The Valentine Richmond History Center announced this week that it now offers more than 500 items from its Cased Image Collection online. The center's online collections database is free and accessible to the public at http://www.richmondhistorycenter.com/agree.asp It co.ntains approximately 15 percent of the institution's total collection. Additional records are added on a routine basis.
 
Cased images are early types of photography that include daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and tintypes. Images are taken on glass or metal and generally enclosed in decorative cases. Their most distinctive feature is having no intervening negative, which makes each image unique.

Daguerreotypes (c.1839-1860) are positive images produced on silver-plated copper sheets, creating a hologram-like appearance. Ambrotypes (c.1851-1865) are negative images produced on glass. Black backing makes the image appear positive. Tintypes, also called ferrotypes, melainotypes or melanographs (c.1856-1940), are positive images produced on sheets of iron.
 
The Cased Image Collection includes portraits of individuals and photographs of landscapes, including the earliest known photographic views of Richmond (c. 1855) and Lynchburg (1848-1852). Because many of the images are small in actual size and extremely delicate, center officials believe they may be even easier to view online than in person.

Members of the public who wish to view parts of the collection in person may make a research appointment by visiting the History Center’s website at http://www.richmondhistorycenter.com