundreds of teeny-tiny tintypes. Many hand-tinted. A few rare ones of animals. And, rarer still, African-Americans.
Just had to have it, and at $45 it was a bargain. There is no identification on the images and no text anywhere in the album to give an idea of who these people are. I suspect it may have been a photographer's sample album. It's easy to tell from the clothing and hair that the photos were taken in the late 1850s/1860s, when tintypes were just becoming popular.
How will I use these? No clue ... yet.
